# Python in data analytics: what it is, why it works, and how to start

Python started as a hobby project. Guido van Rossum spent Christmas break in 1989 writing an interpreter he described as "a little scripting language." He published it in 1991. That origin matters because it shows how much Python has developed to get to where it is today. Python has grown to be one of the most popular programming language. In data analytics specifically, Python overtook R, SAS, Excel, and other proprietary tools not because it was marketed well, but because analysts kept choosin