BUG: Cannot read XLSX files with xlrd version 2.0.0

[keiv-fly]

Code that fails with xlrd==2.0.0:

pd.read_excel("file.xlsx")
raises the error: XLRDError: Excel xlsx file; not supported

The documentation for xlrd==2.0.0 says that it does not support any other files other than "xls"
xlrd updated their version today on 2020-12-11

/local_disk0/.ephemeral_nfs/envs/pythonEnv-1e568db2-af63-4098-8ee9-a8375bd77616/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pandas/io/excel/_base.py in read_excel(io, sheet_name, header, names, index_col, usecols, squeeze, dtype, engine, converters, true_values, false_values, skiprows, nrows, na_values, keep_default_na, verbose, parse_dates, date_parser, thousands, comment, skipfooter, convert_float, mangle_dupe_cols, **kwds)
    302 
    303     if not isinstance(io, ExcelFile):
--> 304         io = ExcelFile(io, engine=engine)
    305     elif engine and engine != io.engine:
    306         raise ValueError(

/local_disk0/.ephemeral_nfs/envs/pythonEnv-1e568db2-af63-4098-8ee9-a8375bd77616/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pandas/io/excel/_base.py in __init__(self, io, engine)
    819         self._io = stringify_path(io)
    820 
--> 821         self._reader = self._engines[engine](self._io)
    822 
    823     def __fspath__(self):

/local_disk0/.ephemeral_nfs/envs/pythonEnv-1e568db2-af63-4098-8ee9-a8375bd77616/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pandas/io/excel/_xlrd.py in __init__(self, filepath_or_buffer)
     19         err_msg = "Install xlrd >= 1.0.0 for Excel support"
     20         import_optional_dependency("xlrd", extra=err_msg)
---> 21         super().__init__(filepath_or_buffer)
     22 
     23     @property

/local_disk0/.ephemeral_nfs/envs/pythonEnv-1e568db2-af63-4098-8ee9-a8375bd77616/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pandas/io/excel/_base.py in __init__(self, filepath_or_buffer)
    351             self.book = self.load_workbook(filepath_or_buffer)
    352         elif isinstance(filepath_or_buffer, str):
--> 353             self.book = self.load_workbook(filepath_or_buffer)
    354         elif isinstance(filepath_or_buffer, bytes):
    355             self.book = self.load_workbook(BytesIO(filepath_or_buffer))

/local_disk0/.ephemeral_nfs/envs/pythonEnv-1e568db2-af63-4098-8ee9-a8375bd77616/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pandas/io/excel/_xlrd.py in load_workbook(self, filepath_or_buffer)
     34             return open_workbook(file_contents=data)
     35         else:
---> 36             return open_workbook(filepath_or_buffer)
     37 
     38     @property

/local_disk0/.ephemeral_nfs/envs/pythonEnv-1e568db2-af63-4098-8ee9-a8375bd77616/lib/python3.7/site-packages/xlrd/__init__.py in open_workbook(filename, logfile, verbosity, use_mmap, file_contents, encoding_override, formatting_info, on_demand, ragged_rows, ignore_workbook_corruption)
    168     # files that xlrd can parse don't start with the expected signature.
    169     if file_format and file_format != 'xls':
--> 170         raise XLRDError(FILE_FORMAT_DESCRIPTIONS[file_format]+'; not supported')
    171 
    172     bk = open_workbook_xls(

XLRDError: Excel xlsx file; not supported

[jreback]

as the erorr message indicates xlrd no longer supports this, you can downgrade.

[hansgilead]

jreback unfortunately didn't really address the issue here, which is that pd.read_excel("file.xlsx") is supposed to use openpyxl for files that are identified as .xlsx but in this instance it is incorrectly trying to use xlrd. this looks like it really is a bug in pd.read_excel for which a workaround is to specify engine="openpyxl" in the call. adding that parameter solved this issue for me.

try this (though it should not be necessary it might fix it for you):

pd.read_excel("file.xlsx", engine="openpyxl")

from: https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/reference/api/pandas.read_excel.html

engine : str, default None
If io is not a buffer or path, this must be set to identify io. Supported engines: “xlrd”, “openpyxl”, “odf”, “pyxlsb”. Engine compatibility :

• “xlrd” supports old-style Excel files (.xls).
• “openpyxl” supports newer Excel file formats.
• “odf” supports OpenDocument file formats (.odf, .ods, .odt).
• “pyxlsb” supports Binary Excel files.

Changed in version 1.2.0: The engine xlrd now only supports old-style .xls files. When engine=None, the following logic will be used to determine the engine:

• If path_or_buffer is an OpenDocument format (.odf, .ods, .odt), then odf will be used.
• Otherwise if path_or_buffer is an xls format, xlrd will be used.
• Otherwise if openpyxl is installed, then openpyxl will be used.
• Otherwise if xlrd >= 2.0 is installed, a ValueError will be raised.
• Otherwise xlrd will be used and a FutureWarning will be raised. This case will raise a ValueError in a future version of pandas.

[jreback]

@keiv-fly you would have to open with a reproducible example and version info

[jreback]

sorry @hansgilead

[keiv-fly]

@keiv-fly you would have to open with a reproducible example and version info

A reproducible example with the latest stable pandas and xlrd:

import pandas as pd
pd.read_excel("file.xlsx")

file.xlsx is a new completely empty excel sheet.

Error:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
XLRDError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-1-4c247bba163b> in <module>
      1 import pandas as pd
----> 2 pd.read_excel("file.xlsx")

~\anaconda3\envs\py38\lib\site-packages\pandas\util\_decorators.py in wrapper(*args, **kwargs)
    294                 )
    295                 warnings.warn(msg, FutureWarning, stacklevel=stacklevel)
--> 296             return func(*args, **kwargs)
    297 
    298         return wrapper

~\anaconda3\envs\py38\lib\site-packages\pandas\io\excel\_base.py in read_excel(io, sheet_name, header, names, index_col, usecols, squeeze, dtype, engine, converters, true_values, false_values, skiprows, nrows, na_values, keep_default_na, na_filter, verbose, parse_dates, date_parser, thousands, comment, skipfooter, convert_float, mangle_dupe_cols)
    302 
    303     if not isinstance(io, ExcelFile):
--> 304         io = ExcelFile(io, engine=engine)
    305     elif engine and engine != io.engine:
    306         raise ValueError(

~\anaconda3\envs\py38\lib\site-packages\pandas\io\excel\_base.py in __init__(self, path_or_buffer, engine)
    865         self._io = stringify_path(path_or_buffer)
    866 
--> 867         self._reader = self._engines[engine](self._io)
    868 
    869     def __fspath__(self):

~\anaconda3\envs\py38\lib\site-packages\pandas\io\excel\_xlrd.py in __init__(self, filepath_or_buffer)
     20         err_msg = "Install xlrd >= 1.0.0 for Excel support"
     21         import_optional_dependency("xlrd", extra=err_msg)
---> 22         super().__init__(filepath_or_buffer)
     23 
     24     @property

~\anaconda3\envs\py38\lib\site-packages\pandas\io\excel\_base.py in __init__(self, filepath_or_buffer)
    351             self.book = self.load_workbook(filepath_or_buffer)
    352         elif isinstance(filepath_or_buffer, str):
--> 353             self.book = self.load_workbook(filepath_or_buffer)
    354         elif isinstance(filepath_or_buffer, bytes):
    355             self.book = self.load_workbook(BytesIO(filepath_or_buffer))

~\anaconda3\envs\py38\lib\site-packages\pandas\io\excel\_xlrd.py in load_workbook(self, filepath_or_buffer)
     35             return open_workbook(file_contents=data)
     36         else:
---> 37             return open_workbook(filepath_or_buffer)
     38 
     39     @property

~\anaconda3\envs\py38\lib\site-packages\xlrd\__init__.py in open_workbook(filename, logfile, verbosity, use_mmap, file_contents, encoding_override, formatting_info, on_demand, ragged_rows, ignore_workbook_corruption)
    168     # files that xlrd can parse don't start with the expected signature.
    169     if file_format and file_format != 'xls':
--> 170         raise XLRDError(FILE_FORMAT_DESCRIPTIONS[file_format]+'; not supported')
    171 
    172     bk = open_workbook_xls(

XLRDError: Excel xlsx file; not supported

pip freeze:

The most important:

pandas==1.2.0
xlrd==2.0.1 (pip freeze gives a directory, but the version is this one)
openpyxl==3.0.5 (pip freeze gives a directory, but the version is this one)

All output:

alabaster==0.7.12
anaconda-client==1.7.2
anaconda-project==0.8.3
appdirs==1.4.4
argh==0.26.2
argon2-cffi @ file:///C:/ci/argon2-cffi_1596828585465/work
asn1crypto @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/asn1crypto_1596577642040/work
astroid @ file:///C:/ci/astroid_1592487315634/work
astropy @ file:///C:/ci/astropy_1606904903785/work
async-generator==1.10
atomicwrites==1.4.0
attrs @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/attrs_1604765588209/work
autopep8 @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/autopep8_1596578164842/work
Babel @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/babel_1607110387436/work
backcall==0.2.0
backports.shutil-get-terminal-size @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/backports.shutil_get_terminal_size_1608222128777/work
bcrypt @ file:///C:/ci/bcrypt_1597936263757/work
beautifulsoup4 @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/beautifulsoup4_1601924105527/work
bitarray @ file:///C:/ci/bitarray_1605065210072/work
bkcharts==0.2
black==19.10b0
bleach @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/bleach_1600439572647/work
bokeh @ file:///C:/ci/bokeh_1603297934731/work
boto==2.49.0
Bottleneck==1.3.2
brotlipy==0.7.0
certifi==2020.12.5
cffi @ file:///C:/ci/cffi_1606255208697/work
chardet @ file:///C:/ci/chardet_1607690654534/work
click==7.1.2
cloudpickle @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/cloudpickle_1598884132938/work
clyent==1.2.2
colorama @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/colorama_1607707115595/work
comtypes==1.1.8
contextlib2==0.6.0.post1
cryptography @ file:///C:/ci/cryptography_1607637849569/work
cycler==0.10.0
Cython @ file:///C:/ci/cython_1605457704149/work
cytoolz==0.11.0
dask @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/dask-core_1607706933335/work
decorator==4.4.2
defusedxml==0.6.0
diff-match-patch @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/diff-match-patch_1594828741838/work
distributed @ file:///C:/ci/distributed_1607714134337/work
docutils==0.16
entrypoints==0.3
et-xmlfile==1.0.1
fastcache==1.1.0
filelock==3.0.12
flake8 @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/flake8_1601911421857/work
Flask==1.1.2
fsspec @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/fsspec_1602684995936/work
future==0.18.2
gevent @ file:///C:/ci/gevent_1609093188435/work
glob2==0.7
gmpy2==2.0.8
greenlet @ file:///C:/ci/greenlet_1600885448389/work
h5py==2.10.0
HeapDict==1.0.1
html5lib @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/html5lib_1593446221756/work
idna @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/idna_1593446292537/work
imagecodecs @ file:///C:/ci/imagecodecs_1603271628972/work
imageio @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/imageio_1594161405741/work
imagesize==1.2.0
importlib-metadata @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/importlib-metadata_1602276842396/work
iniconfig @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/iniconfig_1602780191262/work
intervaltree @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/intervaltree_1598376443606/work
ipykernel @ file:///C:/ci/ipykernel_1596190155316/work/dist/ipykernel-5.3.4-py3-none-any.whl
ipython @ file:///C:/ci/ipython_1604083276484/work
ipython-genutils @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/ipython_genutils_1606773439826/work
ipywidgets @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/ipywidgets_1608834360725/work
isort @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/isort_1602603989581/work
itsdangerous==1.1.0
jdcal==1.4.1
jedi @ file:///C:/ci/jedi_1606914528444/work
Jinja2==2.11.2
joblib @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/joblib_1607970656719/work
json5==0.9.5
jsonschema @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/jsonschema_1602607155483/work
jupyter==1.0.0
jupyter-client @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/jupyter_client_1601311786391/work
jupyter-console @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/jupyter_console_1598884538475/work
jupyter-core @ file:///C:/ci/jupyter_core_1606149073702/work
jupyterlab==2.2.6
jupyterlab-pygments @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/jupyterlab_pygments_1601490720602/work
jupyterlab-server @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/jupyterlab_server_1594164409481/work
keyring @ file:///C:/ci/keyring_1608756176625/work
kiwisolver @ file:///C:/ci/kiwisolver_1604014703538/work
lazy-object-proxy @ file:///C:/b/work
libarchive-c==2.9
line-profiler==2.1.2
llvmlite==0.34.0
locket==0.2.0
lxml @ file:///C:/ci/lxml_1606498900999/work
MarkupSafe==1.1.1
matplotlib==3.3.3
mccabe==0.6.1
menuinst==1.4.16
mistune==0.8.4
mkl-fft==1.2.0
mkl-random==1.1.1
mkl-service==2.3.0
mock @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/mock_1607622725907/work
more-itertools @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/more-itertools_1605111547926/work
mpmath==1.1.0
msgpack @ file:///C:/ci/msgpack-python_1607965861637/work
multipledispatch==0.6.0
mypy-extensions==0.4.3
nbclient @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/nbclient_1602783176460/work
nbconvert @ file:///C:/ci/nbconvert_1601914925608/work
nbformat @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/nbformat_1602783287752/work
nest-asyncio @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/nest-asyncio_1606153767164/work
networkx @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/networkx_1598376031484/work
nltk @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/nltk_1592496090529/work
nose @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/nose_1606773131901/work
notebook @ file:///C:/ci/notebook_1608817539935/work
numba==0.51.2
numexpr @ file:///C:/ci/numexpr_1607675674463/work
numpy @ file:///C:/ci/numpy_and_numpy_base_1603466732592/work
numpydoc @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/numpydoc_1605117425582/work
olefile==0.46
openpyxl @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/openpyxl_1598113097404/work
packaging @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/packaging_1607971725249/work
pandas==1.2.0
pandocfilters @ file:///C:/ci/pandocfilters_1605102497129/work
paramiko @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/paramiko_1598886428689/work
parso==0.7.0
partd==1.1.0
path @ file:///C:/ci/path_1607537314965/work
pathlib2 @ file:///C:/ci/pathlib2_1607025069150/work
pathspec==0.7.0
pathtools==0.1.2
patsy==0.5.1
pep8==1.7.1
pexpect @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/pexpect_1605563209008/work
pickleshare @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/pickleshare_1606932040724/work
Pillow @ file:///C:/ci/pillow_1603823068645/work
pkginfo==1.6.1
plotly==4.14.1
pluggy==0.13.1
ply==3.11
prometheus-client @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/prometheus_client_1606344362066/work
prompt-toolkit @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/prompt-toolkit_1602688806899/work
psutil @ file:///C:/ci/psutil_1598370330503/work
ptyprocess @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/ptyprocess_1605560620615/work/dist/ptyprocess-0.6.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl
py @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/py_1607971587848/work
pyarrow==1.0.1
pycodestyle==2.6.0
pycosat==0.6.3
pycparser @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/pycparser_1594388511720/work
pycurl==7.43.0.6
pydocstyle @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/pydocstyle_1598885001695/work
pyerfa @ file:///C:/ci/pyerfa_1606860299350/work
pyflakes==2.2.0
Pygments @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/pygments_1607368905949/work
pylint @ file:///C:/ci/pylint_1598617153160/work
pyls-black @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/pyls-black_1607553132291/work
pyls-spyder @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/pyls-spyder_1608134179673/work
PyNaCl @ file:///C:/ci/pynacl_1595000047588/work
pyodbc===4.0.0-unsupported
pyOpenSSL @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/pyopenssl_1608057966937/work
pyparsing==2.4.7
pyreadline==2.1
pyrsistent @ file:///C:/ci/pyrsistent_1600141795814/work
PySocks @ file:///C:/ci/pysocks_1605287845585/work
pytest==0.0.0
python-dateutil==2.8.1
python-jsonrpc-server @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/python-jsonrpc-server_1600278539111/work
python-language-server @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/python-language-server_1607972495879/work
pytz @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/pytz_1608922264688/work
PyWavelets @ file:///C:/ci/pywavelets_1601658407916/work
pywin32==227
pywin32-ctypes==0.2.0
pywinpty==0.5.7
PyYAML==5.3.1
pyzmq==20.0.0
QDarkStyle==2.8.1
QtAwesome @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/qtawesome_1602272867890/work
qtconsole @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/qtconsole_1600870028330/work
QtPy==1.9.0
regex @ file:///C:/ci/regex_1606691183008/work
requests @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/requests_1608241421344/work
retrying==1.3.3
rope @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/rope_1602264064449/work
rstcheck==3.3.1
Rtree==0.9.4
ruamel-yaml==0.15.87
scikit-image==0.17.2
scikit-learn @ file:///C:/ci/scikit-learn_1598377018496/work
scipy @ file:///C:/ci/scipy_1604596260408/work
seaborn @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/seaborn_1608578541026/work
selenium==3.141.0
Send2Trash @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/send2trash_1607525499227/work
simplegeneric==0.8.1
singledispatch @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/singledispatch_1602523705405/work
sip==4.19.13
six @ file:///C:/ci/six_1605187374963/work
snowballstemmer==2.0.0
sortedcollections==1.2.1
sortedcontainers @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/sortedcontainers_1606865132123/work
soupsieve @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/soupsieve_1607965878077/work
Sphinx @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/sphinx_1608836605859/work
sphinxcontrib-applehelp==1.0.2
sphinxcontrib-devhelp==1.0.2
sphinxcontrib-htmlhelp==1.0.3
sphinxcontrib-jsmath==1.0.1
sphinxcontrib-qthelp==1.0.3
sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml==1.1.4
sphinxcontrib-websupport @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/sphinxcontrib-websupport_1597081412696/work
spyder @ file:///C:/b/work
spyder-kernels @ file:///C:/ci/spyder-kernels_1608560699887/work
SQLAlchemy @ file:///C:/ci/sqlalchemy_1608243831000/work
statsmodels==0.12.1
sympy @ file:///C:/ci/sympy_1608119646897/work
tables==3.6.1
tblib @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/tblib_1597928476713/work
terminado==0.9.1
testpath==0.4.4
threadpoolctl @ file:///tmp/tmp9twdgx9k/threadpoolctl-2.1.0-py3-none-any.whl
three-merge @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/three-merge_1607553261110/work
tifffile @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/tifffile_1607624018440/work
toml @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/toml_1592853716807/work
toolz @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/toolz_1601054250827/work
tornado @ file:///C:/ci/tornado_1606942392901/work
tqdm @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/tqdm_1608922753628/work
traitlets @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/traitlets_1602787416690/work
typed-ast==1.4.1
typing-extensions @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/typing_extensions_1598376058250/work
ujson @ file:///C:/ci/ujson_1602505266082/work
unicodecsv==0.14.1
urllib3 @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/urllib3_1606938623459/work
watchdog @ file:///C:/ci/watchdog_1606939226617/work
wcwidth @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/wcwidth_1593447189090/work
webencodings==0.5.1
Werkzeug==1.0.1
widgetsnbextension==3.5.1
win-inet-pton @ file:///C:/ci/win_inet_pton_1605306167264/work
win-unicode-console==0.5
wincertstore==0.2
wrapt==1.11.2
xlrd @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/xlrd_1608072521494/work
XlsxWriter @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/xlsxwriter_1602692860603/work
xlwings==0.21.4
xlwt==1.3.0
yapf @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/yapf_1593528177422/work
zict==2.0.0
zipp @ file:///tmp/build/80754af9/zipp_1604001098328/work
zope.event==4.5.0
zope.interface @ file:///C:/ci/zope.interface_1606940376312/work

Output of the python command:

Python 3.8.5 (default, Sep  3 2020, 21:29:08) [MSC v.1916 64 bit (AMD64)] :: Anaconda, Inc. on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

[LinqLover]

Since xlrd does not support xlsx files any longer, wouldn't it be straightforward to use openpyxl instead as the default engine for xlsx files?

https://stackoverflow.com/a/65266270/13994294