Reading/parsing Excel (xls) files with Python [closed] - python

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What is the best way to read Excel (XLS) files with Python (not CSV files).
Is there a built-in package which is supported by default in Python to do this task?

I highly recommend xlrd for reading .xls files. But there are some limitations(refer to xlrd github page):
Warning
This library will no longer read anything other than .xls files. For
alternatives that read newer file formats, please see
http://www.python-excel.org/.
The following are also not supported but will safely and reliably be
ignored:
- Charts, Macros, Pictures, any other embedded object, including embedded worksheets.
- VBA modules
- Formulas, but results of formula calculations are extracted.
- Comments
- Hyperlinks
- Autofilters, advanced filters, pivot tables, conditional formatting, data validation
Password-protected files are not supported and cannot be read by this
library.
voyager mentioned the use of COM automation. Having done this myself a few years ago, be warned that doing this is a real PITA. The number of caveats is huge and the documentation is lacking and annoying. I ran into many weird bugs and gotchas, some of which took many hours to figure out.
UPDATE:
For newer .xlsx files, the recommended library for reading and writing appears to be openpyxl (thanks, Ikar Pohorský).

You can use pandas to do this, first install the required libraries:
$ pip install pandas openpyxl
See code below:
import pandas as pd
xls = pd.ExcelFile(r"yourfilename.xls") # use r before absolute file path
sheetX = xls.parse(2) #2 is the sheet number+1 thus if the file has only 1 sheet write 0 in paranthesis
var1 = sheetX['ColumnName']
print(var1[1]) #1 is the row number...

You can choose any one of them http://www.python-excel.org/
I would recommended python xlrd library.
install it using
pip install xlrd
import using
import xlrd
to open a workbook
workbook = xlrd.open_workbook('your_file_name.xlsx')
open sheet by name
worksheet = workbook.sheet_by_name('Name of the Sheet')
open sheet by index
worksheet = workbook.sheet_by_index(0)
read cell value
worksheet.cell(0, 0).value

I think Pandas is the best way to go. There is already one answer here with Pandas using ExcelFile function, but it did not work properly for me. From here I found the read_excel function which works just fine:
import pandas as pd
dfs = pd.read_excel("your_file_name.xlsx", sheet_name="your_sheet_name")
print(dfs.head(10))
P.S. You need to have the xlrd installed for read_excel function to work
Update 21-03-2020: As you may see here, there are issues with the xlrd engine and it is going to be deprecated. The openpyxl is the best replacement. So as described here, the canonical syntax should be:
dfs = pd.read_excel("your_file_name.xlsx", sheet_name="your_sheet_name", engine="openpyxl")

For xlsx I like the solution posted earlier as https://web.archive.org/web/20180216070531/https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4371163/reading-xlsx-files-using-python. I uses modules from the standard library only.
def xlsx(fname):
import zipfile
from xml.etree.ElementTree import iterparse
z = zipfile.ZipFile(fname)
strings = [el.text for e, el in iterparse(z.open('xl/sharedStrings.xml')) if el.tag.endswith('}t')]
rows = []
row = {}
value = ''
for e, el in iterparse(z.open('xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml')):
if el.tag.endswith('}v'): # Example: <v>84</v>
value = el.text
if el.tag.endswith('}c'): # Example: <c r="A3" t="s"><v>84</v></c>
if el.attrib.get('t') == 's':
value = strings[int(value)]
letter = el.attrib['r'] # Example: AZ22
while letter[-1].isdigit():
letter = letter[:-1]
row[letter] = value
value = ''
if el.tag.endswith('}row'):
rows.append(row)
row = {}
return rows
Improvements added are fetching content by sheet name, using re to get the column and checking if sharedstrings are used.
def xlsx(fname,sheet):
import zipfile
from xml.etree.ElementTree import iterparse
import re
z = zipfile.ZipFile(fname)
if 'xl/sharedStrings.xml' in z.namelist():
# Get shared strings
strings = [element.text for event, element
in iterparse(z.open('xl/sharedStrings.xml'))
if element.tag.endswith('}t')]
sheetdict = { element.attrib['name']:element.attrib['sheetId'] for event,element in iterparse(z.open('xl/workbook.xml'))
if element.tag.endswith('}sheet') }
rows = []
row = {}
value = ''
if sheet in sheets:
sheetfile = 'xl/worksheets/sheet'+sheets[sheet]+'.xml'
#print(sheet,sheetfile)
for event, element in iterparse(z.open(sheetfile)):
# get value or index to shared strings
if element.tag.endswith('}v') or element.tag.endswith('}t'):
value = element.text
# If value is a shared string, use value as an index
if element.tag.endswith('}c'):
if element.attrib.get('t') == 's':
value = strings[int(value)]
# split the row/col information so that the row leter(s) can be separate
letter = re.sub('\d','',element.attrib['r'])
row[letter] = value
value = ''
if element.tag.endswith('}row'):
rows.append(row)
row = {}
return rows

If you need old XLS format. Below code for ansii 'cp1251'.
import xlrd
file=u'C:/Landau/task/6200.xlsx'
try:
book = xlrd.open_workbook(file,encoding_override="cp1251")
except:
book = xlrd.open_workbook(file)
print("The number of worksheets is {0}".format(book.nsheets))
print("Worksheet name(s): {0}".format(book.sheet_names()))
sh = book.sheet_by_index(0)
print("{0} {1} {2}".format(sh.name, sh.nrows, sh.ncols))
print("Cell D30 is {0}".format(sh.cell_value(rowx=29, colx=3)))
for rx in range(sh.nrows):
print(sh.row(rx))

For older .xls files, you can use xlrd
either you can use xlrd directly by importing it. Like below
import xlrd
wb = xlrd.open_workbook(file_name)
Or you can also use pandas pd.read_excel() method, but do not forget to specify the engine, though the default is xlrd, it has to be specified.
pd.read_excel(file_name, engine = xlrd)
Both of them work for older .xls file formats.
Infact I came across this when I used OpenPyXL, i got the below error
InvalidFileException: openpyxl does not support the old .xls file format, please use xlrd to read this file, or convert it to the more recent .xlsx file format.

You can use any of the libraries listed here (like Pyxlreader that is based on JExcelApi, or xlwt), plus COM automation to use Excel itself for the reading of the files, but for that you are introducing Office as a dependency of your software, which might not be always an option.

You might also consider running the (non-python) program xls2csv. Feed it an xls file, and you should get back a csv.

Python Excelerator handles this task as well. http://ghantoos.org/2007/10/25/python-pyexcelerator-small-howto/
It's also available in Debian and Ubuntu:
sudo apt-get install python-excelerator

with open(csv_filename) as file:
data = file.read()
with open(xl_file_name, 'w') as file:
file.write(data)
You can turn CSV to excel like above with inbuilt packages. CSV can be handled with an inbuilt package of dictreader and dictwriter which will work the same way as python dictionary works. which makes it a ton easy
I am currently unaware of any inbuilt packages for excel but I had come across openpyxl. It was also pretty straight forward and simple You can see the code snippet below hope this helps
import openpyxl
book = openpyxl.load_workbook(filename)
sheet = book.active
result =sheet['AP2']
print(result.value)

For older Excel files there is the OleFileIO_PL module that can read the OLE structured storage format used.

If the file is really an old .xls, this works for me on python3 just using base open() and pandas:
df = pandas.read_csv(open(f, encoding = 'UTF-8'), sep='\t')
Note that the file I'm using is tab delimited. less or a text editor should be able to read .xls so that you can sniff out the delimiter.
I did not have a lot of luck with xlrd because of – I think – UTF-8 issues.

Related

How to split Excel-Data into seperate Worksheets and maintain cell formating with Python 3?

I get a huge Excel-Sheet (normal table with header and data) on a regular basis and I need to filter and delete some data and split the table up into seperate sheets based on some rules. I think I can save me some time if I use Python for that tedious task because the filtering, deleting and splitting up into several sheets is based on always the same rules that can logically be defined.
Unfortunately the sheet and the data is partially color-coded (cells and font) and I need to maintain this formating for the resulting sheets. Is there a way of doing that with python? I think I need a pointer in the right direction. I only found workarounds with pandas but that does not allow me to keep the formatting.
You can take a look at an excellent Python library for Excel called openpyxl.
Here's how you can use it.
First, install it through your command prompt using:
pip install openpyxl
Open an existing file:
import openpyxl
wb_obj = openpyxl.load_workbook(path) # Open notebook
Deleting rows:
import openpyxl
from openpyxl import load_workbook
wb = load_wordbook(path)
ws = wb.active
ws.delete_rows(7)
Inserting rows:
import openpyxl
from openpyxl import load_workbook
wb = load_wordbook(path)
ws = wb.active
ws.insert_rows(7)
Here are some tutorials that you can take a look at:
Tutorial 1
Youtube Video

Converting xlsx files to xls to use with pandas [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Pandas cannot open an Excel (.xlsx) file
(5 answers)
Closed 2 years ago.
I have a repetetive task, where I download multiple excel files (I'm forced to download in xlsx format), I then take column G from each excel file and concatenate them into "final.xlsx" Then "final.xlsx" is compared to another excel workbook to see if all number instances are matched in each workbook.
I'm now working on making a cross platform python app to solve this. However, pandas won't allow xlsx files anymore, and manually opening and saving them as xls files just adds more repetitive manual labour.
Is there a cross-platform way for python to convert xlsx files to xls?
Or should I abandon pandas and go with openpyxl since I'm forced to handle xlsx format?
I tried using this without success ;
from pathlib import Path
import openpyxl
import os
# get files
os.chdir(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)))
pdir = Path('.')
filelist = [filename for filename in pdir.iterdir() if filename.suffix == '.xlsx']
for filename in filelist:
print(filename.name)
for infile in filelist:
workbook = openpyxl.load_workbook(infile)
outfile = f"{infile.name.split('.')[0]}.xls"
workbook.save(outfile)
You can still use pandas, but you would need openpyxl. As you have it in your code, I suppose it is ok for you.
Otherwise, you can install it via: pip install openpyxl.
The following illustrates how this can work. Kr.
import pandas as pd
fpath = r".\test.xlsx"
df = pd.read_excel (fpath, engine='openpyxl')
print(df)
A B
0 1 2
1 1 2
Previously, the default argument engine=None to read_excel() would result in using the xlrd engine in many cases, including new Excel 2007+ (.xlsx) files. If openpyxl is installed, many of these cases will now default to using the openpyxl engine. See the read_excel() documentation for more details.
Thus, it is strongly encouraged to install openpyxl to read Excel 2007+ (.xlsx) files. Please do not report issues when using xlrd to read .xlsx files. This is no longer supported, switch to using openpyxl instead.
https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/whatsnew/v1.2.0.html

importing an excel file to python

I have a basic question about importing xlsx files to Python. I have checked many responses about the same topic, however I still cannot import my files to Python whatever I try. Here's my code and the error I receive:
import pandas as pd
import xlrd
file_location = 'C:\Users\cagdak\Desktop\python_self_learning\Coursera\sample_data.xlsx'
workbook = xlrd.open_workbook(file_location)
Error:
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'C:\\Users\\cagdak\\Desktop\\python_self_learning\\Coursera\\sample_data.xlsx'
With pandas it is possible to get directly a column of an Excel file. Here is the code.
import pandas
df = pandas.read_excel('sample.xls')
#print the column names
print df.columns
#get the values for a given column
values = df['column_name'].values
#get a data frame with selected columns
FORMAT = ['Col_1', 'Col_2', 'Col_3']
df_selected = df[FORMAT]
You should use raw strings or escape your backslash instead, for example:
file_location = r'C:\Users\cagdak\Desktop\python_self_learning\Coursera\sample_data.xlsx'
or
file_location = 'C:\\Users\\cagdak\\Desktop\python_self_learning\\Coursera\\sample_data.xlsx'
go ahead and try this:
file_location = 'C:/Users/cagdak/Desktop/python_self_learning/Coursera/sample_data.xlsx'
As pointed out above Pandas supports reading of Excel spreadsheets using its read_excel() method. However, it is dependent upon a number of external libraries depending on which version Excel/odf is being accessed. It defaults to selecting one automatically, though one can be specified using the engine parameter. Here's an excerpt from the docs:
"xlrd" supports old-style Excel files (.xls).
"openpyxl" supports newer Excel file formats.
"odf" supports OpenDocument file formats (.odf, .ods, .odt).
"pyxlsb" supports Binary Excel files.
If the required library is not already installed you'll see an error message suggesting library you need to install.

Preserving Rich Text Formatting in Excel via Python

I'm trying to add rows to an Excel file via Python (need this to run and refresh daily). The Excel file is essentially a template, at the top of which has some cells for some of the words within a cell have specific formatting, i.e. cell value "That cat is fluffy".
I can't quite find a way to get Python+Excel to work together to preserve that formatting - it takes the format of the first letter in the cell and applies it across the board.
From what I can tell, this is an issue with preserving rich text, but I haven't been able to find a package that can preserve rich text, read and write excel files.
I followed this thread to come up with the code below: writing to existing workbook using xlwt
But, it looks like that copy step from the xlutils package isn't preserving the rich text formatting.
import xlwt
import xlrd
from xlutils.copy import copy
rb = xlrd.open_workbook(templateFile,formatting_info=True)
r_sheet = rb.sheet_by_index(0)
wb = copy(rb)
w_sheet = wb.get_sheet(0)
xlsfile = Infile
insheet = xlrd.open_workbook(xlsfile,formatting_info=True).sheets()[0]
outrow_idx = 10
for row_idx in xrange(insheet.nrows):
for col_idx in xrange(insheet.ncols):
w_sheet.write(outrow_idx, col_idx,
insheet.cell_value(row_idx, col_idx))
outrow_idx += 1
wb.save(Outfile)
Please refer to this link over here, as it may help you with keeping the formatting
Preserving styles using python's xlrd,xlwt, and xlutils.copy
though it doesn't keep the cell comments

Extracting Hyperlinks From Excel (.xlsx) with Python

I have been looking at mostly the xlrd and openpyxl libraries for Excel file manipulation. However, xlrd currently does not support formatting_info=True for .xlsx files, so I can not use the xlrd hyperlink_map function. So I turned to openpyxl, but have also had no luck extracting a hyperlink from an excel file with it. Test code below (the test file contains a simple hyperlink to google with hyperlink text set to "test"):
import openpyxl
wb = openpyxl.load_workbook('testFile.xlsx')
ws = wb.get_sheet_by_name('Sheet1')
r = 0
c = 0
print ws.cell(row = r, column = c). value
print ws.cell(row = r, column = c). hyperlink
print ws.cell(row = r, column = c). hyperlink_rel_id
Output:
test
None
I guess openpyxl does not currently support formatting completely either? Is there some other library I can use to extract hyperlink information from Excel (.xlsx) files?
This is possible with openpyxl:
import openpyxl
wb = openpyxl.load_workbook('yourfile.xlsm')
ws = wb['Sheet1']
# This will fail if there is no hyperlink to target
print(ws.cell(row=2, column=1).hyperlink.target)
Starting from at least version openpyxl-2.4.0b1 this bug https://bitbucket.org/openpyxl/openpyxl/issue/152/hyperlink-returns-empty-string-instead-of was fixed. Now it's return for cell Hyperlink object:
hl_obj = ws.row(col).hyperlink # getting Hyperlink object for Cell
#hl_obj = ws.cell(row = r, column = c).hyperlink This could be used as well.
if hl_obj:
print(hl_obj.display)
print(hl_obj.target)
print(hl_obj.tooltip) # you can see it when hovering mouse on hyperlink in Excel
print(hl_obj) # to see other stuff if you need
FYI, the problem with openpyxl is an actual bug.
And, yes, xlrd cannot read the hyperlink without formatting_info, which is currently not supported for xlsx.
In my experience getting good .xlsx interaction requires moving to IronPython. This lets you work with the Common Language Runtime (clr) and interact directly with excel'
http://ironpython.net/
import clr
clr.AddReference("Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel")
import Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel as Excel
excel = Excel.ApplicationClass()
wb = excel.Workbooks.Open('testFile.xlsx')
ws = wb.Worksheets['Sheet1']
address = ws.Cells(row, col).Hyperlinks.Item(1).Address
A successful solution I've worked with is to install unoconv on the server and implement a
method that invokes this command line tool via the subprocess module to convert the file from xlsx to xls since hyperlink_map.get() works with xls.
For direct manipulation of Excel files it's also worth looking at the excellent XlWings library.
import openpyxl
wb = openpyxl.load_workbook('yourfile.xlsx')
ws = wb['Sheet1']
try:
print(ws.cell(row=2, column=1).hyperlink.target)
#This fail if their is no hyperlink
except:
print(ws.cell(row=2, column=1).value)
In order to handle the exception 'message': "'NoneType' object has no attribute 'target'", we can use it in a try/except block. So even if there are no hyperlinks available in the given cell, it will print the content contained in the cell.
If instead of just .hyperlink, doing .hyperlink.target should work. I was getting a 'None' as well from using just ".hyperlink" on the cell object before that.

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