how to read password protected excel in python

Question

I'm new to python programming, and I am trying to read a password protected file using python, the code is shown below:

import sys
import win32com.client

xlApp = win32com.client.Dispatch("Excel.Application")
print "Excel library version:", xlApp.Version
filename,password = 'C:\myfiles\foo.xls', 'qwerty12'
xlwb = xlApp.Workbooks.Open(filename, Password=password)

But then the xls file is loaded but still prompt me to provide the password, I can't let python to enter the password for me.

What have I done wrong? Thanks!

Answer 1

Open takes two types of password, namely:

Password: password required to open a protected workbook.
WriteResPassword : password required to write to a write-reserved workbook

So in your case , is it write protected or protection on open?

Also there is a discussion on SO that says that this does not work with named parameters, So try providing all parameter values with the defaults

• How to open write reserved excel file in python with win32com?

Default values are documented in MSDN

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.interop.excel.workbooks.open.aspx

Answer 2

Use this to open password protected file

xlwb = xlApp.Workbooks.Open(filename, False, True, None, password)

I hope this works. It worked for me.