Password Protecting Excel file using Python

Question

I havent found much of the topic of creating a password protected Excel file using Python.

In Openpyxl, I did find a SheetProtection module using:

from openpyxl.worksheet import SheetProtection

However, the problem is I'm not sure how to use it. It's not an attribute of Workbook or Worksheet so I can't just do this:

wb = Workbook()
ws = wb.worksheets[0]
ws_encrypted = ws.SheetProtection()
ws_encrypted.password = 'test'
...

Does anyone know if such a request is even possible with Python? Thanks!

Answer 1

Looking at the docs for openpyxl, I noticed there is indeed a openpyxl.worksheet.SheetProtection class. However, it seems to be already part of a worksheet object:

>>> wb = Workbook()
>>> ws = wb.worksheets[0]
>>> ws.protection
<openpyxl.worksheet.protection.SheetProtection object at 0xM3M0RY>

Checking dir(ws.protection) shows there is a method set_password that when called with a string argument does indeed seem to set a protected flag.

>>> ws.protection.set_password('test')
>>> wb.save('random.xlsx')

I opened random.xlsx in LibreOffice and the sheet was indeed protected. However, I only needed to toggle an option to turn off protection, and not enter any password, so I might be doing it wrong still...

Answer 2

openpyxl is unlikely ever to provide workbook encryption. However, you can add this yourself because Excel files (xlsx format version >= 2010) are zip-archives: create a file in openpyxl and add a password to it using standard utilities.