Adding formulas to excel spreadsheet using python - python-3.x

I am attempting to insert formulas into an excel spreadsheet using python.
Examples of the formulas are:
=VLOOKUP(B3|"Settlement Info"!$B$2:$R$2199|17|FALSE)
=SUMIFS("Payment and Fees"!$I$2:$I$6445|"Payment and Fees"!$B$2:$B$6445|Summary!$B3)
=+E3-F3-G3-I3
=IF(AND(I3>0|I3-N3>=-0.1|I3-N3<=0.1)|"Yes"|"No")
I tried using xlsxwriter and when opening the ss in excel it repairs by removing the "unreadable" content and those cells show as 0. I've seen the comment that the recalculation should be done on the reopening of the sheet when using xlsxwriter but that does not look like is is being done (https://xlsxwriter.readthedocs.io/working_with_formulas.html)
Is there some way to get these formulas into excel without them being removed by excel on opening?
Thanks for any pointers.
I simplified this down to a simple as possible:
When I run the below code and then attempt to open the excel spreadsheet I get an error saying "We found a problem with some content in ...Do you want us to try to recover..If you trust the source select yes"
If I select yes then I get an error " Removed Records: Formula from /xl/worksheets/sheet1.xml part"
And if I continue the sheet opens and there is a 0 in the field.
from xlsxwriter.workbook import Workbook
workbook = Workbook('test.xlsx')
worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet('Summary')
worksheet.write_formula('A2', '=VLOOKUP(B3,"Settlement Info"!$B$2:$R$2199,17,FALSE)')
workbook.close()
If I look at the information at https://xlsxwriter.readthedocs.io/working_with_formulas.html there is the information:
XlsxWriter doesn’t calculate the result of a formula and instead stores the value 0 as the formula result. It then sets a global flag in the XLSX file to say that all formulas and functions should be recalculated when the file is opened.
This is the method recommended in the Excel documentation and in general it works fine with spreadsheet applications. However, applications that don’t have a facility to calculate formulas will only display the 0 results. Examples of such applications are Excel Viewer, PDF Converters, and some mobile device applications.
Which I may not be understanding as I believe that the formula should be left in the sheet.

You can XlsxWriter to create any formula that Excel can handle. However, you need to be careful with the formatting of the formula to make sure that it matches the US version of Excel (which is the default format that formulas are stored in).
So your formulas should probably work as expected if you use a comma instead of a pipe:
=VLOOKUP(B3,"Settlement Info"!$B$2:$R$2199,17,FALSE)
=SUMIFS("Payment and Fees"!$I$2:$I$6445,"Payment and Fees"!$B$2:$B$6445,Summary!$B3)
=IF(AND(I3>0,I3-N3>=-0.1|I3-N3<=0.1),"Yes","No")
This one should work without modification:
=+E3-F3-G3-I3
See this section of the XlsxWriter docs on Working with Formulas.
Update in relation to the updated question:
The formula still has an error. You need to use single quotes instead of double quotes. You also need to add another worksheet for the formula to refer to. Like this:
from xlsxwriter.workbook import Workbook
workbook = Workbook('test.xlsx')
worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet('Summary')
worksheet.write_formula('A2', "=VLOOKUP(B3,'Settlement Info'!$B$2:$R$2199,17,FALSE)")
workbook.add_worksheet('Settlement Info')
workbook.close()
There is still an #N/A error in Excel but that is related to not having data in the VLOOKUP range:
Output:

Related

Excel VBA manual calculations

I want to speed up my macro by using manual calculations until the end, but there's a part where I break links from another workbook. I tried to do this, but it just turned back empty cells instead. Am I not able to use manual calculations when breaking links? Sorry if this question was asked I was having difficulty finding something on it
If you broke a link to an external Excel, you can't retrieve the data anymore. It actualy deletes any formulas. For instance, if you have a 2 Workbooks (Book1 & Book2) with 10 in cell A1 of Book1 and =[Book1]Sheet1!$A$1 in cell A1 of Book2, if you go to Data > Edit Link > Break Link the warning message is quite clear
Breaking links permanently converts formulas and external references to their existing values. Because this cannot be undone, you may want to save a version of this file with a new name.
And then the value in cell A1 of Book2 got converted to 10. Changes in Book1 will not appear in Book2 anymore

Downloading File with importrange function failing - think it's a bug

I've been saving Google Sheets to Excel without any problems for a while. These sheets have always successfully saved and opened in Excel with the importrange function. However, recently it hasn't been successfully saving correctly.
It used to just have the static value (e.g, 40). There used to be an IFERROR in the first cell in the header row but now it exists in every single cell.
E.g, each cell would have something like this:
=IFERROR(__xludf.DUMMYFUNCTION(importrange(blahblah)),"40").
DUMMYFUNCTION throws an error and "40" is returned as a result. but "40" is a string, not an integer which messes up all my formulas.
I also know this isn't an Excel issue because OpenOffice is doing the same thing with the file.
I'm pretty sure this would be a bug because why would it be working for months and then suddenly stop working?
What should I do?
I'm thinking it's a bug too.
Workarounds
On Excel
Copy and paste as values only the ranges with IFERROR(__xludf.DUMMYFUNCTION(..., then use Excel's UI tools to convert numbers shown as text to numbers.
Selectively remove quotes on the IFERROR second argument of the cells causing problems
Remove =IFERROR(__xludf.DUMMYFUNCTION(),"value") except value (we could use Excel's built-in FIND & REPLACE for this)
On Google Sheets
Use Copy > Paste as values only on the range areas having formulas with non-compatible functions like IMPORTRANGE, QUERY, FILTER, etc.
If you only need the values, download it as CSV instead of XLSX
IMPORTANT
In order to help to prioritize this issue, send feedback to Google. To do this open a Google Sheets spreadsheet, click on Help > Report a problem, then fill the feedback form and submit it.
Related stuff
I posted 5 small articles about this in Spanish. You could find them listed on https://www.rubenrivera.mx/p/descargar-hcg-excel.html.
We accidentally created a workaround for this bug with a different sheet that was just set up like this.
This works when you IMPORTRANGE into another Google Sheet. We are doing it into a Google Sheet with a single worksheet - haven't tried it with multiple.
It's going to sound a little nuts but it works for us.
In the first cell of your import range put a hyperlink in the original document you are importing from. This is in the first cell of the import range. We linked it to a worksheet in the original document. It has worked and failed with an external link. With an external link it worked when I linked it to an internal link, then changed it. But when I deleted the cell and just straight linked it to an external URL it didn't work.
Then #timbo was right - put data validation in. This can be in part of the document that isn't being imported into the second sheet. I put it in the first line of the import range but outside what I was importing. It might have to be the first line. I just put a date in one cell, then in the next cell data > data validation > then choose that one date as the data range.
For aesthetics I have hidden the first row in one Google Sheet I am importing into. In another I made the first cell link the title of the sheet and put the data validation outside the import range. Both of these work.
Let me know if this works for you.
Until this bug is fixed, a workaround is to put a data validation (Data > Data Validation) on the imported data (Any kind of data validation will do).

Locating Lost Excel Macro Formula From Old Data Sheet

I'm resurrecting some old scientific data from the early 2000s.
I need to locate the custom functions that allowed the data to be shown. The spreadsheet that I have is full of #REF! cells, as they are supposed to be calculated based on a custom-defined formula (here, called 'RESECTION').
How do I find this formula? If I can see the math it was performing, I will be able to use this old data, and extend our timeseries significantly.
The spreadsheet is an ".xlsm" document. There is an associated file that is ".XLM"; it provides some GUI-like functionality that is now broken, and I do not see how to access the commands (?) or other VBA that is inside.
I have not had success with this solution.
File with the VBA can be found here; SURVEY.XLM.
Problem is seen here; calling function from SURVEY.XLM. How do I access the formula within here?
I can see that the formula is in there; how do I see the calculation it performs?
RESECTION is a named range refering to cell A4 on the hidden Survey sheet.
In the VBE immediate window type thisworkbook.Sheets(2).visible = true and then thisworkbook.Sheets(2).select.
Cell Survey!A4 contains the value =RESULT(64).
The rest of the sheet contains the macros - first time I've seen or tried to use a filled in macro sheet.
I tried Ctrl+Fto find the definition of RESULT but it comes up with Macro error at cell [SURVEY.XLM]SURVEY!A364.

Import raw data from excel into another excel

I'm using the following Code to import a raw data extract (mysql; output format *.xlsx) from an excel sheet (source) into a sheet (target).
Importing Excel spreadsheet data into another Excel spreadsheet containing VBA
The target sheet is a excel-template contains some macros e.g. to allow users to easily sort data.
All is working very well, except that some data are malformed after import. Its really strange but due to any reason target is not an exact copy of the source sheet. Issues I've for example with date format and decimals.
I've tried several things to tweak the code but failed.
I believe that the way how the import in target sheet is handled by code is the reason why it doesnt work.
Now my question is if there exits any other way to import data from excel to excel.
Also I'm looking for a solution how I could solve the problem that excel formats all values automatically as text?
Any help would be highly appreciated.
Kind regards
Try replacing this line
targetSheet.Range("A1", "C10").Value = sourceSheet.Range("A1", "C10").Value
With this
sourceSheet.Range("A1", "C10").Copy
targetSheet.Range("A1", "C10").PasteSpecial
The former only copies the values. The latter copies both values AND its formatting, so things like date formats and number of decimals should be included as well.

Array Formulas in Conditional Formatting of Excel XML Spreadsheet files?

Excel usually treats Conditional Formatting formulas as if they are array formulas, except when loading them from an Excel 2002/2003 XML Spreadsheet file.
This is only an issue with the Excel 2002/2003 XML Spreadsheet format... the native Excel format works fine, as does the newer Excel 2007 XML format (xlsx).
After loading the spreadsheet, it is possible to make it work correctly by selecting the formatted range, going to the Conditional Formatting dialog, and clicking OK--but this only fixes the problem for the session.
Test case:
Enter the following into a new sheet:
A B C
1 N N N
2 x x x
3 x x x
Create this conditional format formula on cells A1:C1 (your choice of pretty colors for the format):
=(SUM(($A1:$C1="N")*($A$2:$C$2=A$3))>0)
This is an array formula that activates for A1, B1, and C1 whenever any of them has an "N" and the cell in row 2 below the "N" is equal to the cell in row 3 of the current column.
(This has been simplified from a real-world business spreadsheet. Sorry for the complexity of the test case, I am trying to find an easier test case to present here.)
And it works... you can alter the N's or the x's in any way you want and the formatting works just fine.
Save this as an XML Spreadsheet. Close Excel, and re-open the file. Formatting is now broken. Now, you can only activate conditional formatting if A1 is an "N" and A2 is the same as A3, B3, or C3. The values of B1, B2, C1, and C2 have no effect on the formatting.
Now, select A1:C1 and look at the conditional formatting formula. Exactly the same as before. Hit OK. Conditional formatting starts working again, and will work during the entire session the file is open.
Workarounds considered:
Providing the file in native (BIFF) Excel format. Not an option, these spreadsheets are generated on the fly by a web server and this is only one of dozens of types of workbooks generated dynamically by our system.
Providing the file in the Excel 2007 native XML format (xlsx). Not an option, current user base does not have Office 2007 or the compatibility plug-in.
Asking users to select the range, enter the Conditional Formatting dialog, and hitting ok. Not an option in this case, unsophisticated users.
Asking users to open the XML spreadsheet, save as native XLS, close, and re-open the XLS file. This does not work! Formatting remains broken in the native XLS format if it was loaded broken from an XML file. If (3) above is performed before saving, the XLS file will work properly.
I ended up rewriting the conditional formatting to not use array formulas. So I guess this is "answered" to some degree, but it's still an undocumented, if obscure, bug in Excel 2002/2003's handling of XML files.
I tried to recreate the problem you describe. Here is what I found.
Could consistently recreate the
problem using Excel 2003 on Windows
XP when saving as an XML
spreadsheet.
Could not reproduce the problem
using Excel 2003 on Windows XP when
saving as a standard xls
spreadsheet.
Could not reproduce the problem
using Excel 2007 on Windows Vista
when saving the file in the native
xlsx format.
Could not reproduce the problem
using Excel 2007 on Windows Vista
when saving the file in the Excel
97-2003 xls format.
(Note: All instances of Excel and Windows are current with all Windows updates.)
I also added a simple conditional formatting formula to each test. In every case, it worked as expected after saving the file, closing Excel, and reopening the file.
So the answer seems to be to use the standard Excel 2003 file format when saving the file.
BTW, this is a very odd formatting formula. It is difficult to imagine how you would use it. It must be a very specific & unusual business case. I also have the feeling something is missing in your post. (I'm not accusing you of being dishonest – just wondering if you may have shortened the formula for readability.) If this is not the exact formula you are using, please edit your original post with the complete formula and I will be happy to revisit this issue.
You can find some tutorial videos for self studying the conditional formatting issue over the following pages:
conditional formatting

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