How to Install xlrd in Python?

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The Python xlrd library reads data and formatting information from Excel files in the historical .xls format. Note that it won’t read anything other than .xls files.

pip install xlrd

The Python xlrd library is among the top 100 Python libraries, with more than 17,375,582 downloads. This article will show you everything you need to install this in your Python environment.

🔗 Library Link
🔗 Other Excel Python Libraries

Alternatively, you may use any of the following commands to install xlrd, depending on your concrete environment. One is likely to work!

💡 If you have only one version of Python installed:
pip install xlrd

💡 If you have Python 3 (and, possibly, other versions) installed:
pip3 install xlrd

💡 If you don't have PIP or it doesn't work
python -m pip install xlrd
python3 -m pip install xlrd

💡 If you have Linux and you need to fix permissions (any one):
sudo pip3 install xlrd
pip3 install xlrd --user

💡 If you have Linux with apt
sudo apt install xlrd

💡 If you have Windows and you have set up the py alias
py -m pip install xlrd

💡 If you have Anaconda
conda install -c anaconda xlrd

💡 If you have Jupyter Notebook
!pip install xlrd
!pip3 install xlrd

Let’s dive into the installation guides for the different operating systems and environments!

How to Install xlrd on Windows?

  1. Type "cmd" in the search bar and hit Enter to open the command line.
  2. Type “pip install xlrd” (without quotes) in the command line and hit Enter again. This installs xlrd for your default Python installation.
  3. The previous command may not work if you have both Python versions 2 and 3 on your computer. In this case, try "pip3 install xlrd" or “python -m pip install xlrd“.
  4. Wait for the installation to terminate successfully. It is now installed on your Windows machine.

Here’s how to open the command line on a (German) Windows machine:

Open CMD in Windows

First, try the following command to install xlrd on your system:

pip install xlrd

Second, if this leads to an error message, try this command to install xlrd on your system:

pip3 install xlrd

Third, if both do not work, use the following long-form command:

python -m pip install xlrd

The difference between pip and pip3 is that pip3 is an updated version of pip for Python version 3. Depending on what’s first in the PATH variable, pip will refer to your Python 2 or Python 3 installation—and you cannot know which without checking the environment variables. To resolve this uncertainty, you can use pip3, which will always refer to your default Python 3 installation.

How to Install xlrd on Linux?

You can install xlrd on Linux in four steps:

  1. Open your Linux terminal or shell
  2. Type “pip install xlrd” (without quotes), hit Enter.
  3. If it doesn’t work, try "pip3 install xlrd" or “python -m pip install xlrd“.
  4. Wait for the installation to terminate successfully.

The package is now installed on your Linux operating system.

How to Install xlrd on macOS?

Similarly, you can install xlrd on macOS in four steps:

  1. Open your macOS terminal.
  2. Type “pip install xlrd” without quotes and hit Enter.
  3. If it doesn’t work, try "pip3 install xlrd" or “python -m pip install xlrd“.
  4. Wait for the installation to terminate successfully.

The package is now installed on your macOS.

How to Install xlrd in PyCharm?

Given a PyCharm project. How to install the xlrd library in your project within a virtual environment or globally? Here’s a solution that always works:

  • Open File > Settings > Project from the PyCharm menu.
  • Select your current project.
  • Click the Python Interpreter tab within your project tab.
  • Click the small + symbol to add a new library to the project.
  • Now type in the library to be installed, in your example "xlrd" without quotes, and click Install Package.
  • Wait for the installation to terminate and close all pop-ups.

Here’s the general package installation process as a short animated video—it works analogously for xlrd if you type in “xlrd” in the search field instead:

Make sure to select only “xlrd” because there may be other packages that are not required but also contain the same term (false positives):

How to Install xlrd in a Jupyter Notebook?

To install any package in a Jupyter notebook, you can prefix the !pip install my_package statement with the exclamation mark "!". This works for the xlrd library too:

!pip install my_package

This automatically installs the xlrd library when the cell is first executed.

How to Resolve ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘xlrd’?

Say you try to import the xlrd package into your Python script without installing it first:

import xlrd
# ... ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'xlrd'

Because you haven’t installed the package, Python raises a ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'xlrd'.

To fix the error, install the xlrd library using “pip install xlrd” or “pip3 install xlrd” in your operating system’s shell or terminal first.

See above for the different ways to install xlrd in your environment. Also check out my detailed article:

🔗 Recommended: [Fixed] ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘xlrd’

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✅ Recommended: Python Excel – Basic Worksheet Operations