Decompress .xls file in python

Question

I'm searching for a method to decompress/unzip .xls files in python. By opening Excel files with 7-Zip you can see the directories I'd like to extract.

I already tried renaming the Excel to ".zip" and then extracting it

myExcelFile = zipfile.ZipFile("myExcel.zip") 
myExcelFile.extractall()

but it throws

zipfile.BadZipFile: File is not a zip file

.xls in 7-Zip

It would be better if you shared the one that you are having problems with but you can try [this one](https://www.gonduana.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Excel-2010.xlsx) I found in the Internet. — Stop harming Monica, Jan 16 '19 at 08:31
It's working for .xlsx but not for .xls Sorry, didn't mention that It's company data so I can't share it :( — Frank Schweizer, Jan 16 '19 at 08:43
@Goyo I added a picture of the Excel opened in 7-Zip. It does not recognize the directories — Frank Schweizer, Jan 16 '19 at 08:54
.xls files use the [BIFF](http://sc.openoffice.org/excelfileformat.pdf) format. .xlsx files use [Office Open XML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML), which is a zipped XML format. BIFF is not a zipped format; files using that format are not recognized by zip libraries. — shmee, Jan 16 '19 at 09:08

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 16 '19 at 09:30

.xls files use the BIFF format. .xlsx files use Office Open XML, which is a zipped XML format. BIFF is not a zipped format; files using that format are not recognized by zip libraries. – shmee

a conversion to .xlsx is the solution

import win32com.client as win32
fname = "full+path+to+xls_file"
excel = win32.gencache.EnsureDispatch('Excel.Application')
wb = excel.Workbooks.Open(fname)

wb.SaveAs(fname+"x", FileFormat = 51)    #FileFormat = 51 is for .xlsx extension
wb.Close()                               #FileFormat = 56 is for .xls extension
excel.Application.Quit()

Decompress .xls file in python

1 Answers1