I have 250 Microsoft Excel (.xls) files, all in a folder. I need to do the following:
for each file:
open the file
switch to a specific tab in the file
extract the text from rows 15-100 on that tab
save the text in a text file somewhere
I assume this can be automated somehow, but I have no idea how. Where do I start looking to figure out how to do this? I really don't want to open 250 excel files and copy text out by hand, as that would take hours. :(
That can be quickly solved using the xlrd module and python, I copied the following example from activestate.com - it is easy to adapt it to your needs.
## {{{ http://code.activestate.com/recipes/483742/ (r3)
class readexcel(object):
""" Simple OS Independent Class for Extracting Data from Excel Files
the using xlrd module found at http://www.lexicon.net/sjmachin/xlrd.htm
Versions of Excel supported: 2004, 2002, XP, 2000, 97, 95, 5, 4, 3
xlrd version tested: 0.5.2
Data is extracted by creating a iterator object which can be used to
return data one row at a time. The default extraction method assumes
that the worksheet is in tabular format with the first nonblank row
containing variable names and all subsequent rows containing values.
This method returns a dictionary which uses the variables names as keys
for each piece of data in the row. Data can also be extracted with
each row represented by a list.
Extracted data is represented fairly logically. By default dates are
returned as strings in "yyyy/mm/dd" format or "yyyy/mm/dd hh:mm:ss",
as appropriate. However, dates can be return as a tuple containing
(Year, Month, Day, Hour, Min, Second) which is appropriate for usage
with mxDateTime or DateTime. Numbers are returned as either INT or
FLOAT, whichever is needed to support the data. Text, booleans, and
error codes are also returned as appropriate representations.
Quick Example:
xl = readexcel('testdata.xls')
sheetnames = xl.worksheets()
for sheet in sheetnames:
print sheet
for row in xl.getiter(sheet):
# Do Something here
"""
def __init__(self, filename):
""" Returns a readexcel object of the specified filename - this may
take a little while because the file must be parsed into memory """
import xlrd
import os.path
if not os.path.isfile(filename):
raise NameError, "%s is not a valid filename" % filename
self.__filename__ = filename
self.__book__ = xlrd.open_workbook(filename)
self.__sheets__ = {}
self.__sheetnames__ = []
for i in self.__book__.sheet_names():
uniquevars = []
firstrow = 0
sheet = self.__book__.sheet_by_name(i)
for row in range(sheet.nrows):
types,values = sheet.row_types(row),sheet.row_values(row)
nonblank = False
for j in values:
if j != '':
nonblank=True
break
if nonblank:
# Generate a listing of Unique Variable Names for Use as
# Dictionary Keys In Extraction. Duplicate Names will
# be replaced with "F#"
variables = self.__formatrow__(types,values,False)
unknown = 1
while variables:
var = variables.pop(0)
if var in uniquevars or var == '':
var = 'F' + str(unknown)
unknown += 1
uniquevars.append(str(var))
firstrow = row + 1
break
self.__sheetnames__.append(i)
self.__sheets__.setdefault(i,{}).__setitem__('rows',sheet.nrows)
self.__sheets__.setdefault(i,{}).__setitem__('cols',sheet.ncols)
self.__sheets__.setdefault(i,{}).__setitem__('firstrow',firstrow)
self.__sheets__.setdefault(i,{}).__setitem__('variables',uniquevars[:])
def getiter(self, sheetname, returnlist=False, returntupledate=False):
""" Return an generator object which yields the lines of a worksheet;
Default returns a dictionary, specifing returnlist=True causes lists
to be returned. Calling returntupledate=True causes dates to returned
as tuples of (Year, Month, Day, Hour, Min, Second) instead of as a
string """
if sheetname not in self.__sheets__.keys():
raise NameError, "%s is not present in %s" % (sheetname,\
self.__filename__)
if returnlist:
return __iterlist__(self, sheetname, returntupledate)
else:
return __iterdict__(self, sheetname, returntupledate)
def worksheets(self):
""" Returns a list of the Worksheets in the Excel File """
return self.__sheetnames__
def nrows(self, worksheet):
""" Return the number of rows in a worksheet """
return self.__sheets__[worksheet]['rows']
def ncols(self, worksheet):
""" Return the number of columns in a worksheet """
return self.__sheets__[worksheet]['cols']
def variables(self,worksheet):
""" Returns a list of Column Names in the file,
assuming a tabular format of course. """
return self.__sheets__[worksheet]['variables']
def __formatrow__(self, types, values, wanttupledate):
""" Internal function used to clean up the incoming excel data """
## Data Type Codes:
## EMPTY 0
## TEXT 1 a Unicode string
## NUMBER 2 float
## DATE 3 float
## BOOLEAN 4 int; 1 means TRUE, 0 means FALSE
## ERROR 5
import xlrd
returnrow = []
for i in range(len(types)):
type,value = types[i],values[i]
if type == 2:
if value == int(value):
value = int(value)
elif type == 3:
datetuple = xlrd.xldate_as_tuple(value, self.__book__.datemode)
if wanttupledate:
value = datetuple
else:
# time only no date component
if datetuple[0] == 0 and datetuple[1] == 0 and \
datetuple[2] == 0:
value = "%02d:%02d:%02d" % datetuple[3:]
# date only, no time
elif datetuple[3] == 0 and datetuple[4] == 0 and \
datetuple[5] == 0:
value = "%04d/%02d/%02d" % datetuple[:3]
else: # full date
value = "%04d/%02d/%02d %02d:%02d:%02d" % datetuple
elif type == 5:
value = xlrd.error_text_from_code[value]
returnrow.append(value)
return returnrow
def __iterlist__(excel, sheetname, tupledate):
""" Function Used To Create the List Iterator """
sheet = excel.__book__.sheet_by_name(sheetname)
for row in range(excel.__sheets__[sheetname]['rows']):
types,values = sheet.row_types(row),sheet.row_values(row)
yield excel.__formatrow__(types, values, tupledate)
def __iterdict__(excel, sheetname, tupledate):
""" Function Used To Create the Dictionary Iterator """
sheet = excel.__book__.sheet_by_name(sheetname)
for row in range(excel.__sheets__[sheetname]['firstrow'],\
excel.__sheets__[sheetname]['rows']):
types,values = sheet.row_types(row),sheet.row_values(row)
formattedrow = excel.__formatrow__(types, values, tupledate)
# Pad a Short Row With Blanks if Needed
for i in range(len(formattedrow),\
len(excel.__sheets__[sheetname]['variables'])):
formattedrow.append('')
yield dict(zip(excel.__sheets__[sheetname]['variables'],formattedrow))
## end of http://code.activestate.com/recipes/483742/ }}}
Since you already have Excel, you can create an Excel macro in a separate worksheet to do this; just make sure the worksheet is outside of the directory you are parsing. You'll need to add a reference for the FileSystemObject, which should be found in C:\Windows\System32\scrrun.dll.
Option Explicit
Sub ExtractData()
Dim fso As New FileSystemObject
Dim oFile As File
Dim oFolder As Folder
Dim sFileOutput As String
Dim fNum
Dim excelFile As Excel.Workbook
Dim excelWorksheet As Excel.Worksheet
Dim i As Integer
sFileOutput = "C:\FolderToScan\ExcelOutput.txt"
Set oFolder = fso.GetFolder("C:\FolderToScan")
For Each oFile In oFolder.Files
If Right(oFile.Name, 3) = "xls" Then
fNum = FreeFile()
Open sFileOutput For Append As fNum
Set excelFile = Workbooks.Open(oFile.Path)
Set excelWorksheet = excelFile.Sheets(1)
'Or:
' Set excelWorksheet = excelFile.Sheets("Name of your sheet")
For i = 15 To 100
Write #fNum, excelWorksheet.Cells(i, 1)
Next
Close #fNum
excelFile.Close
Set excelFile = Nothing
End If
Next
End Sub