Microsoft is adding the Python programming language to Microsoft Excel, allowing users to create powerful functions for analyzing and manipulating data.

Microsoft is integrating Python into its Excel app. A public preview is available for Microsoft 365 subscribers now and all the Python code runs on the Microsoft Cloud.

Python and Excel can only really talk to each other through limited functions—xl () and =PY ()—that can only return code results, not macros, VBA code, or other data, Microsoft claims.