1. 06-26-12 04:58 PM #1
    jablo1312
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    VBA or Python

    I'm working on getting well acquainted with Python, but was wondering whether similar results could be achieved using Visual Basic (VBA) with Excel. It's a little more user friendly than Python, and I've seen people use it for data scraping before. Anyone have any advice/feedback on the positives and drawbacks between the two of them?
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  2. 06-26-12 05:58 PM #2
    thom321
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    I am highly biased in favor of VBA/Excel and I don't know Python. That said, I have personally not come across data that I couldn't scrape using VBA. Some sites require more work than others but so far I have always found a way with VBA. As far as speed, the bottleneck I most often run into is that the web page is not responding fast enough, not that VBA is too slow.
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  3. 06-26-12 06:18 PM #3
    Blax0r
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    I think Matlab's also worth a look; data scraping isn't too bad, and you can still view data as a spreadsheet.

    Also, the language isn't too hard to pick up (but matlab object-oriented programming still befuddles me).
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  4. 06-26-12 06:38 PM #4
    MonkeyF0cker
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    Depends what you're looking to do.

    Python is far more powerful than VBA.

    I wouldn't limit myself to only those two choices.
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  5. 06-26-12 06:53 PM #5
    a4u2fear
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    Matlab is most annoying to use. Recommend VBA
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  6. 06-26-12 07:10 PM #6
    roasthawg
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    I use php and have good luck with that... it's all about using what you know and learning something new if you have to.
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  7. 06-26-12 08:10 PM #7
    tukkk
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    I originally planned to start with vba and then move on to the next level, but now, after one year of messing around in vba, everything works great.

    downside : vba is slower in bigger processes.
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  8. 06-26-12 08:45 PM #8
    a4u2fear
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    Matlab costs a shitload too
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  9. 06-26-12 09:18 PM #9
    Wrecktangle
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    Python!
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  10. 06-27-12 02:50 PM #10
    jablo1312
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    I'm not experienced with either of them, and have a fairly limited experience with Excel. I've done some preliminary work with Python and it doesn't seem difficult (as far as getting the basics down) to work with. I'd start wtih some basic data scraping and regression models (still learning more about the latter in school + on my own) but would hopefully like to get into more complicated modeling + back-testing as I go on...am I right in thinking that Python could be better for this? Or are the differences between them much more complex and specific than just "one is more powerful"?
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  11. 06-27-12 07:21 PM #11
    MonkeyF0cker
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    There are very significant differences between VBA and Python.

    Google is a wonderful tool.
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  12. 06-28-12 05:31 PM #12
    Maniac
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    If you are looking at web scraping then supposedly Python is much simpler, at least a friend of mine managed to write a pretty good scraper without too much difficulty.

    Having said that, I have no experience with any other program, I have dabbled a little bit with Python in recent weeks and it seems alright - but at the moment am still at the stage of working out what the program can do following a book, so havent really tried to create something original using it yet...
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  13. 06-28-12 07:42 PM #13
    strixee
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    Quote Originally Posted by roasthawg View Post
    I use php and have good luck with that... it's all about using what you know and learning something new if you have to.
    Yeah, PHP is also my favorite language for scraping as well as basic dataprocessing. cURL is very powerful extension.
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