CODEWITHSUNDEEP
python
Tymo
Tymo

Reputation: 61

Opening or launching an Excel File using Python

I am trying to create an application with python, that can open up several different file types on a desktop. One of the files that I am trying to open up is an Excel File. Searching through Stackoverflow I came up with the bit of code below however, it is not working. Can anyone help?

Python 3.7.9 (tags/v3.7.9:13c94747c7, Aug 17 2020, 16:30:00) [MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license()" for more information.
>>> import os
>>> os.startfile(dirpath + '\\' + 'C:\Users\kmoret\Desktop\THE PLAN_p.xlsm')

SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in position 2-3: truncated 
\UXXXXXXXX escape
>>>

Upvotes: 0

Views: 550

Answers (2)

Angel
Angel

Reputation: 2865

"\" is a special character in Python. If you want to put "\" in a Python string you have to use "\\". Also, it's recommended to use os.path.join() to safely concat directories

Universal Solution

import os
from sys import platform


def start_file(path: str):
    """Opens file with default app

    Usage:
    >>> start_file("my_file.xslx")
    """
    if platform.startswith(("cywin", "win32")):
        os.startfile(path)
    elif platform.startswith("linux"):
        os.system(f"xgd-open {os.path.abspath(path)}")
    elif platform.startswith("darwin"):
        os.system(f"open {os.path.abspath(path)}")


start_file("my_file.xlsx")

If you are going to join paths:

import os
path = os.path.join('C:','Users','kmoret','Desktop','THE PLAN_p.xlsm')
start_file(path)

If you already have the path defined:

import os
path = os.path.normpath('C:/Users/kmoret/Desktop/THE PLAN_p.xlsm')
start_file(path)

Upvotes: 3

Dartanan sams
Dartanan sams

Reputation: 45

I'm new to using python but from my research and testing I'm creating a script in python first to make the excel file. You can change the .xml to any file type. .xml just represents the excel version I have. You could replace it with .docx to open a word file

#Creating the file
file=open("hiiiiiii.xml","w")

Then I opened the file using a simple script of os systems. I also put a while loop on it so whenever you close the excel file it opens again until you stop the script in python

#Opening the file

import os

while True:
  os.system("hiiiiiii.xml")

Upvotes: 0

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