#!/usr/bin/python

import xlrd


from xlrd.xldate import XLDateAmbiguous

file = '/tmp/sample.xls'

wb = xlrd.open_workbook(filename=file)
ws = wb.sheet_by_name('Sheet1')

dataset = []

for r in range(ws.nrows):
    col = []
    for c in range(ws.ncols):
       ## print ("ncols : %d" , (ws.ncols))
        col.append(ws.cell(r,c).value)

        if ws.cell_type(r,c) == xlrd.XL_CELL_DATE:
            try:
                print (ws.cell_type(r,c))
                from datetime import datetime
                data_value = xlrd.xldate_as_tuple(ws.cell(r, c).vaule, wb.datemode)
                print (datetime(*data_value))

            except XLDateAmbiguous as e:
                print(e)

    dataset.append(col)

from pprint import pprint

pprint(dataset)