How do I read a date in Excel format in Python?
You can use xlrd.
From its documentation, you can read that dates are always stored as numbers; however, you can use xldate_as_tuple
to convert it to a python date.
Note: the version on the PyPI seems more up-to-date than the one available on xlrd's website.
After testing and a few days wait for feedback, I'll svn-commit the following whole new function in xlrd's xldate module ... note that it won't be available to the diehards still running Python 2.1 or 2.2.
##
# Convert an Excel number (presumed to represent a date, a datetime or a time) into
# a Python datetime.datetime
# @param xldate The Excel number
# @param datemode 0: 1900-based, 1: 1904-based.
# <br>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.
# @return a datetime.datetime object, to the nearest_second.
# <br>Special case: if 0.0 <= xldate < 1.0, it is assumed to represent a time;
# a datetime.time object will be returned.
# <br>Note: 1904-01-01 is not regarded as a valid date in the datemode 1 system; its "serial number"
# is zero.
# @throws XLDateNegative xldate < 0.00
# @throws XLDateAmbiguous The 1900 leap-year problem (datemode == 0 and 1.0 <= xldate < 61.0)
# @throws XLDateTooLarge Gregorian year 10000 or later
# @throws XLDateBadDatemode datemode arg is neither 0 nor 1
# @throws XLDateError Covers the 4 specific errors
def xldate_as_datetime(xldate, datemode):
if datemode not in (0, 1):
raise XLDateBadDatemode(datemode)
if xldate == 0.00:
return datetime.time(0, 0, 0)
if xldate < 0.00:
raise XLDateNegative(xldate)
xldays = int(xldate)
frac = xldate - xldays
seconds = int(round(frac * 86400.0))
assert 0 <= seconds <= 86400
if seconds == 86400:
seconds = 0
xldays += 1
if xldays >= _XLDAYS_TOO_LARGE[datemode]:
raise XLDateTooLarge(xldate)
if xldays == 0:
# second = seconds % 60; minutes = seconds // 60
minutes, second = divmod(seconds, 60)
# minute = minutes % 60; hour = minutes // 60
hour, minute = divmod(minutes, 60)
return datetime.time(hour, minute, second)
if xldays < 61 and datemode == 0:
raise XLDateAmbiguous(xldate)
return (
datetime.datetime.fromordinal(xldays + 693594 + 1462 * datemode)
+ datetime.timedelta(seconds=seconds)
)
Here's the bare-knuckle no-seat-belts use-at-own-risk version:
import datetime
def minimalist_xldate_as_datetime(xldate, datemode):
# datemode: 0 for 1900-based, 1 for 1904-based
return (
datetime.datetime(1899, 12, 30)
+ datetime.timedelta(days=xldate + 1462 * datemode)
)
xlrd.xldate_as_tuple
is nice, but there's xlrd.xldate.xldate_as_datetime
that converts to datetime as well.
import xlrd
wb = xlrd.open_workbook(filename)
xlrd.xldate.xldate_as_datetime(41889, wb.datemode)
=> datetime.datetime(2014, 9, 7, 0, 0)
Please refer to this link: Reading date as a string not float from excel using python xlrd
it worked for me:
in shot this the link has:
import datetime, xlrd
book = xlrd.open_workbook("myfile.xls")
sh = book.sheet_by_index(0)
a1 = sh.cell_value(rowx=0, colx=0)
a1_as_datetime = datetime.datetime(*xlrd.xldate_as_tuple(a1, book.datemode))
print 'datetime: %s' % a1_as_datetime