Python 4 Course: Automation & Data Integration

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course aims to equip participants with practical Python programming skills for automating routine tasks, interacting with system-level data, and integrating Python with widely used business tools such as Microsoft Excel 365 and Power BI. By the end of the course, learners will be able to write clean and efficient Python code, automate daily operations, access and manipulate system data, and streamline reporting workflows by connecting Python to Excel and Power BI environments.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

What's covered in this course:

1. Introduction to Python Programming

• 1.1 Understand the role and applications of Python in modern computing
• 1.2 Write and execute Python scripts using an IDE (VS Code or Jupyter)
• 1.3 Use variables, data types, operators, and expressions correctly
• 1.4 Apply control structures (if/else, loops) to guide program logic
• 1.5 Create reusable functions and import standard or custom modules
• 1.6 Handle exceptions and debug basic errors in Python code
• 1.7 Manipulate data structures like lists, tuples, dictionaries, and sets
• 1.8 Perform basic file operations (read/write text files)

2. Task Automation using Python

• 2.1 Identify daily tasks that can be automated with Python
• 2.2 Automate file and folder management using os, shutil, and pathlib
• 2.3 Perform basic web scraping using requests and BeautifulSoup
• 2.4 Send automated emails and manage attachments using smtplib
• 2.5 Work with PDFs and Excel files programmatically
• 2.6 Schedule recurring Python tasks using libraries like schedule and time

3. Connection with System Data

• 3.1 Access and use system-level information (e.g., environment variables)
• 3.2 Launch and control system processes using the subprocess module
• 3.3 Collect system information (e.g., disk usage, CPU stats)
• 3.4 Implement logging for automation scripts
• 3.5 Build simple system monitors or cleanup utilities

4. Integration with Excel 365 and Power BI

• 4.1 Read and write Excel files using openpyxl and pandas
• 4.2 Format and update Excel spreadsheets programmatically
• 4.3 Use COM automation to interact with Excel desktop apps (win32com.client)
• 4.4 Understand how to connect to Excel 365 online (Graph API or REST clients)
• 4.5 Push Python-processed data into Power BI datasets using API endpoints
• 4.6 Automate Excel and Power BI reporting processes for real-world scenarios

AUDIENCE

This course is designed for Python programmers who have completed Python Level 1 and Level 2 courses or have equivalent experience, and who want to advance their skills in task automation, system integration, and data reporting using Python with Excel 365 and Power BI.

PREREQUISITES

Completion of Python 1 - Fundamentals, Python 2 - Data Science, OOP, and UI