Read Excel files from Python
Use the excellent xlrd package, which works on any platform. That means you can read Excel files from Python in Linux! Example usage:
Open the workbook
import xlrd
wb = xlrd.open_workbook('myworkbook.xls')Check the sheet names
wb.sheet_names()Get the first sheet either by index or by name
sh = wb.sheet_by_index(0)
sh = wb.sheet_by_name(u'Sheet1')Iterate through rows, returning each as a list that you can index:
for rownum in range(sh.nrows):
print sh.row_values(rownum)If you just want the first column:
first_column = sh.col_values(0)Index individual cells:
cell_A1 = sh.cell(0,0).value
cell_C4 = sh.cell(rowx=3,colx=2).value(Note Python indices start at zero but Excel starts at one)
Turns out the put_cell() method isn’t supported, so ignore the following section (Thanks for the heads up, John!)
Put something in the cell:
row = 0
col = 0
ctype = 1 # see below
value = 'asdf'
xf = 0 # extended formatting (use 0 to use default)
sh.put_cell(row, col, ctype, value, xf)
sh.cell(0,0) # text:u'asdf'
sh.cell(0,0).value # 'asdf'Possible ctypes: 0 = empty, 1 = string, 2 = number, 3 = date, 4 = boolean, 5 = error
April 10th, 2008 at 11:35 am
[...] has a nice little tutorial today showing how to read in an excel file in Python using the xlrd package. This approach allows you to manipulate excel files on any platform without [...]
April 10th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Thanks for this post. I normally end up saving Excel files as CSV and parsing raw data like that. This is a cool way to work with Excel files directly.
Great blog… I am enjoying going through your Python posts.
-Corey
April 10th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
[...] Read excel files from python using a package called xlrd that can read excel files from anywhere, even LINUX! No more importing win32com as displayed in recipes. Maybe with this I can solve the problem involving the excel sheet and vba thing that I’m having here at work. Not a priority, just someone needs help with it and seems like a challenge. I’m not very familiar with converting unicode back and forth. [...]
April 10th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Does it also write excel format files?
April 10th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
@Josef Assad:
I don’t think it can write Excel format files, you have to have an existing Excel file.
You could try PyExcelerator though (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pyexcelerator), which does write to Excel format. I’ll give it a shot myself and write a post on using it.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
April 25th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Please note that the example above has a typo. The 2nd line should be: wb=xlrd.open_workbook(’myworkbook.xls’), because of the namespace.
excellent post, thanks.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
@Attila Bleier:
Nice catch, thanks. It’s fixed now.
July 20th, 2008 at 2:08 am
Hi, Ryan, I’m the author/maintainer of xlrd. Thanks for the advertisement!
One point though, relating to this line in your posting:
sh.put_cell(row, col, ctype, value, xf)
Sheet.put_cell is only for internal use building the sheet contents, it is intentionally not documented and is definitely *not* supported.
Bonus extra point:
cell_C4 = sh.cell(2,3).value
should be
cell_C4 = sh.cell(3, 2).value
or (better)
cell_C4 = sh.cell(rowx=3, colx=2).value
Cheers,
John
July 20th, 2008 at 9:44 am
John, thanks for xlrd, it’s fantastic.
I made the edits you suggested.
Just checking: is it correct that there is no [supported] way to add content to an existing Excel sheet using xlrd?
-ryan