import xlrd  

    def open_excel(fileName="simple.xls"): 
        try: 
            fileHandler = xlrd.open_workbook(fileName) 
            return fileHandler 
        except Exception, e: 
            print str(e)     

    def scan_excel(sheet_name1=u'Sheet1'): 
        handler = open_excel() 
        page = handler.sheet_by_name(sheet_name1) 
        return page 

    def trim_cols(index=0): 
        page = scan_excel() 
        col1 = page.col_values(index) 
        col2 = [] 

        for item in col1: 
            if item not in col2: 
                col2.append(item) 
        print col1 
        print col2 

    def main(): 
        trim_cols() 

    if __name__ == "__main__": 
        main()