How do I read a date in Excel format in Python?

You can use xlrd.

From its documentation, you can read that dates are always stored as numbers; however, you can use xldate_as_tuple to convert it to a python date.

Note: the version on the PyPI seems more up-to-date than the one available on xlrd's website.

After testing and a few days wait for feedback, I'll svn-commit the following whole new function in xlrd's xldate module ... note that it won't be available to the diehards still running Python 2.1 or 2.2.

### Convert an Excel number (presumed to represent a date, a datetime or a time) into# a Python datetime.datetime# @param xldate The Excel number# @param datemode 0: 1900-based, 1: 1904-based.# <br>WARNING: when using this function to# interpret the contents of a workbook, you should pass in the Book.datemode# attribute of that workbook. Whether# the workbook has ever been anywhere near a Macintosh is irrelevant.# @return a datetime.datetime object, to the nearest_second.# <br>Special case: if 0.0 <= xldate < 1.0, it is assumed to represent a time;# a datetime.time object will be returned.# <br>Note: 1904-01-01 is not regarded as a valid date in the datemode 1 system; its "serial number"# is zero.# @throws XLDateNegative xldate < 0.00# @throws XLDateAmbiguous The 1900 leap-year problem (datemode == 0 and 1.0 <= xldate < 61.0)# @throws XLDateTooLarge Gregorian year 10000 or later# @throws XLDateBadDatemode datemode arg is neither 0 nor 1# @throws XLDateError Covers the 4 specific errorsdef xldate_as_datetime(xldate, datemode):    if datemode not in (0, 1):        raise XLDateBadDatemode(datemode)    if xldate == 0.00:        return datetime.time(0, 0, 0)    if xldate < 0.00:        raise XLDateNegative(xldate)    xldays = int(xldate)    frac = xldate - xldays    seconds = int(round(frac * 86400.0))    assert 0 <= seconds <= 86400    if seconds == 86400:        seconds = 0        xldays += 1    if xldays >= _XLDAYS_TOO_LARGE[datemode]:        raise XLDateTooLarge(xldate)    if xldays == 0:        # second = seconds % 60; minutes = seconds // 60        minutes, second = divmod(seconds, 60)        # minute = minutes % 60; hour    = minutes // 60        hour, minute = divmod(minutes, 60)        return datetime.time(hour, minute, second)    if xldays < 61 and datemode == 0:        raise XLDateAmbiguous(xldate)    return (        datetime.datetime.fromordinal(xldays + 693594 + 1462 * datemode)        + datetime.timedelta(seconds=seconds)        )

Here's the bare-knuckle no-seat-belts use-at-own-risk version:

import datetimedef minimalist_xldate_as_datetime(xldate, datemode):    # datemode: 0 for 1900-based, 1 for 1904-based    return (        datetime.datetime(1899, 12, 30)        + datetime.timedelta(days=xldate + 1462 * datemode)        )