Python and Microsoft Excel files

[Eric @ Zomething]

benoit wrote

> I want to import and export Microsoft Excel files.
> Are there libraries for this ?

I'd be interested to hear if there are some good Python libraries which work with the ".xls" file format.  Python does have CSV, if you can achieve what you want by exporting the data in comma separated format and then manipulating it.  http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-csv.html

Also, there is pyXLWriter (though I haven't tried it): 
http://www.python.org/pypi?:action=display&name=pyXLWriter&version=0.3a1

I have considered that there must be great Java libraries for MS Office within the OpenOffice.org suite.  It would be sweet to be able to wrap some algorithms from OOo source in Python, but I am not sure of the licensing, nor quite where in that source to find the treasure.

the .xls=>XML=>PDF (etc.) would be nice to have around...