How do I check a 3rd party Python utility library for malware?

Question

I'm very new to programming and I'm trying to find a program or method to pull out all file names, sheet names, and count the rows of data per sheet from all the Excel files in a single folder. Thus far, I've entertained mostly Excel approaches, but I also considered VBA solutions, yet no luck.

I thought I had finally found my solution at http://www.basarat.com/2009/07/getting-row-counts-in-all-excel-file-by.html

It looks like its a utility library with a tool that exactly solves my problem, but the author indicates that it has to be downloaded at https://code.google.com/p/dexutils/

I don't have any real experience with Python and only a brief introduction to Java, but Python keeps coming up as an acceptable tool for tackling statistical/data analysis (which I need to master due to a recent career change). So it's on my list of things to learn. I thought this would be a good way to dip my toes in the Python water.

But then I saw that the blog entry and download page for the utility have no comments and no ratings. How do I know that downloading that file won't expose my computer to malware? This is a company computer, and I'd like to keep this job for the foreseeable future. Downloading malware will not accomplish that.

I know that sounds a little paranoid of me, but I figure that when it comes to security, better safe than sorry. Is there any way to check a file like this for malware or to confirm that it is only doing what it claims to (ie, not running something evil in the background or messing with the registry, etc.)? I have tried to find an answer for this on Google and this website for longer than I care to admit, but I just don't know enough about computer security or Python programming to know that I'm being safe.

Please speak slowly and use small words. :-P Or just give me links to sources.

Answer 1

Use openpyxl

from openpyxl import load_workbook

wb2 = load_workbook('test.xlsx')
print wb2.get_sheet_names()

Use you can os.listdir(path) to find all the files in folder. Pass that back into load_workbook()