.. _alternatives:

Alternative modules for handling Excel files
============================================

The following are some Python alternatives to XlsxWriter.


XLWT
----

From the `xlwt <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlwt>`_ page on PyPI:

   Library to create spreadsheet files compatible with MS Excel
   97/2000/XP/2003 XLS files, on any platform, with Python 2.3 to 2.7.

   xlwt is a library for generating spreadsheet files that are compatible
   with Excel 97/2000/XP/2003, OpenOffice.org Calc, and Gnumeric. xlwt has
   full support for Unicode. Excel spreadsheets can be generated on any
   platform without needing Excel or a COM server. The only requirement is
   Python 2.3 to 2.7.



XLRD
----

From the `xlrd <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlrd>`_ page on PyPI:

   Library for developers to extract data from Microsoft Excel (tm)
   spreadsheet files Extract data from Excel spreadsheets (.xls and .xlsx,
   versions 2.0 onwards) on any platform. Pure Python (2.6, 2.7, 3.2+). Strong
   support for Excel dates. Unicode-aware.


OpenPyXL
--------
From the `openpyxl <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/openpyxl>`_ page on PyPI:

   A Python library to read/write Excel 2007 xlsx/xlsm files. Openpyxl is a
   pure python reader and writer of Excel OpenXML files. It is ported from the
   PHPExcel project.


Xlwings
-------

From the `xlwings <http://xlwings.org>`_ webpage:

   Replace your VBA code with Python, a powerful yet easy-to-use programming
   language that is highly suited for numerical analysis. Supports Windows &
   Mac.
