Summary

In this chapter, you have learned ways to call R and Python from Excel instead of the other way around to empower your end users even further. We have covered the reasons for doing so and two very different approaches: calling R and Python locally and via an API endpoint.

For locally calling R and Python, we covered BERT and xlwings in detail, from setting up and testing the environment via creating R and Python solutions up to and including how to call those solutions from Excel using the various methods provided by BERT and xlwings, such as VBA code and UDFs.

Next, you learned about API endpoints and the benefits of using an API endpoint to connect Python and R to Excel. We discussed the pros and cons of such a setup and then delved into the two flavors of API hosting: open source tools and commercial solutions. We have covered the two most used open source setups: plumber for R and FastAPI for Python. Finally, we had a look at commercial solutions for hosting R and...