The Workbook Class

The Workbook class is the main class exposed by the XlsxWriter module and it is the only class that you will need to instantiate directly.

The Workbook class represents the entire spreadsheet as you see it in Excel and internally it represents the Excel file as it is written on disk.

Constructor

Workbook(filename[, options])

Create a new XlsxWriter Workbook object.

Parameters:
  • filename (string) – The name of the new Excel file to create.
  • options (dict) – Optional workbook parameters. See below.
Return type:

A Workbook object.

The Workbook() constructor is used to create a new Excel workbook with a given filename:

from xlsxwriter import Workbook

workbook  = Workbook('filename.xlsx')
worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet()

worksheet.write(0, 0, 'Hello Excel')
_images/workbook01.png

The constructor options are:

  • constant_memory: Reduces the amount of data stored in memory so that large files can be written efficiently:

    workbook = Workbook(filename, {'constant_memory': True})
    

    Note, in this mode a row of data is written and then discarded when a cell in a new row is added via one of the worksheet write_() methods. As such data should be written in sequential row order once this mode is on.

    See Working with Memory and Performance for more details.

  • tmpdir: XlsxWriter stores worksheet data in a temporary directory prior to assembling the final XLSX file. The temporary directory is generated by the tempfile.mkdtemp() function which in general defaults to using your system’s temporary directory. If the default temporary directory isn’t accessible to your application, or doesn’t contain enough space, you can specify an alternative location using the tempdir option:

    workbook = Workbook(filename, {'tmpdir': '/home/user/tmp'})
    

    The temporary directory must exist and will not be created.

  • date_1904: Excel for Windows uses a default epoch of 1900 and Excel for Mac uses an epoch of 1904. However, Excel on either platform will convert automatically between one system and the other. XlsxWriter stores dates in the 1900 format by default. If you wish to change this you can use the date_1904 workbook option. This option is mainly for backward compatibility with Excel::Writer::XLSX and in general isn’t required very often:

    workbook = Workbook(filename, {'date_1904': True})
    

When specifying a filename it is recommended that you use an .xlsx extension or Excel will generate a warning opening the file.

Note

A later version of the module will support writing to filehandles like Excel::Writer::XLSX.

workbook.add_worksheet()

add_worksheet([sheetname])

Add a new worksheet to a workbook.

Parameters:sheetname (string) – Optional worksheet name, defaults to Sheet1, etc.
Return type:A worksheet object.

The add_worksheet() method adds a new worksheet to a workbook.

At least one worksheet should be added to a new workbook. The Worksheet object is used to write data and configure a worksheet in the workbook.

The sheetname parameter is optional. If it is not specified the default Excel convention will be followed, i.e. Sheet1, Sheet2, etc.:

worksheet1 = workbook.add_worksheet()           # Sheet1
worksheet2 = workbook.add_worksheet('Foglio2')  # Foglio2
worksheet3 = workbook.add_worksheet('Data')     # Data
worksheet4 = workbook.add_worksheet()           # Sheet4
_images/workbook02.png

The worksheet name must be a valid Excel worksheet name, i.e. it cannot contain any of the characters ' [ ] : * ? / \ ' and it must be less than 32 characters. In addition, you cannot use the same, case insensitive, sheetname for more than one worksheet.

workbook.add_format()

add_format([properties])

Create a new Format object to formats cells in worksheets.

Parameters:properties (dictionary) – An optional dictionary of format properties.
Return type:A format object.

The add_format() method can be used to create new Format objects which are used to apply formatting to a cell. You can either define the properties at creation time via a dictionary of property values or later via method calls:

format1 = workbook.add_format(props); # Set properties at creation.
format2 = workbook.add_format();      # Set properties later.

See the The Format Class and Working with Formats sections for more details about Format properties and how to set them.

workbook.close()

close()

Close the Workbook object and write the XLSX file.

In general your Excel file will be closed automatically when your program ends or when the Workbook object goes out of scope, however the close() method can be used to explicitly close an Excel file:

workbook.close()

An explicit close() is required if the file must be closed prior to performing some external action on it such as copying it, reading its size or attaching it to an email.

In addition, close() may be occasionally required to prevent Python’s garbage collector from disposing of the Workbook, Worksheet and Format objects in the wrong order.

In general, if an XlsxWriter file is created with a size of 0 bytes or fails to be created for some unknown silent reason you should add close() to your program.

workbook.set_properties()

set_properties()

Set the document properties such as Title, Author etc.

Parameters:properties (dict) – Dictionary of document properties.

The set_properties method can be used to set the document properties of the Excel file created by XlsxWriter. These properties are visible when you use the Office Button -> Prepare -> Properties option in Excel and are also available to external applications that read or index windows files.

The properties that can be set are:

  • title
  • subject
  • author
  • manager
  • company
  • category
  • keywords
  • comments
  • status

The properties should be passed in dictionary format as follows:

workbook.set_properties({
    'title':    'This is an example spreadsheet',
    'subject':  'With document properties',
    'author':   'John McNamara',
    'manager':  'Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz',
    'company':  'of Wolves',
    'category': 'Example spreadsheets',
    'keywords': 'Sample, Example, Properties',
    'comments': 'Created with Python and XlsxWriter'})
_images/doc_properties.png

See also Example: Setting Document Properties.

workbook.define_name()

define_name()

Create a defined name in the workbook to use as a variable.

Parameters:
  • name (string) – The defined name.
  • formula (string) – The cell or range that the defined name refers to.

This method is used to defined a name that can be used to represent a value, a single cell or a range of cells in a workbook.

For example to set a global/workbook name:

# Global/workbook names.
workbook.define_name('Exchange_rate', '=0.96')
workbook.define_name('Sales',         '=Sheet1!$G$1:$H$10')

It is also possible to define a local/worksheet name by prefixing it with the sheet name using the syntax 'sheetname!definedname':

# Local/worksheet name.
workbook.define_name('Sheet2!Sales', '=Sheet2!$G$1:$G$10')

If the sheet name contains spaces or special characters you must enclose it in single quotes like in Excel:

workbook.define_name("'New Data'!Sales", '=Sheet2!$G$1:$G$10')

See also the defined_name.py program in the examples directory.

workbook.worksheets()

worksheets()

Return a list of the worksheet objects in the workbook.

Return type:A list of worksheet objects.

The worksheets() method returns a list of the worksheets in a workbook. This is useful if you want to repeat an operation on each worksheet in a workbook:

for worksheet in workbook.worksheets():
    worksheet.write('A1', 'Hello')