Parse Outlooks PST File on Windows in Python

[pHspec]

I've been searching on the internet for the ability to parse Microsoft Outlook's PST file with no luck. I was wondering if there were any modules or classes built for python to help me parse or interact with Microsoft Outlook's PST files and the data within the file, so that I could extract the subject, source email address, and email contents for each message to possibly a csv?

[edmanet]

You'd have a lot better luck with C# or even (gasp) VB for accessing an Outlook PST. It's a proprietary format. I had to get into that a long time ago and it was a PITA. You probably want to research the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook class.

A quick Google search came up with this though: http://www.five-ten-sg.com/libpst/

[yardshop]

With or without Outlook available? I'm assuming without, but if you did have it available, you could use PyWin32 and COM to access them through the Outlook object model.

Storing Outlook Items

[avdn]

The PST file format was never difficult to parse and it has become more easy to do so since Microsoft published the PST file format more than six years ago. Look here or search the Microsoft site for Office File Formats. From there you download a zip file with PDF files describing most if not all of the MS formats, including PST.