whatsapp-converter

Introduction

Use the whatsapp-converter to convert your exported WhatsApp chat to a CSV, XLS, XLSX or an ODS file.

1. The conversion is done locally. No data is shared with the internet!
2. The resultset is a CSV file which you can import into your favorite calculation application such as Excel or LibreOffice. You can also directly export to a spreadsheet file and do create a pivot table.

Dependencies

If you want to install the dependencies manually, use pip. On some computers you might need to replace pip by pip3.

pip install tqdm pyexcel pyexcel-xlsxw pyexcel-ods3 xlwt

Usage

Use the following command on the command line to get an overview of the available arguments.

python whatsapp-converter.py -h

Convert WhatsApp TXT to CSV (Default Use Case)

The easy start is just to provide the filename of the exported WhatsApp chat. The application will process the chat and create a CSV file named resultset.csv.

python whatsapp-converter.py whatsapp-export.txt

Convert WhatsApp to Excel XLS or XLSX

If you want to export to an Excel spreadsheet file instead, make sure to add the filename at the end, e.g. resultset.xls.

python whatsapp-converter.py whatsapp-export.txt resultset.xls

or

python whatsapp-converter.py whatsapp-export.txt resultset.xlsx

Convert WhatsApp to LibreOffice ODS

If you want to export to a LibreOffice spreadsheet file, make sure to add the filename at the end, e.g. resultset.ods. Please note that the export takes some time. The script did not crash.

python whatsapp-converter.py whatsapp-export.txt resultset.ods

Here is the list of all available options:

whatsapp-converter.py [-h] [-v] [-d] filename [resultset.csv|resultset.xls]

Commandline Arguments

Mandatory Arguments

filename        The WhatsApp file containing the exported chat
resultset       Filename of the resultset, default resultset.csv. Use .csv to write a comma separated file. Use .xls to write to an Excel spreadsheet file

Optional Arguments

  -h, --help      show this help message and exit
  -n  --newline   create a new line (same date and time) in the resultset for every multiline chat message
  -v, --verbose   increase output verbosity
  -d, --debug     increase output verbosity to debug

Example Newline Argument

Consider this chat exported chat message

18.05.19, 11:50:00: Alan Smith: It starts here
This is a new line

By default the resultset will merge the two lines.

2019-05-18 11:50|2019-05-18|11:50|Alan Smith|It starts here This is a new line

If you start the application with the -n argument, a new line will be added and the date and time of the multiline message taken.

2019-05-18 11:50|2019-05-18|11:50|Alan Smith|It starts here
2019-05-18 11:50|2019-05-18|11:50|Alan Smith|This is a new line

Conversion from to

Each line of the dataset will be converted to structured data which can be imported into your Excel or LibreOffice sheet.

21/8/19, 11:28:51 PM: Jon Doe: Waste out of wealth 😂
21.12.16, 23:29 - Alan Smith: Like a Rolex
30.11.18, 10:57 - Nachrichten in diesem Chat sowie Anrufe sind jetzt mit Ende-zu-Ende-Verschlüsselung geschützt. Tippe für mehr Infos.
30.11.18, 10:57 - Snoopy: Hallo :)
30.11.18, 10:58 - Snoopy: Jetzt bin ich gespannt auf deine Antwort ;)
1/26/19, 00:07 - Jon Doe: Sleep well
18.05.19, 11:50:00: Alan Smith: It starts here
This is a new line

The resultset file looks like this. In the default configuration new lines get the same date and time stamp and sender name as the previous line:

Date and Time|Date|Time|Name|Message
2019-8-21 23:28|2019-8-21|23:28|Jon Doe|Waste out of wealth 😂
2016-12-21 23:29|2016-12-21|23:29|Alan Smith|Like a Rolex
2018-11-30 10:57|2018-11-30|10:57|Snoopy|Hallo :)
2018-11-30 10:58|2018-11-30|10:58|Snoopy|Jetzt bin ich gespannt auf deine Antwort ;)
2019-01-26 00:07|2019-01-26|00:07|Jon Doe|Sleep well
2019-05-18 11:50|2019-05-18|11:50|Alan Smith|It starts here This is a new line