xlwings Reports¶

This feature requires xlwings PRO.

Quickstart¶

xlwings Reports is part of xlwings PRO and a solution for template based Excel and PDF reporting. It allows business users without Python knowledge to create & maintain Excel templates without having to go back to a Python developer for every change: xlwings Reports separates the Python code (that gets and prepares all the data) from the Excel template (that defines which data goes where and how it should be formatted). See also the xlwings Reports homepage.

Start by creating the following Python script my_template.py:

from xlwings.pro.reports import create_report
import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame(data=[[1,2],[3,4]])
wb = create_report('my_template.xlsx', 'my_report.xlsx', title='MyTitle', df=df)
wb.to_pdf()  # requires xlwings >=0.21.1

Then create the following Excel file called my_template.xlsx:

Now run the Python script:

python my_template.py

This will copy the template and create the following output by replacing the variables in double curly braces with the value from the Python variable:

The last line (wb.to_pdf()) will print the workbook as PDF, for more details on the options, see Book.to_pdf().

Apart from Strings and Pandas DataFrames, you can also use numbers, lists, simple dicts, NumPy arrays, Matplotlib figures and PIL Image objects that have a filename.

By default, xlwings Reports overwrites existing values in templates if there is not enough free space for your variable. If you want your rows to dynamically shift according to the height of your array, use Frames.

Frames¶

Frames are vertical containers in which content is being aligned according to their height. That is, within Frames:

Variables do not overwrite existing cell values as they do without Frames.
Table formatting is applied to all data rows.

To use Frames, insert <frame> into row 1 of your Excel template wherever you want a new dyanmic column to start. Row 1 will be removed automatically when creating the report. Frames go from one <frame> to the next <frame> or the right border of the used range.

How Frames behave is best demonstrated with an example: The following screenshot defines two frames. The first one goes from column A to column E and the second one goes from column F to column I.

You can define and format tables by formatting exactly

one header and
one data row

as shown in the screenshot:

Running the following code:

from xlwings.pro.reports import create_report
import pandas as pd

df1 = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]])
df2 = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9], [10, 11, 12], [13, 14, 15]])

data = dict(df1=df1, df2=df2)

create_report('my_template.xlsx',
              'my_report.xlsx',
              **data)

will generate this report:

Excel Tables¶

Using Excel tables is the recommended way to format tables as the styling can be applied dynamically across columns and rows. You can also use themes and apply alternating colors to rows/columns. Go to Insert > Table and make sure that you activate My table has headers before clicking on OK. Then add the placeholder as usual on the top-left in your template:

Running the following script:

from xlwings.pro.reports import create_report
import pandas as pd

nrows, ncols = 3, 3
df = pd.DataFrame(data=nrows * [ncols * ['test']],
                  columns=['col ' + str(i) for i in range(ncols)])

create_report('template.xlsx', 'output.xlsx', df=df)

Will produce the following report:

Note

When using Excel tables, DataFrame indices are excluded by default. If you would like to include them, make sure to reset the index before providing the DataFrame to the create_report function: df.reset_index().
At the moment, you can only assign pandas DataFrames to tables.
For Excel table support, you need at least version 0.21.0