Working with Excel files
in Python
Chris Withers with help from John Machin
EuroPython 2009, Birmingham
The Tutorial Materials
These can be obtained by CD, USB drive or downloaded from here:
• http://www.simplistix.co.uk/presentations/europython2009excel.zip
The Website
The best place to start when working with Excel files in Python is the website:
• http://www.python-excel.org
© Simplistix Ltd 2009
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Introduction
This tutorial covers the following libraries:
xlrd
• http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlrd
• reading data and formatting from .xls files
• this tutorial covers version 0.7.1
• API documentation can be found at:
◦ https://secure.simplistix.co.uk/svn/xlrd/trunk/xlrd/doc/xlrd.html
xlwt
• http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlwt
• writing data and formatting to .xls files
• this tutorial covers version 0.7.2
• incomplete API documentation can be found at:
◦ https://secure.simplistix.co.uk/svn/xlwt/trunk/xlwt/doc/xlwt.html
• fairly complete examples can be found at
◦ https://secure.simplistix.co.uk/svn/xlwt/trunk/xlwt/examples/
xlutils
• http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlutils
• a collection of utilities using both xlrd and xlwt:
◦ copying data from a source to a target spreadsheet
◦ filtering data from a source to a target spreadsheet
• this tutorial covers version 1.3.0 and above.
• documentation and examples can be found at:
◦ https://secure.simplistix.co.uk/svn/xlutils/trunk/xlutils/docs/
There are still reasons why automating an Excel instance via COM is necessary:
• manipulation of graphs
• rich text cells
• reading formulae in cells
• working with macros and names
• the more esoteric things found in .xls files
© Simplistix Ltd 2009
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Installation
There are several methods of installation available. While the following examples are for
xlrd, the exact same steps can be used for any of the three libraries.
Install from Source
On Linux:
NB: Make sure you use the python you intend to use for your project.
On Windows, having used WinZip or similar to unpack xlrd-0.7.1.zip:
NB: Make sure you use the python you intend to use for your project.
Install using Windows Installer
On Windows, you can download and run the xlrd-0.7.1.win32.exe installer.
Beware that this will only install to Python installations that are in the Windows registry.
Install using EasyInstall
This cross-platform method requires that you already have EasyInstall installed. For more
information on this, please see:
• http://peak.telecommunity.com/DevCenter/EasyInstall
© Simplistix Ltd 2009
$ tar xzf xlrd.tgz
$ cd xlrd-0.7.1
$ python setup.py install
C:\> cd xlrd-0.7.1
C:\xlrd-0.7.1> \Python26\python setup.py install
easy_install xlrd
