excel-form-extractor

Extract checkboxes and dropdowns from Excel files (.xlsx / .xls) — no Excel installation required.

Installation

pip install excel-form-extractor

.xls support requires the optional xlrd extra:

pip install excel-form-extractor[xls]

Python API

from excel_form_extractor import extract

result = extract("survey.xlsx")

# Checkboxes — grouped by row proximity
for group in result.checkboxes:
    print(group.group_name, group.sheet)
    for cb in group.checkboxes:
        print("  ", cb.cell, "✓" if cb.checked else "☐")

# Dropdowns
for dd in result.dropdowns:
    print(dd.sheet, dd.cells, dd.source)

# JSON serialisation
import json
print(json.dumps(result.to_dict(), indent=2))

extract() signature

extract(
    file_path: str | Path,
    *,
    sheet: str | None = None,       # restrict to one sheet (case-sensitive)
    controls: str | None = None,    # "checkbox", "dropdown", or None (both)
) -> ExtractionResult

Return types

CLI

xfe file.xlsx
xfe file.xlsx --sheet Sheet1
xfe file.xlsx --controls checkbox
xfe file.xlsx --json                   # JSON to stdout
xfe file.xlsx --output                 # save to results/<stem>-<timestamp>.json
xfe file.xlsx --output out.json        # save to a custom path
xfe --version

Sample output

============================================================
CHECKBOXES  (2 groups, 3 total)
============================================================

  Group: "Preferences"  [Sheet: Survey, Row 3]
    ✓  B3
    ☐  D3
    ✓  F3

  Group: "Row5"  [Sheet: Survey, Row 5]
    ☐  B5
    ✓  G5

============================================================
DROPDOWNS  (1 total)
============================================================

  1. Cells: B2   Sheet: Form
     Source: "Yes,No,Maybe"

Checkbox detection

Three strategies are applied automatically:

1. Boolean cells (t="b") — checkboxes created in Google Sheets and exported to .xlsx
2. VML form controls — legacy Excel checkboxes (.xlsx only)
3. xlrd boolean cells — .xls files via the optional xls extra

.xls files: VML form controls and dropdowns are not available (xlrd limitation).

Grouping

Checkboxes in the same row with a column gap ≤ 2 (at most one empty column between them) are placed in the same group. The group name is inferred from the text cell immediately to the left of the first checkbox; falls back to Row{n}.

Project layout

excel_form_extractor/
    __init__.py     public API: extract(), models
    models.py       dataclasses: Checkbox, CheckboxGroup, Dropdown, ExtractionResult
    _checkbox.py    checkbox extraction and proximity grouping
    _dropdown.py    dropdown extraction
    _utils.py       shared helpers (cell refs, xlsx internals, text cells)
    cli.py          CLI entry point (xfe command)
    py.typed        PEP 561 type marker
sample.py           dev utility — regenerates samples/  (python sample.py)
samples/            sample .xlsx files for testing
results/            default output dir for --output

Development

git clone https://github.com/asadani/excel-form-extractor
cd excel-form-extractor
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Regenerate sample files
python sample.py

# Run tests
pytest

# Lint
flake8 excel_form_extractor
black excel_form_extractor

License

MIT