Edit existing excel workbooks and sheets with xlrd and xlwt
Question:
In the documentation for xlrd and xlwt I have learned the following:
How to read from existing work-books/sheets:
from xlrd import open_workbook
wb = open_workbook("ex.xls")
s = wb.sheet_by_index(0)
print s.cell(0,0).value
#Prints contents of cell at location a1 in the first sheet in the document called ex.xls
How to create new work-books/sheets:
from xlwt import Workbook
wb = Workbook()
Sheet1 = wb.add_sheet('Sheet1')
Sheet1.write(0,0,'Hello')
wb.save('ex.xls')
#Creates a document called ex.xls with a worksheet called "Sheet1" and writes "Hello" to the cell located at a1
What I want to do now is to open an existing worksheet, in an existing workbook and write to that sheet.
I have tried something like:
from xlwt import open_workbook
wb = open_workbook("ex.xls")
s = wb.sheet_by_index(0)
print s.cell(0,0).value
but open_workbook is only part of the xlrd module, not xlwt.
Any ideas?
Edit1:
After Olivers suggestion I looked into xlutils and tried the following:
from xlrd import open_workbook
from xlwt import Workbook
from xlutils.copy import copy
wb = open_workbook("names.xls")
s = wb.get_sheet(0)
s.write(0,0,'A1')
wb.save('names.xls')
This however, gives me the following error message:
File "C:Python27libsite-packagesxlrdbook.py", line 655, in get_sheet
raise XLRDError("Can't load sheets after releasing resources.")
xlrd.biffh.XLRDError: Can't load sheets after releasing resources.
Edit 2:
The error message was due to improper use of the get_sheet function.
Finally found out how to use it:
from xlrd import open_workbook
from xlwt import Workbook
from xlutils.copy import copy
rb = open_workbook("names.xls")
wb = copy(rb)
s = wb.get_sheet(0)
s.write(0,0,'A1')
wb.save('names.xls')
Answers:
As I wrote in the edits of the op, to edit existing excel documents you must use the xlutils module (Thanks Oliver)
Here is the proper way to do it:
#xlrd, xlutils and xlwt modules need to be installed.
#Can be done via pip install <module>
from xlrd import open_workbook
from xlutils.copy import copy
rb = open_workbook("names.xls")
wb = copy(rb)
s = wb.get_sheet(0)
s.write(0,0,'A1')
wb.save('names.xls')
This replaces the contents of the cell located at a1 in the first sheet of “names.xls” with the text “a1”, and then saves the document.
Here’s another way of doing the code above using the openpyxl module that’s compatible with xlsx. From what I’ve seen so far, it also keeps formatting.
from openpyxl import load_workbook
wb = load_workbook('names.xlsx')
ws = wb['SheetName']
ws['A1'] = 'A1'
wb.save('names.xlsx')
In the documentation for xlrd and xlwt I have learned the following:
How to read from existing work-books/sheets:
from xlrd import open_workbook
wb = open_workbook("ex.xls")
s = wb.sheet_by_index(0)
print s.cell(0,0).value
#Prints contents of cell at location a1 in the first sheet in the document called ex.xls
How to create new work-books/sheets:
from xlwt import Workbook
wb = Workbook()
Sheet1 = wb.add_sheet('Sheet1')
Sheet1.write(0,0,'Hello')
wb.save('ex.xls')
#Creates a document called ex.xls with a worksheet called "Sheet1" and writes "Hello" to the cell located at a1
What I want to do now is to open an existing worksheet, in an existing workbook and write to that sheet.
I have tried something like:
from xlwt import open_workbook
wb = open_workbook("ex.xls")
s = wb.sheet_by_index(0)
print s.cell(0,0).value
but open_workbook is only part of the xlrd module, not xlwt.
Any ideas?
Edit1:
After Olivers suggestion I looked into xlutils and tried the following:
from xlrd import open_workbook
from xlwt import Workbook
from xlutils.copy import copy
wb = open_workbook("names.xls")
s = wb.get_sheet(0)
s.write(0,0,'A1')
wb.save('names.xls')
This however, gives me the following error message:
File "C:Python27libsite-packagesxlrdbook.py", line 655, in get_sheet
raise XLRDError("Can't load sheets after releasing resources.")
xlrd.biffh.XLRDError: Can't load sheets after releasing resources.
Edit 2:
The error message was due to improper use of the get_sheet function.
Finally found out how to use it:
from xlrd import open_workbook
from xlwt import Workbook
from xlutils.copy import copy
rb = open_workbook("names.xls")
wb = copy(rb)
s = wb.get_sheet(0)
s.write(0,0,'A1')
wb.save('names.xls')
As I wrote in the edits of the op, to edit existing excel documents you must use the xlutils module (Thanks Oliver)
Here is the proper way to do it:
#xlrd, xlutils and xlwt modules need to be installed.
#Can be done via pip install <module>
from xlrd import open_workbook
from xlutils.copy import copy
rb = open_workbook("names.xls")
wb = copy(rb)
s = wb.get_sheet(0)
s.write(0,0,'A1')
wb.save('names.xls')
This replaces the contents of the cell located at a1 in the first sheet of “names.xls” with the text “a1”, and then saves the document.
Here’s another way of doing the code above using the openpyxl module that’s compatible with xlsx. From what I’ve seen so far, it also keeps formatting.
from openpyxl import load_workbook
wb = load_workbook('names.xlsx')
ws = wb['SheetName']
ws['A1'] = 'A1'
wb.save('names.xlsx')