How to convert .xls file to pdf through python scripting

Question

I have created .xls using xlwt module. Now i want to convert this newly created xls file to pdf. Can anyone please tell me how can i do this through python scripting. Am using python 2.6 version.

Answer 1

There are at least two possibilities here: either you read the .xls back in as cells and generate a PDF, or maybe you want to print the .xls to .pdf from the program that just created the .xls .

In the first case you might want to consider writing the .pdf directly (you have the data to make the .xls in the program at some point). I have a grid class that can be written out in HTML format, or to .xls' (using xlwt ), .xlsm (using openpyxl ) and to .pdf (using reportlab`).

You will need to use the second option if you write formula and that kind of stuff in your .xls and want to have the calculated results in your .pdf . In that case use subprocess to call Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice/LibreOffice Calc with the right commandline parameters for printing/converting the file to PDF.

Eg for LibreOffice 4.0 the commandline would be:

scalc --convert-to pdf yourfile.xls

which will result in a yourfile.pdf