Question

from xlrd import *

book = open_workbook("File_1.xls")

#sheet = book.sheets()[0]           
#book.sheets() returns a list of sheet objects...     alternatively...
#sheet = book.sheet_by_name("qqqq") #we can pull by name
 sheet = book.sheet_by_index(0)     #or by the index it has in excel's sheet collection

r = sheet.row(0)                    #returns all the CELLS of row 0,
c = sheet.col_values(0)             #returns all the VALUES of row 0,

for i in xrange(sheet.nrows):
print sheet.row_values(5) 

I am reading a file which is in my desktop , but when I am running the script written in python it’s giving error

  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python26\ReadXLS.py", line 6, in <module>
  book = open_workbook("File_1.xls")
  File "C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\xlrd\__init__.py", line 449, in open_workbook
  ragged_rows=ragged_rows,
 File "C:\Python26\Lib\site-packages\xlrd\__init__.py", line 941, in biff2_8_load
 f = open(filename, open_mode)
  IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'File_1.xls'

Answer 1

You need to cd Desktop before your run Python, as your error message says the file doesn’t exist:

No such file or directory: 'File_1.xls'

Another fix would be to move the Python file into the same folder as the Excel file.