'Run Excel File From Python' Error

Question

When I try to open an excel file by calling EXCEL itself from python, I get error. How can I fix that?

Thanks in advance.

The code is:

    from win32com.client import Dispatch
    xl = Dispatch('Excel.Application')
    wb = xl.Workbooks.Open(r"data\Modules.xls")       

And the error is:

pywintypes.com_error: (-2147352567, 'Exception occurred.', (0, u'Microsoft Office Excel', u"'data\Modules.xls' could not be found. Check the spelling of the file name, and verify that the file location is correct.\n\nIf you are trying to open the file from your list of most recently used files, make sure that the file has not been renamed, moved, or deleted.", u'C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office12\1033\XLMAIN11.CHM', 0, -2146827284), None)

Answer 1

@Shanshal I don't know if you are still looking for the answer After opening the excel if you can't see the file, write the below code

xl.Visible = True

Answer 2

I have tried many cases about:

• raw path
• using os.path.abspath
• absolute path

the following is the result:

(1)Failed Cases:

#[1] Fail
# xlsPath = "chart_demo.xls";
# wb = xl.Workbooks.open(xlsPath); #pywintypes.com_error

#[2] Fail
# xlsPath = "D:\tmp\tmp_dev_root\python\excel_chart\chart_demo.xls";
# absPath = os.path.abspath(xlsPath);
# print "absPath=",absPath; #absPath= D:\tmp\tmp_dev_root\python\excel_chart\        mp      mp_dev_root\python\excel_chart\chart_demo.xls
# wb = xl.Workbooks.open(absPath); #pywintypes.com_error

#[3] Fail
# xlsPath = "D:\tmp\tmp_dev_root\python\excel_chart\chart_demo.xls";
# normalPath = os.path.normpath(xlsPath);
# print "normalPath=",normalPath; #normalPath= D:  mp      mp_dev_root\python\excel_chart\chart_demo.xls
# wb = xl.Workbooks.open(normalPath); #pywintypes.com_error

#[4] Fail
# rawPath = r"chart_demo.xls";
# wb = xl.Workbooks.open(rawPath); #pywintypes.com_error

(2)Successfull Cases:

#[5] OK
# xlsPath = "chart_demo.xls";
# absPath = os.path.abspath(xlsPath);
# print "absPath=",absPath; #absPath= D:\tmp\tmp_dev_root\python\excel_chart\chart_demo.xls
# wb = xl.Workbooks.open(absPath); #OK

#[6] OK
# rawPath = r"D:\tmp\tmp_dev_root\python\excel_chart\chart_demo.xls";
# wb = xl.Workbooks.open(rawPath); # OK

Answer 3

I believe the reason why you must specify a full path to the file is because you are interacting with Excel through a COM interface. This is not the same as calling CreateProcess. The COM interface tells excel to open a file, however, the path is passed in relation to the working directory of the excel.exe process.

Answer 4

Use os.path.abspath() to convert file system paths to absolute. The current working directory of yout Python and Excel process is not the same.

http://docs.python.org/library/os.path.html