Can be found at https://xgrep.readthedocs.io

$ pip install xgrep

Usage is similar to regular grep. Give a pattern and then one or more filenames. There are various options (some with the same name and effect as grep options, like -c, -h, -H, -i, -q, and -v). Run xgrep --help for a full listing.

To give an example of using xgrep, suppose you have an Excel file (example.xlsx)) with a sheet that looks like this:

You can download example.xlsx (or find it in the docs/source/excel directory in the repo) if you want to try the following commands.

Look for the regular expression 'Xia|radius|Jilin':

$ xgrep 'Xia|radius|Jilin' example.xlsx

Note that the command-line output is all text. It is produced using the Table class of the wonderful rich package.

Add the row numbers (--rn) and Excel column (--ec) information from the input Excel:

$ xgrep --rn --ec 'Xia|radius|Jilin' example.xlsx

If you don't care about the values in cells that were not matched, you can give a value to show in unmatched (-u) cells:

$ xgrep -u . --rn --ec 'Xia|radius|Jilin' example.xlsx

To exclude columns with no matching cells, you can show only matching columns (--omc):

$ xgrep --omc --rn --ec 'Xia|radius|Jilin' example.xlsx

The default output format is a rich Table. You can also produce CSV, TSV, or Excel using the --format option:

$ xgrep --format csv 'Xia|radius|Jilin' example.xlsx

If you use --format excel you will also need to give an output filename using --out.

Usage: xgrep [OPTIONS] PATTERN FILENAMES...

  Command-line interface.

Options:
  -o, --out FILE                  The output file. If not given, output is
                                  written to standard out. Note that if the
                                  --quiet (-q) option is also given, no output
                                  will be written to the output file.
  --header / --no-header          Don't look for a header line in input files.
                                  In this case, text in what would otherwise
                                  be considered a header can also be matched
                                  by the grep pattern.
  --skip INTEGER RANGE            Skip this many rows at the start of the
                                  input file(s).  [x>=0]
  --format [csv|excel|rich|tsv]   The output format. The 'rich' format
                                  produces a rich Table (see https://rich.read
                                  thedocs.io/en/stable/tables.html).
  -c, --count                     Only print the number of matching lines
                                  (like grep -c).
  --width INTEGER                 The width to use for --format rich tables.
  -v, --invert                    Only output rows that do not match (like
                                  grep -v).
  -q, --quiet, --silent           Do not show any output, just exit with a
                                  status indicating whether a match was found
                                  (0) or not (1) (like grep -q).
  --ignore-missing-sheets, --ims  Do not exit if a requested sheet cannot be
                                  found in an input Excel file. A warning will
                                  be printed unless --quiet is used.
  --only-matching-cols, --omc, --mco
                                  Only show columns that have a matching cell.
  -i, --ignore-case               Ignore case while matching (like grep -i).
  --color TEXT                    The highlight color.
  -u, --unmatched TEXT            The string to show for cells whose values do
                                  not match. If not given, non-matching cells
                                  are shown with their value (in which case
                                  you will need to use the output color to see
                                  matches).
  -n, --row-numbers, --rn, --line-number
                                  Show row numbers (like grep -n).
  --col-numbers, --cn             Show numeric column numbers. For alphabetic
                                  Excel column labels, use --excel-cols.
  --excel-cols, --ec              Add Excel column labels to column names.
  -b, --basename                  Only show basenames of input files in the
                                  output (and in Excel sheet names, in the
                                  case of --format excel).
  --save-empty-output, --seo      If there are no matches in a file (or Excel
                                  sheet), nothing will be written to the
                                  output file (so the output file will not
                                  exist after xgrep exits). Use this option to
                                  force the writing of empty output files (and
                                  creation of empty Excel worksheets in the
                                  case of --format excel).
  Filenames: [mutually_exclusive]
                                  Whether to display names of matching files.
    -H, --filenames-always, --fa  Always print the name of matching files
                                  (like grep -H).
    -h, --no-filename, --nf       Never print the name of matching files (like
                                  grep -h).
    --only-filename, --of         Only print the names of matching files, not
                                  their matched content.
  --sheet-name, --sn TEXT         The name(s) of the sheet(s) to read. May be
                                  repeated. Cannot be used with --sheet-id.
  --sheet-id, --si INTEGER        The numeric number(s) of the sheet(s) to
                                  read. The default is to search all workbook
                                  sheets in all Excel files (this is
                                  equivalent to --sheet-id 0). Individual
                                  sheet numbering starts from 1. May be
                                  repeated. Cannot be used with --sheet-name.
  --sheet-separator, --ss TEXT    The string used to separate filenames from
                                  sheet names when --format excel is used and
                                  multiple files are being searched. Note that
                                  Excel does not allow some characters (e.g.,
                                  ':') in sheet names.
  --version                       Show the version and exit.
  --help                          Show this message and exit.

1. Document format, polars_df, and rich_table (in readthedocs.io).
2. Can click allow a -e option that also can be used to specify the pattern?
3. Write tests for unequal numbers of cols.