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'