Provide a way to read cell formulas

[jrising]

There is a module in xlrd for reading formulas (https://github.com/python-excel/xlrd/blob/master/xlrd/formula.py). I am not sure how complete it is though (the two main functions both say they are under construction). Ideally, the formula would come in parsed into a tree of function calls and references.

My interest is in providing on-the-fly translation from a sheet in an Excel document to a Mimi model component, so non-technical users have a way to make changes to certain components.

[davidanthoff]

Hm, I'm a bit hesitant to add that to this package, which really is meant as a way to get data into a julia session. Adding a full formula loading story seems to add a lot of complexity... I'd also like to keep the option to swap out xlrd for something else in the future with less dependencies (for example use the same underlying libraries that R readxl uses) and that seems easier if the scope of this package is more limited/focused.

Maybe the easiest way would be to just use xlrd directly via PyCall for your case?