xlrd vs apache poi

[Mike]

Hi guys,
I was starting on my project which involved reading excel files on
linux. I stumbled upon xlrd as well as apache poi. I am biased
towards python but on the other hand since POI is supported by apache,
i kind of think that it might be more robust, could support excel
files from different office versions, more features etc. If any of you
is aware of apache poi, could you give me any advice on that?

Secondly, can xlrd read the macro embedded in an excel file?

Thanks
M

[John Machin]

Hi Mike, xlrd doesn't read macroes (either sheet macros or VBA macros)
embedded in an Excel file. xlrd does handle files from Excel 2.0 to 11.0
(i.e. XLS files); currently support for XLSX files (12.0+) requires a
bolt-on module and doesn't extract formatting info. Apache poi supports
8.0+.

You might like to compare notes with "Injun Joe" who has recently asked a
similar question on SO
(http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6020845/apache-poi-vs-python-xlrd). He
is interested in extracting formulas (not currently supported by xlrd).

Cheers,
John
John