DOC: add comparison to spreadsheets

[afeld]

Location of the documentation

https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/dev/getting_started/comparison/comparison_with_spreadsheets.html

Documentation problem

From #38554:

I teach a class on pandas for public policy students, and for many of them, spreadsheets are the only point of reference they have for working with tabular data.

There are a number of unofficial resources, but no official, living documentation to point them to.

Suggested fix for documentation

The idea is to add a "Comparison to spreadsheets" page alongside the other comparison pages. That new page already got merged in #38554; creating this issue to keep a running checklist of the TODOs.

• start with what @rotuna did in DOC: Add Comparison with Excel documentation #23042
• link from Getting Started pages
• incorporate structure from SAS/STATA comparison pages
  • Data structures
  • Data input / output
    • Mention read_excel()
  • Data operations
  • String processing
  • Merging
  • Missing data
  • GroupBy
  • Other considerations
• standardize datasets used for examples, for greater consistency and reduced cognitive burden on the readers
  • tips probably works for most
• add info about charting
• add example showing round trip to/from Excel
• have pivot table examples match
• add quick reference

[bsun94]

Hi there, I was wondering if you needed any help with this ticket? I'm new to open source, and am looking to get my feet in the water :)

[afeld]

Sure! Adding an example showing the round trip to/from Excel would be a great first contribution. I started writing out how to go about doing so, and it accidentally turned into a blog post 😆 Since you're my audience of one, let me know if it answers your questions!

I just joined the Gitter chat room — feel free to reach out there if you'd like to talk through details 👋

[pilyavetsb]

Hello! Just wanted to point out that I've noticed a small mistake on that page. In the very beginning, when describing what dataframe is, you write:

While an Excel worksheet can contain multiple worksheets, pandas DataFrames exist independently.

I think that you meant "workbook" instead of a bolded worksheet. Since it is a minor issue I figured creating a new pull request would be an overkill, hence writing about it here. However, I am very new to all of this, so, please let me know, if I am approaching it incorrectly)

[jreback]

@pilyavetsb a PR to fix would be great

[bsun94]

Thanks Aidan, apologies I've been offline for a couple of days - had a couple days of overtime at work. Would you mind adding me as an assignee on this ticket? Would help me better keep track of it :)