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IDE with spreadsheets
#1
Hi friends, I work in research/data science but am new to Python. I have historically used SAS Enterprise Guide for my needs. Since my work constantly involves data exploration, cleanup, and reconciliation - including emailing spreadsheets of my data to other persons for revision - I greatly value a feature in Enterprise Guide which allows me to quickly browse working datasets in Excel-like spreadsheets. After writing SAS code to produce and modify several datasets, which may be temporary or permanent, I can then click on a different tab within Enterprise Guide to browse through full spreadsheets of the data. If I want to copy values from one or more cells, I simply select those cells and copy. If I want to export the dataset that I'm currently exploring to an Excel spreadsheet, there is a handy button to do so.

I want to explore switching from SAS to Python but am struggling to find a development environment which provides this functionality. Exporting to Excel spreadsheets with the simple click of a button is nice but not necessary. What I really need is a piece of software which allows me to write some code and then browse through any datasets (dataframes) that have been constructed with said code in an Excel-like interface. Sure, I can use head() or tail() to peek at the data in console, but the output is poorly aligned, difficult to quickly copy one or more cells, doesn't show all columns and rows by default, doesn't lend itself to browsing, and is rather ugly. I tried Jupyter Notebook and its output was a little cleaner but still didn't seem to have a dedicated feature for browsing through active dataframes.

The ability to browse through ALL constructed/imported datasets/dataframes in an Excel-like fashion, through Enterprise Guide, has so dramatically improved my workflow that I imagine there must be something equivalent for Python. Can anyone recommend something that might suit my needs? Thank you!!
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#2
There is the PANDAS module: https://pandas.pydata.org/ That does much of the analysis you're probably looking for. Best way to get it along with many other data-science-centric tools is to install python with Anaconda: https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/

BUT, just like with all the people that use these tools to replace MatLab, YOU will have to program the GUI interface to view and interact with your data. There are many options for python GUIs from the simple, but clunky, built-in TKinter to Web Apps.

Do a search on "Python with SAS Enterpise" and you'll find a lot of people are using both.
https://communities.sas.com/t5/General-S...d-p/195409

Just be aware though, that python is a programming language and unless you get lucky and find that someone else has already coded exactly what you need you will have to learn to do it yourself.
"So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth!" - Tim the Enchanter
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#3
Thank you for the reply, Marbelous. I think there is some misunderstanding. I already have Anaconda and I am not looking for any particular analysis; I am simply looking for a Python development environment (such as Spyder or Jupyter Notebook) which provides the ability to quickly view working datasets (such as those which I have imported and processed with PANDAS) as raw data tables. I am a programmer (although new to Python) and have recently been learning and practicing with PANDAS, but the nature of my work requires me to regularly manipulate and explore datasets in their raw, complete table forms.

Here are two screenshots from Enterprise Guide to help clarify:
1) Simple SAS code which imports a dataset as 'data1' and then creates a second dataset 'data2' with a derived variable: https://ibb.co/hd1f4JQ
2) After running the program, Enterprise Guide provides an 'Output Data' tab which allows me to quickly scroll through all records of all imported/created datasets as raw tables: https://ibb.co/gyQf14X

So, I am not looking to produce a GUI for external users; I simply need a recommendation for a Python development environment which provides a raw data table GUI which accesses working datasets. It seems strange to me that Python is lauded as a data science platform but lacks an open source IDE which provides the simple ability to browse working datasets much as one would in Excel/SPSS/SAS/PowerBI (and I'm guessing MatLab). For our institution, it would/will be the sole barrier to entry as potential Python users.

I did explore SASPy, but it only provides the ability to use SAS from within the Python environment; it does not provide the ability to use Python within the SAS Enterprise Guide platform. I am not committed to Enterprise Guide, but whichever platform I use needs the ability to quickly browse the many datasets that I am importing/transforming/creating, at the individual record level, and in a cleaner & more accessible way than through the Python console.

With those clarifications, would you be able to recommend any such development environment? Or are data viewers/browsers simply not a part of any Python IDEs? Would you recommend that I ask this question somewhere else? Thank you again for any insight you can offer!
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#4
Unfortunately you were pretty clear on what you were asking for. That's why I said you would have to put in the effort just like the people building their own custom MATLAB-like tools. I wish there was an open-source IDE that had built-in options to load, analyze and display data and there really should be but if it's out there I can't find it. Searches for "python data science ide editor tool" just give you the standard Jupyter, Spyder, Pycharm, etc. recommendations or lead you to expensive enterprise tools like SaS.

On the bright side there are surely people working on it so keep your fingers crossed and keep searching.

EDIT: BTW, I use PyCharm and it has a "Scientific Mode" where it can display plots and tables but it's far off from the features you're looking for. Still a good choice though and there's a free community edition: https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/downlo...on=windows
"So, brave knights, if you do doubt your courage or your strength, come no further, for death awaits you all with nasty, big, pointy teeth!" - Tim the Enchanter
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#5
Understood, and thank you for the follow up! I'll try to return to this post if I do find something suitable.
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