extracting an excel file from html in python

Asked Apr 18 '18 at 20:00

Active Apr 18 '18 at 20:04

Viewed 341 times

I would like to open and copy an excel file (.xls) from a website in python.

I have the following code below:

import requests 

page = requests.get("https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IC4WSA")

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

soup = BeautifulSoup(page.content, 'html.parser')

for link in soup.find_all('a'):
print(link.get('href'))

I have located string characters representing the href link to the excel file in the print line.

I would like to be able to open the excel workbook associated with the href and transfer the contents of the excel workbook to another excel workbook. If possible I might also like to run a VBA macro to affect the updated excel workbook.

My question: how do I select and open the excel file using python and once open tranfer the data to another workbook or run a vba subroutine to create a final product? Overall I am trying to build a simple and effective scraper of excel files with python. If there are other structures or logical approaches I am interested to hear of those too.

Thanks!

edited Apr 18 '18 at 20:04

ShadowRanger

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asked Apr 18 '18 at 20:00

SBF12345

1

`Workbooks.Open(urlToYourWorkbookHere)` – Tim Williams Apr 18 '18 at 20:19
You can COM connect to Excel object library (like VBA does) using Python's `win32com` module if using Python on PC machine. To piggyback @TimWilliams comment: `import win32com; excel = win32com.client.Dispatch("Excel.Application"); doc = excel.Workbooks.Open( urlToYourWorkbookHere)` – Parfait Apr 18 '18 at 20:59
what is the best library to get for this task?...i've downloaded two versions of the pywin32 package and loaded them...both are returning an error: import win32api, sys, os ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'win32api' – SBF12345 Apr 18 '18 at 21:37
What OS are you using? – Tim Williams Apr 18 '18 at 22:46
I am operating windows 7 – SBF12345 Apr 19 '18 at 01:07
Do you have Excel installed? If Yes, 32-bit or 64-bit? – Tim Williams Apr 19 '18 at 04:39
it is Excel 2003 so it is 32 bit. – SBF12345 Apr 19 '18 at 17:45
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21343774/importerror-no-module-named-win32api – Tim Williams Apr 19 '18 at 22:24

extracting an excel file from html in python

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