One liners

This section shows you how to get data from your excel files and how to export data to excel files in one line

One liner to get data from the excel files

Get a list of dictionaries

Suppose you want to process the following coffee data (data source coffee chart on the center for science in the public interest):

Let’s get a list of dictionary out from the xls file:

>>> records = p.get_records(file_name="your_file.xls")

And let’s check what do we have:

>>> for record in records:
...     print("%s of %s has %s mg" % (
...         record['Serving Size'],
...         record['Coffees'],
...         record['Caffeine (mg)']))
venti(20 oz) of Starbucks Coffee Blonde Roast has 475 mg
large(20 oz.) of Dunkin' Donuts Coffee with Turbo Shot has 398 mg
grande(16 oz.) of Starbucks Coffee Pike Place Roast has 310 mg
regular(16 oz.) of Panera Coffee Light Roast has 300 mg

Get two dimensional array

Instead, what if you have to use pyexcel.get_array() to do the same:

>>> for row in p.get_array(file_name="your_file.xls", start_row=1):
...     print("%s of %s has %s mg" % (
...         row[1],
...         row[0],
...         row[2]))
venti(20 oz) of Starbucks Coffee Blonde Roast has 475 mg
large(20 oz.) of Dunkin' Donuts Coffee with Turbo Shot has 398 mg
grande(16 oz.) of Starbucks Coffee Pike Place Roast has 310 mg
regular(16 oz.) of Panera Coffee Light Roast has 300 mg

where start_row skips the header row.

Get a dictionary

You can get a dictionary too:

Now let’s get a dictionary out from the spreadsheet:

>>> my_dict = p.get_dict(file_name="your_file.xls", name_columns_by_row=0)

And check what do we have:

>>> from pyexcel._compact import OrderedDict
>>> isinstance(my_dict, OrderedDict)
True
>>> for key, values in my_dict.items():
...     print(key + " : " + ','.join([str(item) for item in values]))
Coffees : Starbucks Coffee Blonde Roast,Dunkin' Donuts Coffee with Turbo Shot,Starbucks Coffee Pike Place Roast,Panera Coffee Light Roast
Serving Size : venti(20 oz),large(20 oz.),grande(16 oz.),regular(16 oz.)
Caffeine (mg) : 475,398,310,300

Please note that my_dict is an OrderedDict.

Get a dictionary of two dimensional array

Suppose you have a multiple sheet book as the following:

Here is the code to obtain those sheets as a single dictionary:

>>> book_dict = p.get_book_dict(file_name="book.xls")
And check::
>>> isinstance(book_dict, OrderedDict)
True
>>> import json
>>> for key, item in book_dict.items():
...     print(json.dumps({key: item}))
{"Sheet 1": [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]]}
{"Sheet 2": [["X", "Y", "Z"], [1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]]}
{"Sheet 3": [["O", "P", "Q"], [3, 2, 1], [4, 3, 2]]}

Data export in one line

Export an array

Suppose you have the following array:

>>> data = [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]]

And here is the code to save it as an excel file

>>> p.save_as(array=data, dest_file_name="example.xls")

Let’s verify it:

>>> p.get_sheet(file_name="example.xls")
pyexcel_sheet1:
+---+---+---+
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
+---+---+---+
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
+---+---+---+
| 7 | 8 | 9 |
+---+---+---+

And here is the code to save it as a csv file

>>> p.save_as(array=data,
...           dest_file_name="example.csv",
...           dest_delimiter=':')

Let’s verify it:

>>> with open("example.csv") as f:
...     for line in f.readlines():
...         print(line.rstrip())
...
1:2:3
4:5:6
7:8:9

Export a list of dictionaries

>>> records = [
...     {"year": 1903, "country": "Germany", "speed": "206.7km/h"},
...     {"year": 1964, "country": "Japan", "speed": "210km/h"},
...     {"year": 2008, "country": "China", "speed": "350km/h"}
... ]
>>> p.save_as(records=records, dest_file_name='high_speed_rail.xls')

Export a dictionary of single key value pair

>>> henley_on_thames_facts = {
...     "area": "5.58 square meters",
...     "population": "11,619",
...     "civial parish": "Henley-on-Thames",
...     "latitude": "51.536",
...     "longitude": "-0.898"
... }
>>> p.save_as(adict=henley_on_thames_facts, dest_file_name='henley.xlsx')

Export a dictionary of single dimensonal array

>>> ccs_insights = {
...     "year": ["2017", "2018", "2019", "2020", "2021"],
...     "smart phones": [1.53, 1.64, 1.74, 1.82, 1.90],
...     "feature phones": [0.46, 0.38, 0.30, 0.23, 0.17]
... }
>>> p.save_as(adict=ccs_insights, dest_file_name='ccs.csv')

Export a dictionary of two dimensional array as a book

Suppose you want to save the below dictionary to an excel file

>>> a_dictionary_of_two_dimensional_arrays = {
...      'Sheet 1':
...          [
...              [1.0, 2.0, 3.0],
...              [4.0, 5.0, 6.0],
...              [7.0, 8.0, 9.0]
...          ],
...      'Sheet 2':
...          [
...              ['X', 'Y', 'Z'],
...              [1.0, 2.0, 3.0],
...              [4.0, 5.0, 6.0]
...          ],
...      'Sheet 3':
...          [
...              ['O', 'P', 'Q'],
...              [3.0, 2.0, 1.0],
...              [4.0, 3.0, 2.0]
...          ]
...  }

Here is the code:

>>> p.save_book_as(
...    bookdict=a_dictionary_of_two_dimensional_arrays,
...    dest_file_name="book.xls"
... )

If you want to preserve the order of sheets in your dictionary, you have to pass on an ordered dictionary to the function itself. For example:

>>> data = OrderedDict()
>>> data.update({"Sheet 2": a_dictionary_of_two_dimensional_arrays['Sheet 2']})
>>> data.update({"Sheet 1": a_dictionary_of_two_dimensional_arrays['Sheet 1']})
>>> data.update({"Sheet 3": a_dictionary_of_two_dimensional_arrays['Sheet 3']})
>>> p.save_book_as(bookdict=data, dest_file_name="book.xls")

Let’s verify its order:

>>> book_dict = p.get_book_dict(file_name="book.xls")
>>> for key, item in book_dict.items():
...     print(json.dumps({key: item}))
{"Sheet 2": [["X", "Y", "Z"], [1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]]}
{"Sheet 1": [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]]}
{"Sheet 3": [["O", "P", "Q"], [3, 2, 1], [4, 3, 2]]}

Please notice that “Sheet 2” is the first item in the book_dict, meaning the order of sheets are preserved.

File format transcoding on one line

Note

Please note that the following file transcoding could be with zero line. Please install pyexcel-cli and you will do the transcode in one command. No need to open your editor, save the problem, then python run.

The following code does a simple file format transcoding from xls to csv:

>>> p.save_as(file_name="birth.xls", dest_file_name="birth.csv")

Again it is really simple. Let’s verify what we have gotten:

>>> sheet = p.get_sheet(file_name="birth.csv")
>>> sheet
birth.csv:
+-------+--------+----------+
| name  | weight | birth    |
+-------+--------+----------+
| Adam  | 3.4    | 03/02/15 |
+-------+--------+----------+
| Smith | 4.2    | 12/11/14 |
+-------+--------+----------+

Note

Please note that csv(comma separate value) file is pure text file. Formula, charts, images and formatting in xls file will disappear no matter which transcoding tool you use. Hence, pyexcel is a quick alternative for this transcoding job.

Let use previous example and save it as xlsx instead

>>> p.save_as(file_name="birth.xls",
...           dest_file_name="birth.xlsx") # change the file extension

Again let’s verify what we have gotten:

>>> sheet = p.get_sheet(file_name="birth.xlsx")
>>> sheet
pyexcel_sheet1:
+-------+--------+----------+
| name  | weight | birth    |
+-------+--------+----------+
| Adam  | 3.4    | 03/02/15 |
+-------+--------+----------+
| Smith | 4.2    | 12/11/14 |
+-------+--------+----------+

Excel book merge and split operation in one line

Merge all excel files in directory into a book where each file become a sheet

The following code will merge every excel files into one file, say “output.xls”:

from pyexcel.cookbook import merge_all_to_a_book
import glob


merge_all_to_a_book(glob.glob("your_csv_directory\*.csv"), "output.xls")

You can mix and match with other excel formats: xls, xlsm and ods. For example, if you are sure you have only xls, xlsm, xlsx, ods and csv files in your_excel_file_directory, you can do the following:

from pyexcel.cookbook import merge_all_to_a_book
import glob


merge_all_to_a_book(glob.glob("your_excel_file_directory\*.*"), "output.xls")

Split a book into single sheet files

Suppose you have many sheets in a work book and you would like to separate each into a single sheet excel file. You can easily do this:

>>> from pyexcel.cookbook import split_a_book
>>> split_a_book("megabook.xls", "output.xls")
>>> import glob
>>> outputfiles = glob.glob("*_output.xls")
>>> for file in sorted(outputfiles):
...     print(file)
...
Sheet 1_output.xls
Sheet 2_output.xls
Sheet 3_output.xls

for the output file, you can specify any of the supported formats

Extract just one sheet from a book

Suppose you just want to extract one sheet from many sheets that exists in a work book and you would like to separate it into a single sheet excel file. You can easily do this:

>>> from pyexcel.cookbook import extract_a_sheet_from_a_book
>>> extract_a_sheet_from_a_book("megabook.xls", "Sheet 1", "output.xls")
>>> if os.path.exists("Sheet 1_output.xls"):
...     print("Sheet 1_output.xls exists")
...
Sheet 1_output.xls exists

for the output file, you can specify any of the supported formats