Python Xlrd Result format

Question

i want to know, the result format of xlrd.

See the code

>>> sh.cell_value(rowx=2, colx=1)
u'Adam Gilchrist xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'

Now when i try running a res.search

>>> temp1=sh.cell_value(rowx=2, colx=1)
>>> x=re.search("Adam",'temp1')
>>> x.group()

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#58>", line 1, in <module>
    x.group()
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group'

I get nothing.

1. First i want to know , what is the 'u' with result.
2. What are the result formats returned by sh.cell_value. Is it integer, string etc.
3. Can we run regular expressions on them?

Answer 1

Answering your question first

1. First i want to know , what is the 'u' with result? u is the qualifier for unicode string. So u'Adam Gilchrist xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' means the test in unicode.
2. What are the result formats returned by sh.cell_value . Is it integer , string etc.? Its unicode string
3. Can we run regular expressions on them ? Yes you can and this is how you do

temp1=u'Adam Gilchrist xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
x=re.search(u'Adam',temp1)    
x.group()    
u'Adam'

Its only that you have to specify the pattern in unicode also.