Develop Reference

How to run Excel VBA / Macro from Python

I am trying to run a VBA Macro in an xlsm workbook using python 3.7 in Spyder. This workbook has two worksheets.
The code that I have currently runs and saves the new file with no problems, however it is not triggering the VBA like it should.
I know this macro works because if I manually click the button in Excel, it works just fine.
Could someone assist with this? I checked the Macro Settings under the Trust Center and all macros are enabled so I do not think it is a permissions issue, however I am not an admin on this pc.
The code is below:
import os
import win32com.client
xl = win32com.client.Dispatch("Excel.Application")
wb = xl.Workbooks.Open("Z:\FolderName\FolderName2\FileName.xlsm")
xl.Application.Run("MacroName")
wb.SaveAs("Z:\FolderName\FolderName2\FileName1.xlsm")
wb.Close()
xl.Quit()

This can be done easily through xlwings. Once I switched to that library then I was able to quickly get this script working.

First make sure you have your All.xlsm file in your current working or in your User/Documents(Sometimes it working from yourDocuments directory and sometimes not, so better to have in both)
pass your macro name along with the file name that contains the macro you can make change to Parameters like ReadOnly or Savechanges according to your requirement
And be make sure to deleta xl object after each run
import win32com.client
xl =win32com.client.dynamic.Dispatch('Excel.Application')
xl.Workbooks.Open(Filename = XYZ.xls, ReadOnly= 1)
xl.Application.Run('All.xlsm!yourmacroname')
xl.Workbooks(1).Close(SaveChanges=1)
xl.Application.Quit()
del xl

Running Excel Macro from Python
To Run a Excel Marcro from python, You don't need almost nothing. Below a script that does the job. The advantage of Updating data from a macro inside Excel is that you immediatly see the result. You don't have to save or close the workbook first. I use this methode to update real-time stock quotes. It is fast and stable.
This is just an example, but you can do anything with macros inside Excel.
from os import system, path
import win32com.client as win32
from time import sleep
def isWorkbookOpen(xlPath, xlFileName):
SeachXl = xlPath + "~$" + xlFileName
if path.exists(SeachXl):
return True
else:
return False
def xlRunMacro(macroLink):
PathFile = macroLink[0]
xlMacro = macroLink[1]
isLinkReady = False
# Create the link with the open existing workbook
win32.pythoncom.CoInitialize()
xl = win32.Dispatch("Excel.Application")
try:
wb = win32.GetObject(PathFile)
isLinkReady = True
except:
NoteToAdd = 'Can not create the link with ' + PathFile
print(NoteToAdd)
if isLinkReady:
# If the link with the workbook exist, then run the Excel macro
try:
xl.Application.Run(xlMacro)
except:
NoteToAdd = 'Running Excel Macro ' + xlMacro + ' failed !!!'
print(NoteToAdd)
del xl
def mainProgam(macroSettings):
FullMacroLink = []
PathFile = macroSettings[0] + macroSettings[1]
FullMacroLink.append(PathFile)
FullModuleSubrout = macroSettings[1] + '!' + macroSettings[2] + '.' + macroSettings[3]
FullMacroLink.append(FullModuleSubrout)
if isWorkbookOpen(macroSettings[0], macroSettings[1]) == False:
# If the workbook is not open, Open workbook first.
system(f'start excel.exe "{PathFile}"')
# Give some time to start up Excel
sleep(2)
xlRunMacro(FullMacroLink)
def main():
macroSettings = []
# The settings below will execute the macro example
xlPath = r'C:\test\\' # Change add your needs
macroSettings.append(xlPath)
workbookName = 'Example.xlsm' # Change add your needs
macroSettings.append(workbookName)
xlModule = "Updates" # Change add your needs
macroSettings.append(xlModule)
xlSubroutine = "UpdateCurrentTime" # Change add your needs
macroSettings.append(xlSubroutine)
mainProgam(macroSettings)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
exit()
VBA Excel Macro
Option Explicit
Sub UpdateCurrentTime()
Dim sht As Worksheet
Set sht = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Current-Time")
With sht
sht.Cells(2, 1).Value = Format(Now(), "hh:mm:ss")
End With
End Sub
You can use it also as a dynamic module too. Save the module above as RunExcelMacro.py in Your python project. After just use the following lines:
from RunExcelMacro import mainProgam
mainProgram(macroSettings)
It will do the job, succes ...

You need to reference the module name as well
Example here my vba code under Module1
Option Explicit
Public Sub Example()
MsgBox "Hello 0m3r"
End Sub
and here is my python
from win32com.client import Dispatch
def run_excel_macro():
try:
excel = Dispatch("Excel.Application")
excel.Visible = True
workbook = excel.Workbooks.Open(
r"D:\Documents\Book1.xlsm")
workbook.Application.Run("Module1.Example")
workbook.SaveAs(r"D:\Documents\Book5.xlsm")
excel.Quit()
except IOError:
print("Error")
if __name__ == "__main__":
run_excel_macro()

Unable to save csv file with Pandas

Sorry for the dummy question but I read lots of topics but my code still do not create and save a .csv file.
import pandas as pd
def save_csv(lista):
try:
print("Salvando...")
name_path = time.strftime('%d%m%y') + '01' + '.csv'
df = pd.DataFrame(lista, columns=["column"])
df.to_csv(name_path, index=False)
except:
pass
dados = [-0.9143399074673653, -1.0944355744868517, -1.1022400576621294]
save_csv(dados)
Path name is 'DayMonthYear01.csv' (20121701.csv).
When I run the code it finishes but no file is saved.
The output of the code is just:
>>>
RESTART: C:\Users\eduhz\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\testeCSV.py
Salvando...
>>>
Does anyone knows what am I missing?

First, as answered by #Abdou I changed the code to provide me what was the error.
import pandas as pd
import time
def save_csv(lista):
try:
print("Salvando...")
name_path = time.strftime('%d%m%y') + '01' + '.csv'
df = pd.DataFrame(lista, columns=["column"])
df.to_csv(name_path, index=False)
except Exception as e:
print(e)
dados = [-0.9143399074673653, -1.0944355744868517, -1.1022400576621294]
save_csv(dados)
Then I found out it was due to a permission error
[Errno 13] Permission denied:
caused by the fact Notepad (without being opened as Administrator) does not have access to some directories and therefore anything run inside it wouldn't be able to write to those directories.
I tried running Notepad as administrator but it didn't work.
The solution was running the code with the Python IDLE.

Did you import the time module? All i did was add that and it made a 21121701.csv with the 3 entries in one columns in the current working directory.
import pandas as pd
import time
def save_csv(lista):
print("Salvando...")
name_path = time.strftime('%d%m%y') + '01' + '.csv'
df = pd.DataFrame(lista, columns=["column"])
df.to_csv(name_path, index=False)
dados = [-0.9143399074673653, -1.0944355744868517, -1.1022400576621294]
save_csv(dados)
Removing the try/except gives a file permission error if you have a file of the same name already open. You have to close any file you are trying to write (on windows at least).
Per Abdou's comment, if you (or the program) don't have write access to the directory then that would cause a permission error too.

Python script not working as intended when called by task scheduler

I'm a beginner at Python and this site. Sorry if this might be simple.
I have modified a python script that calculates the amount of words in a pdf file "Master.pdf" an writes the time and date plus the amount of words to a .txt file.
I have Python2.7 installed, I have installed Anancoda and I am using the PyCharm editor. When I open my PyCharm editor and run this script, no problems arise, the script executes and everything works.
As I would like this script to run every 15 minutes, I have made it a task using Task Scheduler. The task is "Start a program" the program is:
- C:\Users\alkare\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda2\python.exe - and the argument is - "C:/Users/alkare/Desktop/Report/WordCount.py" -.
whenever it runs I see the command prompt open, some text fly across my screen and then the command line terminal closes, BUT no changes are done to my .txt file.
here is the code I am using saved as "WordCount.py":
#!/usr/bin/env python2.7
import os
import sys
import re
import datetime
import PyPDF2
def getPageCount(pdf_file):
pdfFileObj = open(pdf_file, 'rb')
pdfReader = PyPDF2.PdfFileReader(pdfFileObj)
pages = pdfReader.numPages
return pages
def extractData(pdf_file, page):
pdfFileObj = open(pdf_file, 'rb')
pdfReader = PyPDF2.PdfFileReader(pdfFileObj)
pageObj = pdfReader.getPage(page)
data = pageObj.extractText()
return data
def getWordCount(data):
data = data.split()
return len(data)
def main():
pdfFile = 'Master.pdf'
# get the word count in the pdf file
totalWords = 0
numPages = getPageCount(pdfFile)
for i in range(numPages):
text = extractData(pdfFile, i)
totalWords += getWordCount(text)
Now = datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y%m%d-%H%M%S")
f = open("TrackingTimeData.txt", "a")
f.write(Now[0:4] + "\t" + Now[4:6] + "/" + Now[6:8] + "\t" + Now[9:11] + ":" + Now[11:13] + "\t" + str(totalWords) + "\n")
f.close()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()

The problem is that you are allowing the program to fail without providing you any meaningful output (it sounds like it hits an exception and closes).
Instead of just calling main() without guarding it in a try block:
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
give yourself some slack here to gather information:
if __name__ == '__main__':
try:
main()
except Exception as e:
print("Error {}".format(e))
# drop into a command-prompt debugger:
import pdb
pdb.set_trace()
# slightly more old-school, pause the window to read the exception:
import time
time.sleep(15)
# throwback to DOS windows
import os
os.system('pause')
# read the error, come back to stackoverflow and describe the problem more, etc.
For example, mixing this with task scheduler, you'd want to right-click on your python.exe in Windows, go to properties, set "Run as Administrator" because maybe you're getting an access denied trying to read/write to a .PDF in some special directory. This is just an example of the many guesses people could throw in to randomly help you solve an issue versus knowing exactly what the error is.

Error when converting Excel document to pdf using comtypes in Python

I am trying to convert an Excel spreadsheet to PDF using Python and the comtypes package using this code:
import os
import comtypes.client
FORMAT_PDF = 17
SOURCE_DIR = 'C:/Users/IEUser/Documents/jscript/test/resources/root3'
TARGET_DIR = 'C:/Users/IEUser/Documents/jscript'
app = comtypes.client.CreateObject('Excel.Application')
app.Visible = False
infile = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(SOURCE_DIR), 'spreadsheet1.xlsx')
outfile = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(TARGET_DIR), 'spreadsheet1.pdf')
doc = app.Workbooks.Open(infile)
doc.SaveAs(outfile, FileFormat=FORMAT_PDF)
doc.Close()
app.Quit()
This script above runs fine and the pdf file is created, but when I try to open it I get the error "The file cannot be opened - there is a problem with the file format" (but after closing this error dialog it is actually possible to preview the pdf file). I have tried a similar script to convert Word documents to pdfs and this worked just fine.
Any ideas on how I can resolve this problem with the file format error?

Found a solution - this seems to be working:
import os
import comtypes.client
SOURCE_DIR = 'C:/Users/IEUser/Documents/jscript/test/resources/root3'
TARGET_DIR = 'C:/Users/IEUser/Documents/jscript'
app = comtypes.client.CreateObject('Excel.Application')
app.Visible = False
infile = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(SOURCE_DIR), 'spreadsheet1.xlsx')
outfile = os.path.join(os.path.abspath(TARGET_DIR), 'spreadsheet1.pdf')
doc = app.Workbooks.Open(infile)
doc.ExportAsFixedFormat(0, outfile, 1, 0)
doc.Close()
app.Quit()
This link may also be helpful as an inspiration regarding the arguments to the ExportAsFixedFormatfunction: Document.ExportAsFixedFormat Method (although some of the values of arguments have to be modified a bit).

You need to describe ExportAsFixedFormat(0,outputfile) to save workbook in pdf format. The solution from http://thequickblog.com/convert-an-excel-filexlsx-to-pdf-python/ works for me.
from win32com import client
import win32api
input_file = r'C:\Users\thequickblog\Desktop\Python session 2\tqb_sample.xlsx'
#give your file name with valid path
output_file = r'C:\Users\thequickblog\Desktop\Python session 2\tqb_sample_output.pdf'
#give valid output file name and path
app = client.DispatchEx("Excel.Application")
app.Interactive = False
app.Visible = False
Workbook = app.Workbooks.Open(input_file)
try:
Workbook.ActiveSheet.ExportAsFixedFormat(0, output_file)
except Exception as e:
print("Failed to convert in PDF format.Please confirm environment meets all the requirements and try again")
print(str(e))
finally:
Workbook.Close()
app.Exit()

Python not saving files to a different folder than where the python file is on Ubuntu 11.10

So I am pulling jpg's from a url. I am able to save the image files as long as they are being saved to the same folder the python file is in. As soon as I attempt to change the folder(seen here as the outpath) the image files do not get created. I imagine it has something to do with my outpath, but it seems to be fine when I am printing and watching it in the console.
Ubuntu 11.10 OS by the way. I'm a newbie with both linux and python, so it could easily be either. :)
If I were to print the sequence taken from the CSV file it would look like: [['Champ1', 'Subname1', 'imgurl1'],['Champ2', 'subname2', 'imgurl2'],['Champ3','subname3','imgurl3']...]
(It was scraped from a website)
import csv
from urlparse import urlsplit
from urllib2 import urlopen, build_opener
from urllib import urlretrieve
import webbrowser
import os
import sys
reader = csv.reader(open('champdata.csv', "rb"), delimiter = ",", skipinitialspace=True)
champInfo = []
for champs in reader:
champInfo.append(champs)
size = len(champInfo)
def GetImages(x, out_folder="/home/sean/Home/workspace/CP/images"):
b=1
size = len(champInfo)
print size
while b < size:
temp_imgurls = x.pop(b)
filename = os.path.basename(temp_imgurls[2])
print filename
outpath = os.path.join(out_folder, filename)
print outpath
u = urlopen(temp_imgurls[2])
localFile = open(outpath, 'wb')
localFile.write(u.read())
localFile.close()
b+=1
GetImages(champInfo)
I understand it's quite crude, but it does work, only if I'm not attempting to change the save path.

Try providing the complete image path everywhere
E:/../home/sean/Home/workspace/CD/images

def GetImages(x):
b=1
size = len(champInfo)
print size
while b < size:
temp_imgurls = x.pop(b)
filename = temp_imgurls[2]
u = urlopen(temp_imgurls[2])
localFile = open(filename, 'wb')
localFile.write(u.read())
localFile.close()
And this code will be save files in the same directory where script is.

Updated Answer:
I think the answer to your problem is just to add a check for the output directory existence, and create it if needed. ie, add:
if not os.path.exists(out_folder):
os.makedirs(out_folder)
to your existing code.
More generally , you could try something more like this:
import csv
from urllib2 import urlopen
import os
import sys
default_outfolder = "/home/sean/Home/workspace/CD/images"
# simple arg passing wihtout error checking
out_folder = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) == 2 else default_outfolder
if not os.path.exists(out_folder):
os.makedirs(out_folder) # creates out_folder, including any required parent ones
else:
if not os.path.isdir(out_folder):
raise RuntimeError('output path must be a directory')
reader = csv.reader(open('champdata.csv', "rb"), delimiter = ",", skipinitialspace=True)
for champs in reader:
img_url = champs[2]
filename = os.path.basename(img_url)
outpath = os.path.join(out_folder, filename)
print 'Downloading %s to %s' % (img_url, outpath)
with open(outpath, 'wb') as f:
u = urlopen(img_url)
f.write(u.read())
The above code works for champdata.csv of the form stuff,more_stuff,http://www.somesite.com.au/path/to/image.png
but will need to be adapted if I have not understood the actual format of your incoming data.