How do I read Excel file in Python?

[kath]

John Machin wrote:
> kath wrote:
> > How do I read an Excel file in Python?
> >
> > I have found a package to read excel file, which can be used on any
> > platform.
>
> Hi Sudhir,
> So far, so good :-)
>
> >
> > http://www.lexicon.net/sjmachin/xlrd.htm
> > I installed and working on the examples, I found its printing of cell's
> > contents in a different manner.
> >
> > >>> import xlrd
> > >>> book=xlrd.open_workbook("Calculation_file.xls")
> > >>> book=xlrd.open_workbook("testbook.xls")
> > >>> sh=book.sheet_by_index(0)
> > >>> for row in range(sh.nrows):
> > 	print sh.row(rx)
> > [text:u'name', text:u'address', text:u'ph']
> > [text:u'sudhir', text:u'bangalore', number:1234.0]
> > [text:u'vinay', text:u'bangalore', number:3264.0]
>
> It helps when asking questions if you copy/paste exactly what is on
> your screen;
> in this case
>     print sh.row(rx)
> would have given an error; you must have typed
>     for rx in range.....
>
> A row is returned as a sequence of Cell objects. What you are seeing is
> Python automatically doing repr(cell) on each cell in the row. The
> Cell.__repr__ method formats it that way for debugging. Here are some
> examples from a little test file of mine:
>
> >>> import xlrd
> >>> bk = xlrd.open_workbook('sjm1.xls')
> >>> sh = bk.sheet_by_index(0)
> >>> row0 = sh.row(0)
> >>> row0
> [text:u'fubar', number:1.0, number:2.0]
> >>> firstcell = row0[0]
> >>> type(firstcell)
> <class 'xlrd.sheet.Cell'>
> >>> firstcell.ctype
> 1
> >>> # cell type 1 is text
> >>> firstcell.value
> u'fubar'
> >>> repr(firstcell)
> "text:u'fubar'"
>
> >
> > I am bit confused with slicing. help me....
> >
> None of the above is anything to do with slicing; is this a 2nd
> problem?
>
> Perhaps you are having trouble with this:
> >>> help(sh.row_slice)
> Help on method row_slice in module xlrd.sheet:
>
> row_slice(self, rowx, start_colx=0, end_colx=None) method of
> xlrd.sheet.Sheet instance
>     ##
>     # Returns a slice of the Cell objects in the given row.
> >>>
>
> sh.row_slice(rowx, lo, hi) gives the same result as sh.row(rowx)[lo:hi]
> -- it is provided because the latter would be inefficient for getting a
> small slice from a long row.
>
> If you are having trouble with the general concept of slicing, perhaps
> you might like to try the Python tutorial. Otherwise, please try to be
> a bit more specific about what the confusion is.
>
> HTH, and e-mail me if you prefer ...
>
> Cheers,
> John


Hi, thanks for the reply. I just took some time reading help file and
came to know to there is nothing do with slicing. But I do have a
problem with date field in the excel file.

the date( 8/9/2006 ) in Excel file, i am getting the value as 38938.0,
which I get when I convert date values to general format in Excel. I
want the actual date value. How do get that?


Thank you.
regards,
Sudhir.