---
id: pyexcel-xlsx
version: "0.6.1"
license: New BSD
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# pyexcel-xlsx — A wrapper library to read, manipulate and write data in xlsx and xlsmformat

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 1.4M/mo

## What it is and what it does

pyexcel-xlsx is a lightweight wrapper around openpyxl that simplifies reading and writing Excel files in xlsx and xlsm formats. It abstracts away openpyxl's lower-level API, letting you work directly with Python dictionaries and lists instead of cell objects. The library is designed to be used standalone or as a plugin for pyexcel, the larger data-manipulation framework.

It uses openpyxl's read_only and write_only modes for efficiency, though this means fonts, colors, charts, and password-protected files are not supported. You can read and write to files on disk or in memory, and it supports pagination features for working with large spreadsheets by reading only a subset of rows or columns.

Use it for:

- Extract data from xlsx files into Python dictionaries for data processing pipelines
- Generate xlsx reports programmatically from Python data structures
- Read partial data from large xlsx files using row and column limits to manage memory
- Convert xlsx files to and from in-memory buffers for web uploads and downloads
- Integrate xlsx handling into pyexcel-based data workflows without explicit imports

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Reads, manipulates, and writes xlsx and xlsm files by wrapping openpyxl's read_only and write_only modes, letting you work with Excel data as Python dictionaries and lists.

Yes. It has low install friction, active maintenance, permissive licensing, no known vulnerabilities, and solves a common task (xlsx I/O) cleanly. Install it if you need straightforward Excel file handling without styling or macro support.

## Install

pip install pyexcel-xlsx
uv add pyexcel-xlsx
poetry add pyexcel-xlsx

## Installing pyexcel-xlsx

Before you install: Low install friction with only two runtime dependencies (openpyxl and pyexcel-io). Actively maintained as of 2025-03-05 with recent repository activity.

License in practice: Licensed under New BSD (permissive), allowing use in commercial and proprietary projects without restriction.

Quickstart:

pip install pyexcel-xlsx

from pyexcel_xlsx import get_data, save_data
from collections import OrderedDict

data = OrderedDict()
data.update({"Sheet 1": [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]]})
save_data("file.xlsx", data)

read_data = get_data("file.xlsx")

Verify before relying:

- Whether read_only and write_only mode performance characteristics are suitable for your file sizes and use case
- Compatibility with specific xlsm file formats or macros beyond basic data read/write

## Package facts

- License: New BSD (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 1.4M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

read write xlsx files python, excel spreadsheet manipulation, xlsx to dict conversion, openpyxl wrapper library, xlsm file handling, excel data extraction, spreadsheet io library, excel-io, data-format

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