Lingfo – Python “xlrd” package for extracting data from Excel files
– 0.6.1 final
Purpose: Provide
a library for developers to use to extract information from Microsoft Excel
(tm) spreadsheet files. It is not an end-user tool.
Platform: Any.
You don’t need to be on Windows. If you are, you can avoid hassles with
approaches like COM, ODBC, save-as-CSV, …
Python requirements: There
are no dependencies on modules or packages outside the standard Python
distribution. Works with Python 2.1 or later. Backporting to Python 2.1 was partially funded by Journyx - provider of
timesheet and project accounting solutions.
Versions of Excel
supported: 2003, 2002, XP, 2000, 97, 95, 5.0, 4.0, 3.0. Support for Excel
2007 XML files is on the way.
Features:
- Support
for handling dates, and documentation of Excel date problems and how to
avoid them.
- Unicode
aware; correctly handles “compressed” Unicode in modern files;
decodes legacy charsets in older files (if
Python has the codec).
- Extracts
all data (including Booleans and error-values)
- Extracts
named references
- Extracts
formatting information for cells (number format, font, alignment, borders,
backgrounds, protection) and rows/columns (default height/width, etc).
This effort was funded by Simplistix Ltd.
- Further
information: APIs, README,
HISTORY
Exclusions: xlrd will not attempt to decode password-protected
(encrypted) files. Otherwise, it will safely and reliably ignore any of these
if present:
- Charts,
Macros, Pictures, any other embedded object. WARNING: currently this
includes embedded worksheets.
- Visual
Basic (VBA) modules
- Formulas
(results of formula calculations
are extracted, of course)
- Comments
and hyperlinks
Installation:
- Windows
only: download and run this installer xlrd-0.6.1.win32.exe.
Any platform: download this ZIP file xlrd-0.6.1.zip
which you unzip into a suitable directory, then cd
to that directory, and do "python setup.py install".
- Alternative
source: the Python Cheeseshop
Feedback: General
discussion on the python-excel newsgroup
/ mailing list. Maintainer:
mailto: sjmachin@lexicon.net
preferably with [xlrd] in the message subject.
Lingfo Pty Ltd - ABN 97 084 236 199
Page
last updated on 11 June 2007