Then, just to be clear: there doesn't seem to exist a Python library that will roundtrip an excel sheet to its original state just by reading it in and writing it again, without modification. Correct?
J On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 3:48 PM, Henry Walshaw <henry.wals...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Javier, > > Like Matt below I'd recommend taking a look at openpyxl > (http://pythonhosted.org/openpyxl/) We've used it a lot recently and it does > give a great deal over formatting of the outgoing Excel workbook. > Unfortunately it does not support reading images and charts from an existing > workbook, so they would be lost if you tried reading an existing workbook as > a template (openpyxl works with Excel data in memory and only accesses the > file handler on save or load, which means that modifying an existing workbook > is a case of reading the data in, updating the data and then saving a new > excel file over the original one). However I think it's a good choice if all > you're doing is manipulating workbooks full of data that the template is > applied to later. > > Cheers > -Henry > > > On 4 Feb 2014, at 3:38 pm, Javier Candeira <jav...@candeira.com> wrote: > >> Thanks everyone. Some more background and answers: >> >> - I'm a LibreOffice fan (this is me after a love night with two >> LibreOffice hackers [1]), but this has to be MS Office. I'm automating >> an entrenched reporting process that produces pixel-perfect A4 >> documents for printing, and I can't recreate the accumulated work >> expressed in the existing sheets. >> - I'm also a Google Spreadsheets fan, to the point where I have >> contributed to a library for accessing it. [2] But same as above. >> - xlwt or xlutil might work if it allows me to manipulate existing >> spreadsheets. If not, I'd try creating my reporting template and >> linking it to sheets with sample data, and to recreate the >> data-bearing sheets every week/month/whenever. >> - I don't really need to generate macros or charts, because there are >> templates that have them already. I really only have to put in data in >> an existing database (and munge the incoming data a bit before writing >> the neat rows and columns). >> >> [1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/hiperactivo/4364689348/ >> [2] https://github.com/burnash/gspread >> >> Thanks again, and sorry for not giving enough background at the start >> of the thread. >> >> J >> >> On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 3:22 PM, Rasjid Wilcox <rasj...@openminddev.net> >> wrote: >>> Hi Javier, >>> >>> I use xlwt (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlwt) to generate XLS spreadsheets. >>> It is a fork of pyExcelerator which is not longer maintained. >>> >>> For fairly standard spreadsheets it works well. You can do basic >>> formatting, both in terms of fonts (bold etc), and also in terms of numeric >>> formatting (currency and date formats etc). >>> >>> Last I checked (and I don't think this has changed), it does not do charts >>> or fancy stuff like that. >>> >>> As long as it meets your needs it terms of spreadsheet complexity, it will >>> work well. Runs on any platform (will be fine on a Linux web-server), and >>> is fast. >>> >>> I looked into this extensively a few years ago - at the time it was >>> definitely the way to go as long as it meets your requirements in terms of >>> capabilities. >>> >>> >>> Your other options are: >>> >>> Under Linux etc. >>> Use a head-less copy of OpenOffice, and use its automation (pyUno) to >>> generate a spreadsheet that way. Be prepared for a lot of pain. >>> Use Jython (or bridge to java in some way) and use one of the Java >>> libraries to generate XLS files. At least one of these has basic support >>> for charts (although you may need a base template file to work from). >>> >>> I know there are some .Net libraries that can also generate xlsx files - >>> these may work under Mono and IronPython. >>> >>> >>> Under Windows: >>> All of the above, with the bonus that any .Net libraries are definitely >>> going to work. >>> Automate MS Office using Python's COM support. >>> >>> >>> The pro's of using automation (either OpenOffice or MS Office) is that you >>> will get access to a much greater range of features. It will, however, be >>> slow, and can take noticeable amounts of time to generate a large >>> spreadsheet. >>> >>> Any of the libraries that generate the file directly will be *much* faster, >>> and a better fit for server-side deployment. >>> >>> >>> >>> Hmm... just seen your last email regarding macros. Not sure if xlwt >>> supports that. You may have luck with the xlutils library mentioned - >>> otherwise you may need to move to one of the more heavy duty options - >>> either using a Java or .Net / Mono library, or going for full automation >>> (I'd suggest MS Office over OpenOffice if going that route). >>> >>> >>> Cheers, >>> >>> Rasjid. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On 4/02/2014 2:29 PM, Javier Candeira wrote: >>>> >>>> At work I need to manipulate a series of excel spreasheets, and I seem >>>> to remember that people have discussed the topic in a meeting. I have >>>> two questions to anyone who's already had to do the same: >>>> >>>> - What's the current best Python library for excel manipulation? >>>> - Are there any limitations for handling Excel sheets under Linux? >>>> What kind of thing would I need Windows (and presumably, a live copy >>>> of Office) for? >>>> >>>> As background for the question, I'm trying to avoid using Windows at >>>> all. My ideal workflow would involve users downloading generated >>>> spreadsheets from a webserver. >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> >>>> Javier >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> >>>> melbourne-pug mailing list >>>> melbourne-pug@python.org >>>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/melbourne-pug >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> >>> melbourne-pug mailing list >>> melbourne-pug@python.org >>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/melbourne-pug >> _______________________________________________ >> melbourne-pug mailing list >> melbourne-pug@python.org >> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/melbourne-pug > > > _______________________________________________ > melbourne-pug mailing list > melbourne-pug@python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/melbourne-pug > _______________________________________________ melbourne-pug mailing list melbourne-pug@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/melbourne-pug
