Re: Reading OpenOffice spreadsheet in Python?
Skip Montanaro s...@pobox.com writes: ... That then puts me in the market for an xlrd replacement. Is there something akin to xlrd for OpenDocument spreadsheets? Unlike the binary excel format (at least for early versions), OpenDocument is a well documented file format (a zip file containing various XML files; processible by standard XML tools). Thus, you may get at the content via zipfile and Python's xml tools. It might be possible to create an xlrd replacement based on zipfile and the xml package -- but, of course, one would need to study the (complex) description for the involved XML files. In the Plone world, there are text extractors/html converters for OpenDocument which go this route. I do not know how well they work. -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Reading OpenOffice spreadsheet in Python?
On Tuesday, May 20, 2014 10:08:06 PM UTC+5:30, Skip Montanaro wrote: I don't have Windows and since upgrading my Mac to Mavericks I no longer have Excel of any flavor. I have a few Excel spreadsheets in which I store parameters from which I generate other config files. I read those spreadsheets using xlrd. I am so fed up with LibreOffice's inability to properly support really basic Excel capabilities, I'm about ready to throw my computer out the window. Another possibility: Use google drive/docs spreadsheet capability. Makes much less mess than libreoffice and will export to standard formats -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Reading OpenOffice spreadsheet in Python?
On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 3:53 AM, Rustom Mody rustompm...@gmail.com wrote: Another possibility: Use google drive/docs spreadsheet capability. Makes much less mess than libreoffice and will export to standard formats Correct, though it separates my spreadsheet from the Git repository, and means anyone else at work who might work on this stuff would need to be granted access. Not insurmountable problems, but not great either. I tried Gnumeric today. The first edits caused no problems. Knock on wood... Skip -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Reading OpenOffice spreadsheet in Python?
On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 2:38 AM, Skip Montanaro s...@pobox.com wrote: Before someone suggests config parser/Windows INI files... A spreadsheet format is kinda handy in this case because I do use a few formulas to define some of the parameters. Adding a new row (new config file) or column (new parameter) is a breeze. Okay, I won't suggest Windows INI files, but I'll still suggest taking a step back and figuring out exactly what you're trying to accomplish. Can you separate out the real data from the formula-derived info, put the former into a git-managed file, and the latter into something you regenerate by script (maybe off a makefile)? Organize your source file in such a way that adding a new config file or new parameter is easy. The beauty of a spreadsheet is that a cell could be *either* a formula *or* actual data, completely indistinguishably (note, some may argue that this is also a major weakness of spreadsheets); I would guess you most likely don't need that flexibility, and can easily separate source and calculated. You could make your file format CSV or tab delimited, and then use LibreOffice to edit it, if that makes the most sense. Something to consider, since I can't specifically advise on OO/LO readers/writers. :) ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Reading OpenOffice spreadsheet in Python?
On Tue, 20 May 2014 11:38:06 -0500 Skip Montanaro s...@pobox.com wrote: I am so fed up with LibreOffice's inability to properly support really basic Excel capabilities, I'm about ready to throw my computer out the Could you please give some examples, what basic Excel capabilities you are missing? I'm open to other options as well. I see a number of Google spreadsheet modules, and there is pyspread. The former has the permission issue (besides, where I work everything goes into Git), and I'm not sure how full-featured or stable the latter is (but, will investigate). Maybe gnumeric may be an option, too. Pyspread should run fine on the Mac. However, Macs are not officially supported because there are no testers for OSX, yet. Please note that pyspread does not translate Excel xls files into Python but only imports cell contents and formatting via xlrd. If you use Excel cell functions or VBA then you would have to migrate your code to Python. Martin -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Reading OpenOffice spreadsheet in Python?
On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 2:45 PM, Martin Manns mma...@gmx.net wrote: I am so fed up with LibreOffice's inability to properly support really basic Excel capabilities, I'm about ready to throw my computer out the Could you please give some examples, what basic Excel capabilities you are missing? That's the problem. It's not that it's obviously missing some features. It's that the files it writes sometimes are misinterpreted by xlrd. (Maybe the problem is xlrd, but it never has a problem with actual Excel-generated XLS files.) For example, I use a formula to generate a sequence of strings in one column: F0, G0, H0, ..., Z0, F1, G1, ... continuing for as long as I have data in an adjoining column. If I add or delete rows, this sequence grows and shrinks. It looks fine in the spreadsheet. I rarely, if ever, change the number of rows, so the values in this column rarely, if ever, change. Still, sometimes when xlrd reads the values out of that column it finds all cells in that column contain the number 0. If I mess around with the spreadsheet in ways which are apparently unrelated to this column, I can sometimes get it to read right, sort of like hitting a jukebox to stop a record from skipping. I haven't tried changing the output format to XLSX format (isn't that a compressed XML document?), but maybe I should give that a whirl. I don't know if xlrd will read such files (at first blush, it appears not). Also, Mac isn't my primary platform. This problem occurs using the Linux version of LibreOffice as well. Sometimes I edit this spreadsheet from home though. Before I upgraded to OS X Mavericks, I still had an ancient version of Excel for Mac which worked fine (despite all the disparaging remarks I've seen over the years about that product). Once I upgraded though, that was no longer an option. Thanks for the gnumeric and pyspread suggestions. I thought gnumeric was a long dead project, but see that it's available for my Mac, so I'll try that right off. I'll also play around with pyspread and see how that does. I don't mind rewriting my couple of formulas, though I will no longer be able to rely on the Excel experts at work. :-) Skip -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Reading OpenOffice spreadsheet in Python?
On Tue, May 20, 2014 at 11:49 AM, Chris Angelico ros...@gmail.com wrote: Okay, I won't suggest Windows INI files, but I'll still suggest taking a step back and figuring out exactly what you're trying to accomplish. Can you separate out the real data from the formula-derived info, put the former into a git-managed file, and the latter into something you regenerate by script (maybe off a makefile)? Actually, I'm sympathetic to INI files. I like the simplicity. The ultimate config files are output in XML though (ugh). Somewhere along the way, I want to avoid typing repetitive information into files. Today, I use a template file, read the spreadsheet with xlrd and generate the XML cruft with Cheetah. I could retain Excel (or Open Document or pyspread or some other spreadsheet) and then export to CSV files. That would solve the issue as well. Though it would be an extra step I'd have to do manually (because I can rely on xlrd), it would still leave me with the input-to-config-file data in tabular form. I'll figure something out. Something else that occurs to me as I write this is that Excel files tend to acquire all sorts of cruft, right? Or is that just Word files? Perhaps I can make things better by copying/pasting the existing spreadsheet data into a fresh spreadsheet that hasn't been updated repeatedly? Skip -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Reading OpenOffice spreadsheet in Python?
On Tuesday, May 20, 2014 10:08:06 PM UTC+5:30, Skip Montanaro wrote: I don't have Windows and since upgrading my Mac to Mavericks I no longer have Excel of any flavor. I have a few Excel spreadsheets in which I store parameters from which I generate other config files. I read those spreadsheets using xlrd. I am so fed up with LibreOffice's inability to properly support really basic Excel capabilities, I'm about ready to throw my computer out the window. So, I'm looking for alternatives. Before someone suggests config parser/Windows INI files... A spreadsheet format is kinda handy in this case because I do use a few formulas to define some of the parameters. Adding a new row (new config file) or column (new parameter) is a breeze. Are you familiar with emacs' org mode tables? http://orgmode.org/org.html#Tables -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: Reading OpenOffice spreadsheet in Python?
Are you familiar with emacs' org mode tables? http://orgmode.org/org.html#Tables No. Thanks for the pointer. S -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
