# The xlrd Module

A Python module for extracting data from MS Excel ™ spreadsheet files.

## General information

### Acknowledgements

Development of this module would not have been possible without the document "OpenOffice.org's Documentation of the Microsoft Excel File Format" ("OOo docs" for short). The latest version is available from OpenOffice.org in PDF format and XML format. Small portions of the OOo docs are reproduced in this document. A study of the OOo docs is recommended for those who wish a deeper understanding of the Excel file layout than the xlrd docs can provide.

Backporting to Python 2.1 was partially funded by Journyx - provider of timesheet and project accounting solutions.

Provision of formatting information in version 0.6.1 was funded by Simplistix Ltd.

### Unicode

This module presents all text strings as Python unicode objects. From Excel 97 onwards, text in Excel spreadsheets has been stored as Unicode. Older files (Excel 95 and earlier) don't keep strings in Unicode; a CODEPAGE record provides a codepage number (for example, 1252) which is used by xlrd to derive the encoding (for same example: "cp1252") which is used to translate to Unicode.

If the CODEPAGE record is missing (possible if the file was created by third-party software), xlrd will assume that the encoding is ascii, and keep going. If the actual encoding is not ascii, a UnicodeDecodeError exception will be raised and you will need to determine the encoding yourself, and tell xlrd:

        book = xlrd.open_workbook(..., encoding_override="cp1252")

If the CODEPAGE record exists but is wrong (for example, the codepage number is 1251, but the strings are actually encoded in koi8_r), it can be overridden using the same mechanism. The supplied runxlrd.py has a corresponding command-line argument, which may be used for experimentation:

        runxlrd.py -e koi8_r 3rows myfile.xls

The first place to look for an encoding ("codec name") is the Python documentation.

### Dates in Excel spreadsheets

In reality, there are no such things. What you have are floating point numbers and pious hope. There are several problems with Excel dates:

(1) Dates are not stored as a separate data type; they are stored as floating point numbers and you have to rely on (a) the "number format" applied to them in Excel and/or (b) knowing which cells are supposed to have dates in them. This module helps with (a) by inspecting the format that has been applied to each number cell; if it appears to be a date format, the cell is classified as a date rather than a number. Feedback on this feature, especially from non-English-speaking locales, would be appreciated.

(2) Excel for Windows stores dates by default as the number of days (or fraction thereof) since 1899-12-31T00:00:00. Excel for Macintosh uses a default start date of 1904-01-01T00:00:00. The date system can be changed in Excel on a per-workbook basis (for example: Tools -> Options -> Calculation, tick the "1904 date system" box). This is of course a bad idea if there are already dates in the workbook. There is no good reason to change it even if there are no dates in the workbook. Which date system is in use is recorded in the workbook. A workbook transported from Windows to Macintosh (or vice versa) will work correctly with the host Excel. When using this module's xldate_as_tuple function to convert numbers from a workbook, you must use the datemode attribute of the Book object. If you guess, or make a judgement depending on where you believe the workbook was created, you run the risk of being 1462 days out of kilter.

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q180162

(3) The Excel implementation of the Windows-default 1900-based date system works on the incorrect premise that 1900 was a leap year. It interprets the number 60 as meaning 1900-02-29, which is not a valid date. Consequently any number less than 61 is ambiguous. Example: is 59 the result of 1900-02-28 entered directly, or is it 1900-03-01 minus 2 days? The OpenOffice.org Calc program "corrects" the Microsoft problem; entering 1900-02-27 causes the number 59 to be stored. Save as an XLS file, then open the file with Excel -- you'll see 1900-02-28 displayed.

Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;214326

(4) The Macintosh-default 1904-based date system counts 1904-01-02 as day 1 and 1904-01-01 as day zero. Thus any number such that (0.0 <= number < 1.0) is ambiguous. Is 0.625 a time of day (15:00:00), independent of the calendar, or should it be interpreted as an instant on a particular day (1904-01-01T15:00:00)? The xldate_* functions in this module take the view that such a number is a calendar-independent time of day (like Python's datetime.time type) for both date systems. This is consistent with more recent Microsoft documentation (for example, the help file for Excel 2002 which says that the first day in the 1904 date system is 1904-01-02).

(5) Usage of the Excel DATE() function may leave strange dates in a spreadsheet. Quoting the help file, in respect of the 1900 date system: "If year is between 0 (zero) and 1899 (inclusive), Excel adds that value to 1900 to calculate the year. For example, DATE(108,1,2) returns January 2, 2008 (1900+108)." This gimmick, semi-defensible only for arguments up to 99 and only in the pre-Y2K-awareness era, means that DATE(1899, 12, 31) is interpreted as 3799-12-31.

For further information, please refer to the documentation for the xldate_* functions.

### Named references, constants, formulas, and macros

A name is used to refer to a cell, a group of cells, a constant value, a formula, or a macro. Usually the scope of a name is global across the whole workbook. However it can be local to a worksheet. For example, if the sales figures are in different cells in different sheets, the user may define the name "Sales" in each sheet. There are built-in names, like "Print_Area" and "Print_Titles"; these two are naturally local to a sheet.

To inspect the names with a user interface like MS Excel, OOo Calc, or Gnumeric, click on Insert/Names/Define. This will show the global names, plus those local to the currently selected sheet.

A Book object provides two dictionaries (name_map and name_and_scope_map) and a list (name_obj_list) which allow various ways of accessing the Name objects. There is one Name object for each NAME record found in the workbook. Name objects have many attributes, several of which are relevant only when obj.macro is 1.

In the examples directory you will find namesdemo.xls which showcases the many different ways that names can be used, and xlrdnamesAPIdemo.py which offers 3 different queries for inspecting the names in your files, and shows how to extract whatever a name is referring to. There is currently one "convenience method", Name.cell(), which extracts the value in the case where the name refers to a single cell. More convenience methods are planned. The source code for Name.cell (in __init__.py) is an extra source of information on how the Name attributes hang together.

Name information is not extracted from files older than Excel 5.0 (Book.biff_version < 50)

### Formatting

#### Introduction

This collection of features, new in xlrd version 0.6.1, is intended to provide the information needed to (1) display/render spreadsheet contents (say) on a screen or in a PDF file, and (2) copy spreadsheet data to another file without losing the ability to display/render it.

#### The Palette; Colour Indexes

A colour is represented in Excel as a (red, green, blue) ("RGB") tuple with each component in range(256). However it is not possible to access an unlimited number of colours; each spreadsheet is limited to a palette of 64 different colours (24 in Excel 3.0 and 4.0, 8 in Excel 2.0). Colours are referenced by an index ("colour index") into this palette. Colour indexes 0 to 7 represent 8 fixed built-in colours: black, white, red, green, blue, yellow, magenta, and cyan.

The remaining colours in the palette (8 to 63 in Excel 5.0 and later) can be changed by the user. In the Excel 2003 UI, Tools/Options/Color presents a palette of 7 rows of 8 colours. The last two rows are reserved for use in charts.
The correspondence between this grid and the assigned colour indexes is NOT left-to-right top-to-bottom.
Indexes 8 to 15 correspond to changeable parallels of the 8 fixed colours -- for example, index 7 is forever cyan; index 15 starts off being cyan but can be changed by the user.
The default colour for each index depends on the file version; tables of the defaults are available in the source code. If the user changes one or more colours, a PALETTE record appears in the XLS file -- it gives the RGB values for *all* changeable indexes.
Note that colours can be used in "number formats": "[CYAN]...." and "[COLOR8]...." refer to colour index 7; "[COLOR16]...." will produce cyan unless the user changes colour index 15 to something else.

In addition, there are several "magic" colour indexes used by Excel:
0x18 (BIFF3-BIFF4), 0x40 (BIFF5-BIFF8): System window text colour for border lines (used in XF, CF, and WINDOW2 records)
0x19 (BIFF3-BIFF4), 0x41 (BIFF5-BIFF8): System window background colour for pattern background (used in XF and CF records )
0x43: System face colour (dialogue background colour)
0x4D: System window text colour for chart border lines
0x4E: System window background colour for chart areas
0x4F: Automatic colour for chart border lines (seems to be always Black)
0x50: System ToolTip background colour (used in note objects)
0x51: System ToolTip text colour (used in note objects)
0x7FFF: System window text colour for fonts (used in FONT and CF records)
Note 0x7FFF appears to be the *default* colour index. It appears quite often in FONT records.

#### Default Formatting

Default formatting is applied to all empty cells (those not described by a cell record). Firstly row default information (ROW record, Rowinfo class) is used if available. Failing that, column default information (COLINFO record, Colinfo class) is used if available. As a last resort the worksheet/workbook default cell format will be used; this should always be present in an Excel file, described by the XF record with the fixed index 15 (0-based). By default, it uses the worksheet/workbook default cell style, described by the very first XF record (index 0).

#### Formatting features not included in xlrd version 0.6.1

- Rich text i.e. strings containing partial bold italic and underlined text, change of font inside a string, etc. See OOo docs s3.4 and s3.2
- Asian phonetic text (known as "ruby"), used for Japanese furigana. See OOo docs s3.4.2 (p15)
- Conditional formatting. See OOo docs s5.12, s6.21 (CONDFMT record), s6.16 (CF record)
- Miscellaneous sheet-level and book-level items e.g. printing layout, screen panes.
- Modern Excel file versions don't keep most of the built-in "number formats" in the file; Excel loads formats according to the user's locale. Currently xlrd's emulation of this is limited to a hard-wired table that applies to the US English locale. This may mean that currency symbols, date order, thousands separator, decimals separator, etc are inappropriate. Note that this does not affect users who are copying XLS files, only those who are visually rendering cells.

## Module Contents

BaseObject (class) [#]

  Parent of almost all other classes in the package.

  For more information about this class, see The BaseObject Class.

Book(filename=None, file_contents=None, logfile=sys.stdout, verbosity=0, pickleable=True, use_mmap=USE_MMAP, encoding_override=None, formatting_info=False, ) (class) [#]

  Contents of a "workbook".

  For more information about this class, see The Book Class.

Cell(ctype, value, xf_index=None) (class) [#]

  Contains the data for one cell.

  For more information about this class, see The Cell Class.

cellname(rowx, colx) [#]

  Utility function: (5, 7) => 'H6'

cellnameabs(rowx, colx) [#]

  Utility function: (5, 7) => '$H$6'

Colinfo (class) [#]

  Width and default formatting information that applies to one or more columns in a sheet.

  For more information about this class, see The Colinfo Class.

colname(colx) [#]

  Utility function: 7 => 'H', 27 => 'AB'

count_records(filename, outfile=sys.stdout) [#]

  For debugging and analysis: summarise the file's BIFF records. I.e. produce a sorted file of (record_name, count).

  filename
    The path to the file to be summarised.
  outfile
    An open file, to which the summary is written.
dump(filename, outfile=sys.stdout) [#]

  For debugging: dump the file's BIFF records in char & hex.

  filename
    The path to the file to be dumped.
  outfile
    An open file, to which the dump is written.
empty_cell (variable) [#]

  There is one and only one instance of an empty cell -- it's a singleton. This is it. You may use a test like "acell is empty_cell".

EqNeAttrs (class) [#]

  This mixin class exists solely so that Format, Font, and XF....

  For more information about this class, see The EqNeAttrs Class.

error_text_from_code (variable) [#]

  This dictionary can be used to produce a text version of the internal codes that Excel uses for error cells. Here are its contents:

      0x00: '#NULL!',  # Intersection of two cell ranges is empty
      0x07: '#DIV/0!', # Division by zero
      0x0F: '#VALUE!', # Wrong type of operand
      0x17: '#REF!',   # Illegal or deleted cell reference
      0x1D: '#NAME?',  # Wrong function or range name
      0x24: '#NUM!',   # Value range overflow
      0x2A: '#N/A!',   # Argument or function not available

Font (class) [#]

  An Excel "font" contains the details of not only what is normally considered a font, but also several other display attributes.

  For more information about this class, see The Font Class.

Format(format_key, ty, format_str) (class) [#]

  "Number format" information from a FORMAT record.

  For more information about this class, see The Format Class.

Name (class) [#]

  Information relating to a named reference, formula, macro, etc.

  For more information about this class, see The Name Class.

open_workbook(filename=None, logfile=sys.stdout, verbosity=0, pickleable=True, use_mmap=USE_MMAP, file_contents=None, encoding_override=None, formatting_info=False, ) [#]

  Open a spreadsheet file for data extraction.

  filename
    The path to the spreadsheet file to be opened.
  logfile
    An open file to which messages and diagnostics are written.
  verbosity
    Increases the volume of trace material written to the logfile.
  pickleable
    Default is true. In Python 2.4 or earlier, setting to false will cause use of array.array objects which save some memory but can't be pickled. In Python 2.5, array.arrays are used unconditionally. Note: if you have large files that you need to read multiple times, it can be much faster to cPickle.dump() the xlrd.Book object once, and use cPickle.load() multiple times.
  use_mmap
    Whether to use the mmap module is determined heuristically. Use this arg to override the result. Current heuristic: mmap is used if it exists.
  file_contents
    ... as a string or an mmap.mmap object or some other behave-alike object. If file_contents is supplied, filename will not be used, except (possibly) in messages.
  encoding_override
    Used to overcome missing or bad codepage information in older-version files. Refer to discussion in the Unicode section above.
    -- New in version 0.6.0
  formatting_info
    Governs provision of a reference to an XF (eXtended Format) object for each cell in the worksheet.
    Default is False. This is backwards compatible and saves memory. "Blank" cells (those with their own formatting information but no data) are treated as empty (by ignoring the file's BLANK and MULBLANK records). It cuts off any bottom "margin" of rows of empty (and blank) cells and any right "margin" of columns of empty (and blank) cells. Only cell_value and cell_type are available.
    True provides all cells, including empty and blank cells. XF information is available for each cell.
    -- New in version 0.6.1
  Returns:
    An instance of the Book class.
Operand(akind=None, avalue=None, arank=0, atext='?') (class) [#]

  Used in evaluating formulas.

  For more information about this class, see The Operand Class.

rangename3d(book, ref3d) [#]

  Utility function:
  Ref3D((1, 4, 5, 20, 7, 10)) => 'Sheet2:Sheet3!$H$6:$J$20'

rangename3drel(book, ref3d) [#]

  Utility function:
  Ref3D(coords=(0, 1, -32, -22, -13, 13), relflags=(0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1)) => 'Sheet1![@-13,#-32]:[@+12,#-23]' where '@' refers to the current or base column and '#' refers to the current or base row.

Ref3D(atuple) (class) [#]

  Represents an absolute or relative 3-dimensional reference to a box of one or more cells.

  For more information about this class, see The Ref3D Class.

Rowinfo (class) [#]

  Height and default formatting information that applies to a row in a sheet.

  For more information about this class, see The Rowinfo Class.

Sheet(book, position, name, number) (class) [#]

  Contains the data for one worksheet.

  For more information about this class, see The Sheet Class.

XF (class) [#]

  eXtended Formatting information for cells, rows, columns and styles.

  For more information about this class, see The XF Class.

XFAlignment (class) [#]

  A collection of the alignment and similar attributes of an XF record.

  For more information about this class, see The XFAlignment Class.

XFBackground (class) [#]

  A collection of the background-related attributes of an XF record.

  For more information about this class, see The XFBackground Class.

XFBorder (class) [#]

  A collection of the border-related attributes of an XF record.

  For more information about this class, see The XFBorder Class.

XFProtection (class) [#]

  A collection of the protection-related attributes of an XF record.

  For more information about this class, see The XFProtection Class.

xldate_as_tuple(xldate, datemode) [#]

  Convert an Excel number (presumed to represent a date, a datetime or a time) into a tuple suitable for feeding to datetime or mx.DateTime constructors.

  xldate
    The Excel number
  datemode
    0: 1900-based, 1: 1904-based.
    WARNING: when using this function to interpret the contents of a workbook, you should pass in the Book.datemode attribute of that workbook. Whether the workbook has ever been anywhere near a Macintosh is irrelevant.
  Returns:
    Gregorian (year, month, day, hour, minute, nearest_second).
    Special case: if 0.0 <= xldate < 1.0, it is assumed to represent a time; (0, 0, 0, hour, minute, second) will be returned.
    Note: 1904-01-01 is not regarded as a valid date in the datemode 1 system; its "serial number" is zero.
  Raises XLDateNegative:
    xldate < 0.00
  Raises XLDateAmbiguous:
    The 1900 leap-year problem (datemode == 0 and 1.0 <= xldate < 61.0)
  Raises XLDateTooLarge:
    Gregorian year 10000 or later
  Raises XLDateBadDatemode:
    datemode arg is neither 0 nor 1
  Raises XLDateError:
    Covers the 4 specific errors
xldate_from_date_tuple((year, month, day), datemode) [#]

  Convert a date tuple (year, month, day) to an Excel date.

  year
    Gregorian year.
  month
    1 <= month <= 12
  day
    1 <= day <= last day of that (year, month)
  datemode
    0: 1900-based, 1: 1904-based.
  Raises XLDateAmbiguous:
    The 1900 leap-year problem (datemode == 0 and 1.0 <= xldate < 61.0)
  Raises XLDateBadDatemode:
    datemode arg is neither 0 nor 1
  Raises XLDateBadTuple:
    (year, month, day) is too early/late or has invalid component(s)
  Raises XLDateError:
    Covers the specific errors
xldate_from_datetime_tuple(datetime_tuple, datemode) [#]

  Convert a datetime tuple (year, month, day, hour, minute, second) to an Excel date value. For more details, refer to other xldate_from_*_tuple functions.

  datetime_tuple
    (year, month, day, hour, minute, second)
  datemode
    0: 1900-based, 1: 1904-based.
xldate_from_time_tuple((hour, minute, second)) [#]

  Convert a time tuple (hour, minute, second) to an Excel "date" value (fraction of a day).

  hour
    0 <= hour < 24
  minute
    0 <= minute < 60
  second
    0 <= second < 60
  Raises XLDateBadTuple:
    Out-of-range hour, minute, or second

## The BaseObject Class

BaseObject (class) [#]

  Parent of almost all other classes in the package. Defines a common "dump" method for debugging.

dump(f=None, header=None, footer=None, indent=0) [#]
  f
    open file object, to which the dump is written
  header
    text to write before the dump
  footer
    text to write after the dump
  indent
    number of leading spaces (for recursive calls)

## The Book Class

Book(filename=None, file_contents=None, logfile=sys.stdout, verbosity=0, pickleable=True, use_mmap=USE_MMAP, encoding_override=None, formatting_info=False, ) (class) [#]

  Contents of a "workbook".

  WARNING: You don't call this class yourself. You use the Book object that was returned when you called xlrd.open_workbook("myfile.xls").

biff_version [#]

  Version of BIFF (Binary Interchange File Format) used to create the file. Latest is 8.0 (represented here as 80), introduced with Excel 97. Earliest supported by this module: 3.0 (represented as 30).

codepage [#]

  An integer denoting the character set used for strings in this file. For BIFF 8 and later, this will be 1200, meaning Unicode; more precisely, UTF_16_LE. For earlier versions, this is used to derive the appropriate Python encoding to be used to convert to Unicode. Examples: 1252 -> 'cp1252', 10000 -> 'mac_roman'

colour_map [#]

  This provides definitions for colour indexes. Please refer to the above section "The Palette; Colour Indexes" for an explanation of how colours are represented in Excel.
  Colour indexes into the palette map into (red, green, blue) tuples. "Magic" indexes e.g. 0x7FFF map to None. colour_map is what you need if you want to render cells on screen or in a PDF file. If you are writing an output XLS file, use palette_record.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

countries [#]

  A tuple containing the (telephone system) country code for:
  [0]: the user-interface setting when the file was created.
  [1]: the regional settings.
  Example: (1, 61) meaning (USA, Australia). This information may give a clue to the correct encoding for an unknown codepage. For a long list of observed values, refer to the OpenOffice.org documentation for the COUNTRY record.

datemode [#]

  Which date system was in force when this file was last saved.
  0 => 1900 system (the Excel for Windows default).
  1 => 1904 system (the Excel for Macintosh default).

encoding [#]

  The encoding that was derived from the codepage.

font_list [#]

  A list of Font class instances, each corresponding to a FONT record.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

format_list [#]

  A list of Format objects, each corresponding to a FORMAT record, in the order that they appear in the input file. It does not contain builtin formats. If you are creating an output file using (for example) pyExcelerator, use this list. The collection to be used for all visual rendering purposes is format_map.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

format_map [#]

  The mapping from XF.format_key to Format object.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

load_time_stage_1 [#]

  Time in seconds to extract the XLS image as a contiguous string (or mmap equivalent).

load_time_stage_2 [#]

  Time in seconds to parse the data from the contiguous string (or mmap equivalent).

name_and_scope_map [#]

  A mapping from (lower_case_name, scope) to a single Name object.
  -- New in version 0.6.0

name_map [#]

  A mapping from lower_case_name to a list of Name objects. The list is sorted in scope order. Typically there will be one item (of global scope) in the list.
  -- New in version 0.6.0

name_obj_list [#]

  List containing a Name object for each NAME record in the workbook.
  -- New in version 0.6.0

nsheets [#]

  The number of worksheets in the workbook.

palette_record [#]

  If the user has changed any of the colours in the standard palette, the XLS file will contain a PALETTE record with 56 (16 for Excel 4.0 and earlier) RGB values in it, and this list will be e.g. [(r0, b0, g0), ..., (r55, b55, g55)]. Otherwise this list will be empty. This is what you need if you are writing an output XLS file. If you want to render cells on screen or in a PDF file, use colour_map.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

sheet_by_index(sheetx) [#]
  sheetx
    Sheet index in range(nsheets)
  Returns:
    An object of the Sheet class
sheet_by_name(sheet_name) [#]
  sheet_name
    Name of sheet required
  Returns:
    An object of the Sheet class
sheet_names() [#]
  Returns:
    A list of the names of the sheets in the book.
sheets() [#]
  Returns:
    A list of all sheets in the book.
style_name_map [#]

  This provides access via name to the extended format information for both built-in styles and user-defined styles.
  It maps name to (built_in, xf_index), where:
  name is either the name of a user-defined style, or the name of one of the built-in styles. Known built-in names are Normal, RowLevel_1 to RowLevel_7, ColLevel_1 to ColLevel_7, Comma, Currency, Percent, "Comma [0]", "Currency [0]", Hyperlink, and "Followed Hyperlink".
  built_in 1 = built-in style, 0 = user-defined
  xf_index is an index into Book.xf_list.
  References: OOo docs s6.99 (STYLE record); Excel UI Format/Style
  -- New in version 0.6.1

user_name [#]

  What (if anything) is recorded as the name of the last user to save the file.

xf_list [#]

  A list of XF class instances, each corresponding to an XF record.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

## The Cell Class

Cell(ctype, value, xf_index=None) (class) [#]

  Contains the data for one cell.

  WARNING: You don't call this class yourself. You access Cell objects via methods of the Sheet object(s) that you found in the Book object that was returned when you called xlrd.open_workbook("myfile.xls").

  Cell objects have three attributes: ctype is an int, value (which depends on ctype) and xf_index. If "formatting_info" is not enabled when the workbook is opened, xf_index will be None. The following table describes the types of cells and how their values are represented in Python.

  Type symbol | Type number | Python value
  --- | --- | ---
  XL_CELL_EMPTY | 0 | empty string u''
  XL_CELL_TEXT | 1 | a Unicode string
  XL_CELL_NUMBER | 2 | float
  XL_CELL_DATE | 3 | float
  XL_CELL_BOOLEAN | 4 | int; 1 means TRUE, 0 means FALSE
  XL_CELL_ERROR | 5 | int representing internal Excel codes; for a text representation, refer to the supplied dictionary error_text_from_code
  XL_CELL_BLANK | 6 | empty string u''. Note: this type will appear only when open_workbook(..., formatting_info=True) is used.

## The Colinfo Class

Colinfo (class) [#]

  Width and default formatting information that applies to one or more columns in a sheet. Derived from COLINFO records.

  Here is the default hierarchy for width, according to the OOo docs:
  """In BIFF3, if a COLINFO record is missing for a column, the width specified in the record DEFCOLWIDTH is used instead.
  In BIFF4-BIFF7, the width set in this [COLINFO] record is only used, if the corresponding bit for this column is cleared in the GCW record, otherwise the column width set in the DEFCOLWIDTH record is used (the STANDARDWIDTH record is always ignored in this case [see footnote!]).
  In BIFF8, if a COLINFO record is missing for a column, the width specified in the record STANDARDWIDTH is used. If this [STANDARDWIDTH] record is also missing, the column width of the record DEFCOLWIDTH is used instead."""
  Footnote: The docs on the GCW record say this: """
  If a bit is set, the corresponding column uses the width set in the STANDARDWIDTH record. If a bit is cleared, the corresponding column uses the width set in the COLINFO record for this column.
  If a bit is set, and the worksheet does not contain the STANDARDWIDTH record, or if the bit is cleared, and the worksheet does not contain the COLINFO record, the DEFCOLWIDTH record of the worksheet will be used instead.
  """
  At the moment (2007-01-17) xlrd is going with the GCW version of the story. Reference to the source may be useful: see the computed_column_width(colx) method of the Sheet class.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

bit1_flag [#]

  Value of a 1-bit flag whose purpose is unknown but is often seen set to 1

collapsed [#]

  1 = column is collapsed

hidden [#]

  1 = column is hidden

outline_level [#]

  Outline level of the column, in range(7). (0 = no outline)

width [#]

  Width of the column in 1/256 of the width of the zero character, using default font (first FONT record in the file).

xf_index [#]

  XF index to be used for formatting empty cells.

## The EqNeAttrs Class

EqNeAttrs (class) [#]

  This mixin class exists solely so that Format, Font, and XF.... objects can be compared by value of their attributes.

## The Font Class

Font (class) [#]

  An Excel "font" contains the details of not only what is normally considered a font, but also several other display attributes. Items correspond to those in the Excel UI's Format/Cells/Font tab.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

bold [#]

  1 = Characters are bold. Redundant; see "weight" attribute.

character_set [#]

  Values: 0 = ANSI Latin, 1 = System default, 2 = Symbol, 77 = Apple Roman, 128 = ANSI Japanese Shift-JIS, 129 = ANSI Korean (Hangul), 130 = ANSI Korean (Johab), 134 = ANSI Chinese Simplified GBK, 136 = ANSI Chinese Traditional BIG5, 161 = ANSI Greek, 162 = ANSI Turkish, 163 = ANSI Vietnamese, 177 = ANSI Hebrew, 178 = ANSI Arabic, 186 = ANSI Baltic, 204 = ANSI Cyrillic, 222 = ANSI Thai, 238 = ANSI Latin II (Central European), 255 = OEM Latin I

colour_index [#]

  An explanation of "colour index" is given in the Formatting section at the start of this document.

escapement [#]

  1 = Superscript, 2 = Subscript.

family [#]

  0 = None (unknown or don't care)
  1 = Roman (variable width, serifed)
  2 = Swiss (variable width, sans-serifed)
  3 = Modern (fixed width, serifed or sans-serifed)
  4 = Script (cursive)
  5 = Decorative (specialised, for example Old English, Fraktur)

font_index [#]

  The 0-based index used to refer to this Font() instance. Note that index 4 is never used; xlrd supplies a dummy place-holder.

height [#]

  Height of the font (in twips). A twip = 1/20 of a point.

italic [#]

  1 = Characters are italic.

name [#]

  The name of the font. Example: u"Arial"

outline [#]

  1 = Font is outline style (Macintosh only)

shadow [#]

  1 = Font is shadow style (Macintosh only)

struck_out [#]

  1 = Characters are struck out.

underline_type [#]

  0 = None
  1 = Single; 0x21 (33) = Single accounting
  2 = Double; 0x22 (34) = Double accounting

underlined [#]

  1 = Characters are underlined. Redundant; see "underline_type" attribute.

weight [#]

  Font weight (100-1000). Standard values are 400 for normal text and 700 for bold text.

## The Format Class

Format(format_key, ty, format_str) (class) [#]

  "Number format" information from a FORMAT record.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

format_key [#]

  The key into Book.format_map

format_str [#]

  The format string

type [#]

  A classification that has been inferred from the format string. Currently, this is used only to distinguish between numbers and dates.
  Values:
  FUN = 0 # unknown
  FDT = 1 # date
  FNU = 2 # number
  FGE = 3 # general
  FTX = 4 # text

## The Name Class

Name (class) [#]

  Information relating to a named reference, formula, macro, etc.
  -- New in version 0.6.0
  -- Name information is not extracted from files older than Excel 5.0 (Book.biff_version < 50)

binary [#]

  0 = Formula definition; 1 = Binary data
  No examples have been sighted.

builtin [#]

  0 = User-defined name; 1 = Built-in name (common examples: Print_Area, Print_Titles; see OOo docs for full list)

cell() [#]

  This is a convenience method for the frequent use case where the name refers to a single cell.

  Returns:
    An instance of the Cell class.
  Raises XLRDError:
    The name is not a constant absolute reference to a single cell.
complex [#]

  0 = Simple formula; 1 = Complex formula (array formula or user defined)
  No examples have been sighted.

func [#]

  0 = Command macro; 1 = Function macro. Relevant only if macro == 1

funcgroup [#]

  Function group. Relevant only if macro == 1; see OOo docs for values.

hidden [#]

  0 = Visible; 1 = Hidden

macro [#]

  0 = Standard name; 1 = Macro name

name [#]

  A Unicode string. If builtin, decoded as per OOo docs.

name_index [#]

  The index of this object in book.name_obj_list

raw_formula [#]

  An 8-bit string.

result [#]

  The result of evaluating the formula, if any. If no formula, or evaluation of the formula encountered problems, the result is None. Otherwise the result is a single instance of the Operand class.

scope [#]

  -1: The name is global (visible in all calculation sheets).
  -2: The name belongs to a macro sheet or VBA sheet.
  -3: The name is invalid.
  0 <= scope < book.nsheets: The name is local to the sheet whose index is scope.

vbasic [#]

  0 = Sheet macro; 1 = VisualBasic macro. Relevant only if macro == 1

## The Operand Class

Operand(akind=None, avalue=None, arank=0, atext='?') (class) [#]

  Used in evaluating formulas. The following table describes the kinds and how their values are represented.

  Kind symbol | Kind number | Value representation
  --- | --- | ---
  oBOOL | 3 | integer: 0 => False; 1 => True
  oERR | 4 | None, or an int error code (same as XL_CELL_ERROR in the Cell class).
  oMSNG | 5 | Used by Excel as a placeholder for a missing (not supplied) function argument. Should *not* appear as a final formula result. Value is None.
  oNUM | 2 | A float. Note that there is no way of distinguishing dates.
  oREF | -1 | The value is either None or a non-empty list of absolute Ref3D instances.
  oREL | -2 | The value is None or a non-empty list of fully or partially relative Ref3D instances.
  oSTRG | 1 | A Unicode string.
  oUNK | 0 | The kind is unknown or ambiguous. The value is None

kind [#]

  oUNK means that the kind of operand is not known unambiguously.

text [#]

  The reconstituted text of the original formula. Function names will be in English irrespective of the original language, which doesn't seem to be recorded anywhere. The separator is ",", not ";" or whatever else might be more appropriate for the end-user's locale; patches welcome.

value [#]

  None means that the actual value of the operand is a variable (depends on cell data), not a constant.

## The Ref3D Class

Ref3D(atuple) (class) [#]

  Represents an absolute or relative 3-dimensional reference to a box of one or more cells.
  -- New in version 0.6.0

  The coords attribute is a tuple of the form:
  (shtxlo, shtxhi, rowxlo, rowxhi, colxlo, colxhi)
  where 0 <= thingxlo <= thingx < thingxhi.
  Note that it is quite possible to have thingx > nthings; for example Print_Titles could have colxhi == 256 and/or rowxhi == 65536 irrespective of how many columns/rows are actually used in the worksheet. The caller will need to decide how to handle this situation. Keyword: IndexError :-)

  The components of the coords attribute are also available as individual attributes: shtxlo, shtxhi, rowxlo, rowxhi, colxlo, and colxhi.

  The relflags attribute is a 6-tuple of flags which indicate whether the corresponding (sheet|row|col)(lo|hi) is relative (1) or absolute (0).
  Note that there is necessarily no information available as to what cell(s) the reference could possibly be relative to. The caller must decide what if any use to make of oREL operands. Note also that a partially relative reference may well be a typo. For example, define name A1Z10 as $a$1:$z10 (missing $ after z) while the cursor is on cell Sheet3!A27.
  The resulting Ref3D instance will have coords = (2, 3, 0, -16, 0, 26) and relflags = (0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0).
  So far, only one possibility of a sheet-relative component in a reference has been noticed: a 2D reference located in the "current sheet".
  This will appear as coords = (0, 1, ...) and relflags = (1, 1, ...).

## The Rowinfo Class

Rowinfo (class) [#]

  Height and default formatting information that applies to a row in a sheet. Derived from ROW records.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

additional_space_above [#]

  This flag is set, if the upper border of at least one cell in this row or if the lower border of at least one cell in the row above is formatted with a thick line style. Thin and medium line styles are not taken into account.

additional_space_below [#]

  This flag is set, if the lower border of at least one cell in this row or if the upper border of at least one cell in the row below is formatted with a medium or thick line style. Thin line styles are not taken into account.

has_default_height [#]

  0 = Row has custom height; 1 = Row has default height

has_default_xf_index [#]

  1 = the xf_index attribute is usable; 0 = ignore it

height [#]

  Height of the row, in twips. One twip == 1/20 of a point

height_mismatch [#]

  1 = Row height and default font height do not match

hidden [#]

  1 = Row is hidden (manually, or by a filter or outline group)

outline_group_starts_ends [#]

  1 = Outline group starts or ends here (depending on where the outline buttons are located, see WSBOOL record [TODO ??]), and is collapsed

outline_level [#]

  Outline level of the row

xf_index [#]

  Index to default XF record for empty cells in this row. Don't use this if has_default_xf_index == 0.

## The Sheet Class

Sheet(book, position, name, number) (class) [#]

  Contains the data for one worksheet.

  In the cell access functions, "rowx" is a row index, counting from zero, and "colx" is a column index, counting from zero. Negative values for row/column indexes and slice positions are supported in the expected fashion.

  For information about cell types and cell values, refer to the documentation of the Cell class.

  WARNING: You don't call this class yourself. You access Sheet objects via the Book object that was returned when you called xlrd.open_workbook("myfile.xls").

cell(rowx, colx) [#]

  Cell object in the given row and column.

cell_type(rowx, colx) [#]

  Type of the cell in the given row and column. Refer to the documentation of the Cell class.

cell_value(rowx, colx) [#]

  Value of the cell in the given row and column.

cell_xf_index(rowx, colx) [#]

  XF index of the cell in the given row and column. This is an index into Book.raw_xf_list and Book.computed_xf_list.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

col(colx) [#]

  Returns a sequence of the Cell objects in the given column.

col_label_ranges [#]

  List of address ranges of cells containing column labels. These are set up in Excel by Insert > Name > Labels > Columns.
  -- New in version 0.6.0
  How to deconstruct the list:

      for crange in thesheet.col_label_ranges:
          rlo, rhi, clo, chi = crange
          for rx in xrange(rlo, rhi):
              for cx in xrange(clo, chi):
                  print "Column label at (rowx=%d, colx=%d) is %r" \
                      (rx, cx, thesheet.cell_value(rx, cx))

col_slice(colx, start_rowx=0, end_rowx=None) [#]

  Returns a slice of the Cell objects in the given column.

col_types(colx, start_rowx=0, end_rowx=None) [#]

  Returns a slice of the types of the cells in the given column.

col_values(colx, start_rowx=0, end_rowx=None) [#]

  Returns a slice of the values of the cells in the given column.

colinfo_map [#]

  The map from a column index to a Colinfo object. Often there is an entry in COLINFO records for all column indexes in range(257). Note that xlrd ignores the entry for the non-existent 257th column. On the other hand, there may be no entry for unused columns.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

computed_column_width(colx) [#]

  Determine column display width.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

  colx
    Index of the queried column, range 0 to 255. Note that it is possible to find out the width that will be used to display columns with no cell information e.g. column IV (colx=255).
  Returns:
    The column width that will be used for displaying the given column by Excel, in units of 1/256th of the width of a standard character (the digit zero in the first font).
default_additional_space_above [#]

  Default value to be used for a row if there is no ROW record for that row. From the optional DEFAULTROWHEIGHT record.

default_additional_space_below [#]

  Default value to be used for a row if there is no ROW record for that row. From the optional DEFAULTROWHEIGHT record.

default_row_height [#]

  Default value to be used for a row if there is no ROW record for that row. From the optional DEFAULTROWHEIGHT record.

default_row_height_mismatch [#]

  Default value to be used for a row if there is no ROW record for that row. From the optional DEFAULTROWHEIGHT record.

default_row_hidden [#]

  Default value to be used for a row if there is no ROW record for that row. From the optional DEFAULTROWHEIGHT record.

defcolwidth [#]

  Default column width from DEFCOLWIDTH record, else None. From the OOo docs:
  """Column width in characters, using the width of the zero character from default font (first FONT record in the file). Excel adds some extra space to the default width, depending on the default font and default font size. The algorithm how to exactly calculate the resulting column width is not known.
  Example: The default width of 8 set in this record results in a column width of 8.43 using Arial font with a size of 10 points."""
  For the default hierarchy, refer to the Colinfo class above.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

gcw [#]

  A 256-element tuple corresponding to the contents of the GCW record for this sheet. If no such record, treat as all bits zero. Applies to BIFF4-7 only. See docs of Colinfo class for discussion.

merged_cells [#]

  List of address ranges of cells which have been merged. These are set up in Excel by Format > Cells > Alignment, then ticking the "Merge cells" box.
  -- New in version 0.6.1
  How to deconstruct the list:

      for crange in thesheet.merged_cells:
          rlo, rhi, clo, chi = crange
          for rowx in xrange(rlo, rhi):
              for colx in xrange(clo, chi):
                  # cell (rlo, clo) (the top left one) will carry the data
                  # and formatting info; the remainder will be recorded as
                  # blank cells, but a renderer will apply the formatting info
                  # for the top left cell (e.g. border, pattern) to all cells in
                  # the range.

name [#]

  Name of sheet.

ncols [#]

  Number of columns in sheet. A column index is in range(thesheet.ncols).

nrows [#]

  Number of rows in sheet. A row index is in range(thesheet.nrows).

row(rowx) [#]

  Returns a sequence of the Cell objects in the given row.

row_label_ranges [#]

  List of address ranges of cells containing row labels. For more details, see col_label_ranges above.
  -- New in version 0.6.0

row_slice(rowx, start_colx=0, end_colx=None) [#]

  Returns a slice of the Cell objects in the given row.

row_types(rowx, start_colx=0, end_colx=None) [#]

  Returns a slice of the types of the cells in the given row.

row_values(rowx, start_colx=0, end_colx=None) [#]

  Returns a slice of the values of the cells in the given row.

rowinfo_map [#]

  The map from a row index to a Rowinfo object. Note that it is possible to have missing entries -- at least one source of XLS files doesn't bother writing ROW records.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

standardwidth [#]

  Default column width from STANDARDWIDTH record, else None. From the OOo docs:
  """Default width of the columns in 1/256 of the width of the zero character, using default font (first FONT record in the file)."""
  For the default hierarchy, refer to the Colinfo class above.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

visibility [#]

  Visibility of the sheet. 0 = visible, 1 = hidden (can be unhidden by user -- Format/Sheet/Unhide), 2 = "very hidden" (can be unhidden only by VBA macro).

## The XF Class

XF (class) [#]

  eXtended Formatting information for cells, rows, columns and styles.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

  Each of the 6 flags below describes the validity of a specific group of attributes.
  In cell XFs, flag==0 means the attributes of the parent style XF are used, (but only if the attributes are valid there); flag==1 means the attributes of this XF are used.
  In style XFs, flag==0 means the attribute setting is valid; flag==1 means the attribute should be ignored.
  Note that the API provides both "raw" XFs and "computed" XFs -- in the latter case, cell XFs have had the above inheritance mechanism applied.

_alignment_flag [#]
_background_flag [#]
_border_flag [#]
_font_flag [#]
_format_flag [#]
_protection_flag [#]

alignment [#]

  An instance of an XFAlignment object.

background [#]

  An instance of an XFBackground object.

border [#]

  An instance of an XFBorder object.

font_index [#]

  Index into Book.font_list

format_key [#]

  Key into Book.format_map

  Warning: OOo docs on the XF record call this "Index to FORMAT record". It is not an index in the Python sense. It is a key to a map. It is true only for Excel 4.0 and earlier files that the key into format_map from an XF instance is the same as the index into format_list, and only if the index is less than 164.

is_style [#]

  0 = cell XF, 1 = style XF

parent_style_index [#]

  cell XF: Index into Book.xf_list of this XF's style XF
  style XF: 0xFFF

protection [#]

  An instance of an XFProtection object.

xf_index [#]

  Index into Book.xf_list

## The XFAlignment Class

XFAlignment (class) [#]

  A collection of the alignment and similar attributes of an XF record. Items correspond to those in the Excel UI's Format/Cells/Alignment tab.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

hor_align [#]

  Values: section 6.115 (p 214) of OOo docs

indent_level [#]

  A number in range(15).

rotation [#]

  Values: section 6.115 (p 215) of OOo docs.
  Note: file versions BIFF7 and earlier use the documented "orientation" attribute; this will be mapped (without loss) into "rotation".

shrink_to_fit [#]

  1 = shrink font size to fit text into cell.

text_direction [#]

  0 = according to context; 1 = left-to-right; 2 = right-to-left

text_wrapped [#]

  1 = text is wrapped at right margin

vert_align [#]

  Values: section 6.115 (p 215) of OOo docs

## The XFBackground Class

XFBackground (class) [#]

  A collection of the background-related attributes of an XF record. Items correspond to those in the Excel UI's Format/Cells/Patterns tab. An explanation of "colour index" is given in the Formatting section at the start of this document.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

background_colour_index [#]

  See section 3.11 of the OOo docs.

fill_pattern [#]

  See section 3.11 of the OOo docs.

pattern_colour_index [#]

  See section 3.11 of the OOo docs.

## The XFBorder Class

XFBorder (class) [#]

  A collection of the border-related attributes of an XF record. Items correspond to those in the Excel UI's Format/Cells/Border tab.

  An explanations of "colour index" is given in the Formatting section at the start of this document. There are five line style attributes; possible values and the associated meanings are: 0 = No line, 1 = Thin, 2 = Medium, 3 = Dashed, 4 = Dotted, 5 = Thick, 6 = Double, 7 = Hair, 8 = Medium dashed, 9 = Thin dash-dotted, 10 = Medium dash-dotted, 11 = Thin dash-dot-dotted, 12 = Medium dash-dot-dotted, 13 = Slanted medium dash-dotted. The line styles 8 to 13 appear in BIFF8 files (Excel 97 and later) only. For pictures of the line styles, refer to OOo docs s3.10 (p22) "Line Styles for Cell Borders (BIFF3-BIFF8)".

  -- New in version 0.6.1
bottom_colour_index [#]

  The colour index for the cell's bottom line

bottom_line_style [#]

  The line style for the cell's bottom line

diag_colour_index [#]

  The colour index for the cell's diagonal lines, if any

diag_down [#]

  1 = draw a diagonal from top left to bottom right

diag_line_style [#]

  The line style for the cell's diagonal lines, if any

diag_up [#]

  1 = draw a diagonal from bottom left to top right

left_colour_index [#]

  The colour index for the cell's left line

left_line_style [#]

  The line style for the cell's left line

right_colour_index [#]

  The colour index for the cell's right line

right_line_style [#]

  The line style for the cell's right line

top_colour_index [#]

  The colour index for the cell's top line

top_line_style [#]

  The line style for the cell's top line

## The XFProtection Class

XFProtection (class) [#]

  A collection of the protection-related attributes of an XF record. Items correspond to those in the Excel UI's Format/Cells/Protection tab. Note the OOo docs include the "cell or style" bit in this bundle of attributes. This is incorrect; the bit is used in determining which bundles to use.
  -- New in version 0.6.1

cell_locked [#]

  1 = Cell is prevented from being changed, moved, resized, or deleted (only if the sheet is protected).

formula_hidden [#]

  1 = Hide formula so that it doesn't appear in the formula bar when the cell is selected (only if the sheet is protected).