How to detect if a cell is empty when reading Excel files using the xlrd library?

Question

I handle Excel files using the functions row_values and col_values:

import xlrd
workbook = xlrd.open_workbook( filename )
sheet_names = workbook.sheet_names()
for sheet_name in sheet_names:
  sheet = workbook.sheet_by_name( sheet_name )    
  # ...
  row_values = sheet.row_values( rownum ) 
  # ...
  col_values = sheet.col_values( colnum )

For example, I get col_values as list. What if I meet an empty cell in some column? For example a cell (1,1) is not empty, a cell (1,2) is empty and a cell (1,3) is not empty? How can I detect that the cell (1,2) is empty?

Is this true that I get a list with an empty string as a value of an empty cell (for most well-known programs which generate Excel files)?

Answer 1

You could be explicit and check that sheet.cell_type(rowno, colno) in (xlrd.XL_CELL_EMPTY, xlrd.XL_CELL_BLANK) but the docs state the value will be u'' where those are the case anyway.

Instead of using row_values, you could also use row(n) which returns a list of Cell objects which have .value and .cell_type attributes.