extract_excel_sheet

#!/usr/bin/python

import xlrd
import sys,errno
import csv

import argparse

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Extract an Excel spreadsheet to a tab-separated file')
parser.add_argument('infile', nargs='?', help='Input file')
parser.add_argument('sheet', nargs='?', help='Sheet index to extract (Zero-indexed, default 0', default=0)
parser.add_argument('outfile', nargs='?', help='File to output to (use - for stdout, default stdout)', default='-')

args = parser.parse_args()

outfile = sys.stdout

if args.outfile == '-':
    pass
else:
    outfile = open(args.outfile, 'w')

try:
    wb = xlrd.open_workbook(args.infile)
    sheet = wb.sheet_by_index(int(args.sheet))
    c = csv.writer(outfile,delimiter='\t',lineterminator='\n')
    num_rows = sheet.nrows
    curr_row = 0
    while curr_row < num_rows:
        c.writerow([ cell.value.encode('utf-8') if isinstance(cell.value, basestring) else int(cell.value) if cell.value==int(cell.value) else cell.value for cell in sheet.row(curr_row)])
        curr_row += 1
except IOError as e:
    if e.errno == errno.EPIPE:
        sys.exit()