How to use Application.Rows in the xlwings API way

The Application.Rows property in Excel’s object model is a powerful feature that, when accessed through the xlwings API, provides a convenient way to reference the entire collection of rows in the active Excel application’s window. This property returns a Range object representing all rows on the active worksheet, which can be manipulated for formatting, data operations, or analysis. In xlwings, this is accessed via the app object, which represents the Excel Application.

Functionality
Primarily, Application.Rows is used to obtain a reference to every row in the active sheet. This is useful for applying uniform formatting (like row height), performing bulk operations (such as hiding or unhiding all rows), or quickly counting the total number of rows available. It serves as a shortcut instead of specifying a range like A1:XFD1048576 in modern Excel. When combined with other Range properties and methods in xlwings, it enables efficient worksheet management.

Syntax
The xlwings API call to access this property is straightforward:

rows_range = app.api.Rows

Here, app is your xlwings App instance (connected to Excel). The .api attribute provides direct access to the underlying Excel object model. The Rows property does not take any parameters. The returned rows_range is a xlwings Range object (wrapping the Excel Range), which you can then use with standard xlwings methods or further drill into the raw API via .api.

Code Examples

1. Setting Uniform Row Height:

import xlwings as xw
app = xw.apps.active # Get the active Excel application
all_rows = app.api.Rows # Access all rows
all_rows.row_height = 20 # Set every row's height to 20 points

2. Hiding All Rows and Then Showing Them:

import xlwings as xw
app = xw.apps.active
rows = app.api.Rows
rows.hidden = True # Hide every row in the active sheet
# ... some operations ...
rows.hidden = False # Unhide all rows

3. Counting Total Rows in the Sheet:

import xlwings as xw
app = xw.apps.active
total_rows = app.api.Rows.count # Returns 1048576 for .xlsx files
print(f"Total rows in the sheet: {total_rows}")

4. Applying Formatting to All Rows:

import xlwings as xw
app = xw.apps.active
rows = app.api.Rows
rows.api.Font.bold = True # Make text in all rows bold via the raw API
rows.api.Interior.color = (220, 230, 241) # Set a light blue fill color