xls to csv converter

Question

I am using win32.client in python for converting my .xlsx and .xls file into a .csv. When I execute this code it's giving an error. My code is:

def convertXLS2CSV(aFile):
    '''converts a MS Excel file to csv w/ the same name in the same directory'''

    print "------ beginning to convert XLS to CSV ------"

    try:
        import win32com.client, os
        from win32com.client import constants as c
        excel = win32com.client.Dispatch('Excel.Application')

        fileDir, fileName = os.path.split(aFile)
        nameOnly = os.path.splitext(fileName)
        newName = nameOnly[0] + ".csv"
        outCSV = os.path.join(fileDir, newName)
        workbook = excel.Workbooks.Open(aFile)
        workbook.SaveAs(outCSV, c.xlCSVMSDOS) # 24 represents xlCSVMSDOS
        workbook.Close(False)
        excel.Quit()
        del excel

        print "...Converted " + nameOnly + " to CSV"
    except:
        print ">>>>>>> FAILED to convert " + aFile + " to CSV!"

convertXLS2CSV("G:\\hello.xlsx")

I am not able to find the error in this code. Please help.

Answer 1

I would use xlrd - it's faster, cross platform and works directly with the file. One thing to note - it doesn't work on xlsx files - so you'd have to save your Excel file as xls. Edit: As of version 0.8.0, xlrd reads both XLS and XLSX files.

import xlrd
import csv

def csv_from_excel():
    wb = xlrd.open_workbook('your_workbook.xls')
    sh = wb.sheet_by_name('Sheet1')
    your_csv_file = open('your_csv_file.csv', 'wb')
    wr = csv.writer(your_csv_file, quoting=csv.QUOTE_ALL)

    for rownum in xrange(sh.nrows):
        wr.writerow(sh.row_values(rownum))

    your_csv_file.close()