xlOil Python Excel.Application object¶
The Excel.Application object is the root of Excel’s COM interface. If you have used VBA you will likely have come accross it. In xlOil, you can get a reference to this object with xloil.app(). From there the comtypes or pywin32 libraries provides syntax similar to VBA to call methods on the object.
The available methods are documented extensively at Excel object model overview and Application Object
COM support can be provided by ‘comtypes’, a newer pure python package or ‘win32com’ (also called
pywin32) a well-established more C++ based library. You can pass a lib argument to
xloil.app or the to_com method. If omitted, the default is ‘comtypes’, unless changed
in the XLL’s ini file.
Application.Run¶
In VBA this takes a function name and a variable argument list and attempts to call the specified
function dynamically. In xlOil, use xloil.excel_func and xloil.excel_func_async.
Examples¶
We lift some examples directly from the comtypes help
xl = xlo.app()
# Accessing a range with empty index
X = xl.Range["A1", "C1"].Value[:]
# X now contains a tuple like (10, "20", 31.4)
# Alternative syntax, gives Y == X
Y = xl.Range["A1", "C1"].Value[()]
# Writing to a range uses the same syntax
xl.Range["A1", "C1"].Value[:] = (3, 2, 1)
xl.Range["A1", "C1"].Value[()] = (1, 2, 3)
# Looks very similar but uses the xlOil range object so has slightly
# different syntax. We're calling the *Range* constructor so we use
# round brackets.
xlo.Range("A1:C1").value = (1, 2, 3)