Opening a sheet in excel file in Python
Question: I am an absolute beginner in Python programming. I have a bunch of excel files
(with extension .xls) which I would like to be able to read in python. I have
to extract 2 columns from a given sheet from each file and write them into a
CSV file. This is data coming from some measurement results so the format of
each excel file is the same. I have to create n CSV files from a given number
of n excel files.

From my general search I figured I could use module xlrd. I tried downloading
the module as described [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20461790/im-
having-a-lot-of-trouble-installing-xlrd-0-9-2-for-python). I am working on
windows with python 2 and using Python GUI IDLE. When I go to the command line
in windows, browse to the folder where I saved the module files and type

    
    
    python setup.py build
    

I get an error message saying "`python is not recognized as an internal or
external command, operable program or batch file`."

I also setup the system variable as described
[here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19407469/xlrd-import-issue-with-
python-2-7) but that does not help. As I read somewhere else, I use

    
    
    import sys
    print sys.path
    

which displays

    
    
    ['', 'C:\\Python27\\Lib\\idlelib', 'C:\\Windows\\system32\\python27.zip', 'C:\\Python27\\DLLs', 'C:\\Python27\\lib', 'C:\\Python27\\lib\\plat-win', 'C:\\Python27\\lib\\lib-tk', 'C:\\Python27', 'C:\\Python27\\lib\\site-packages']
    

Does that mean my environment variable is correctly set up? Please help me
getting started with using .xls files in Python.

Thanks.


Answer: Solution [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20461790/im-having-a-lot-
of-trouble-installing-xlrd-0-9-2-for-python) proposed by M4rtini worked for
me. Posting here again

If windows this should work. Browser to "folder with python"\scripts Open cmd
here (shift + right click and and it should be an option in the context menu.)

type inn: easy_install.exe xlrd It should download and install if for you

