From Spreadsheets to DataFrames: Escaping Excel Hell with Python

A spreadsheet is a wonderful invention and an excellent tool for certain jobs. All too often, however, spreadsheets are called upon to perform tasks that are beyond their capabilities. It's like the old saying, 'If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.' But some problems are better addressed with a screwdriver, with glue, or with a swiss army knife.

Python is often called the Swiss army knife of the programming world, due to its versatility and flexibility in use. That's why it has become increasingly popular over time. Companies can adopt Python to perform some uniquely complex processes over the long-term.

During this talk, Ryan will discuss his firsthand account of Excel Hell and how he managed to escape it using Python. He will also discuss some of the relevant libraries he uses for web scraping, data processing, analysis, and visualization, including Requests, Pandas, Flask, and Airflow, as well as few strategies he uses when approaching problems with data.

Ryan S. McCoy is a Financial Data Engineer at gotem, LLC, where he is responsible for helping modernize the systems, data infrastructures, and analytics of customers in the Financial Markets, including Investment Managers, Hedge Funds, Venture Capital funds, and data vendors. Previously he spent a decade as a Research Analyst and Data Engineer at several institutional investment funds located in St. Louis.

Check out Ryan's GitHub at https://github.com/ryansmccoy