The Stone Age did not end because there were few stones. It went down because there was a better technology: bronze. You can also say the same about data analysis about the demise of Microsoft Excel with Visual Basic and the rise of Python.
Flexibility:
The power of Python lies in its flexibility: cleaning data, bundling data, performing analyzes and visualizing. What makes Python a flexible programming language is the huge set of modules for analysis (Pandas), web interface (Tkinter) and for graphs (Seaborn, Plotly, Matplotlib). You have different algorithms for Natural language processing (NLP) of Portable Document Format (PDF).
Readability:
An Excel file with ‘Visual Basic for Application’ (VBA) in which you perform an analysis is almost unreadable for others. Others do not know what steps have been taken to achieve the desired result. Within Python you can easily indicate what exactly you mean by your script and why you have executed a certain process.
Data processing:
As the amount of data increases, the analysis in Excel will take more time. You also run the risk of corrupting the file. With Python you don’t have such problems because the Python files are small. You can drag data from external organizations into the Python environment via an Application programming interface (API).
Interchangeability:
With Excel, you work in an Excel sheet for data analysis every time. And the programming language behind it, Visual Basic, is slow and difficult to learn. But the python scripts, already written by someone else, you can use to do different tasks. The Excel files you would like to edit can be placed in a python environment. Python is used when the analyses are complicated or when repetitive tasks have to be performed in several rounds. You then use the same script, but with the new data.
Open and free:
Excel is a product of Microsoft. As a result, the realization of the updates is not in your hands. With Python you don’t have that problem. You can easily perform the updates on your own. There are several visualization programs available on the market; Power BI, Tableau (desktop versions and online) and Flourish (online). However, you have to pay. Python gives you the freedom to choose which module suits your work. There are several resources on the Internet for Python; if you have questions about this such as: ‘how can you install Python on your laptop?’ and ‘how do you bring data files into the Python workspace?’.