Extract VBA as TXT from XLSM with Python

Question

I want to extract the VBA code from an .xlsm file and save it as .txt files. Unfortunately, I get only .bin files when I unzip the .xlsm file which I cannot open with an editor.

That's how Excel stores the code. If you really want to read the file, have a look to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17536607/read-vba-macros-or-vbaproject-bin-of-an-excel-file-without-opening-it-in-ms-ex. Sounds like fun. Not. Any reason you don't want to do this with VBA (access the VBE project object modell, tons of examples around) — FunThomas, Jun 15 '23 at 11:36

Timeless · Accepted Answer · 2023-06-15T11:52:30.383

You can use olevba :

#pip install oletools
import oletools.olevba as olevba

vba = olevba.VBA_Parser("file.xlsm")

with open("output.txt", "w") as f:
    for *_, n, m in vba.extract_all_macros():
        if n.startswith("Module"):
            print(m, file=f)

NB : If you want to target the Excel objects as well, you can use this approach.

Output (output.txt) :

Attribute VB_Name = "Module1"
Sub Foo()

    Range("B1").Select
    ActiveCell.FormulaR1C1 = "StackOverflow"
    Range("B2").Select
    
End Sub

Input used (file.xlsm) with this code :

Extract VBA as TXT from XLSM with Python

1 Answers1