DEPR: Deprecate parse_cols in read_excel

Will now use "usecols" just like in read_csv.

xref pandas-devgh-4988.

doc/source/io.rst

@@ -2800,21 +2800,21 @@ Parsing Specific Columns
 
 It is often the case that users will insert columns to do temporary computations
 in Excel and you may not want to read in those columns. `read_excel` takes
-a `parse_cols` keyword to allow you to specify a subset of columns to parse.
+a `usecols` keyword to allow you to specify a subset of columns to parse.
 
-If `parse_cols` is an integer, then it is assumed to indicate the last column
+If `usecols` is an integer, then it is assumed to indicate the last column
 to be parsed.
 
 .. code-block:: python
 
-   read_excel('path_to_file.xls', 'Sheet1', parse_cols=2)
+   read_excel('path_to_file.xls', 'Sheet1', usecols=2)
 
-If `parse_cols` is a list of integers, then it is assumed to be the file column
+If `usecols` is a list of integers, then it is assumed to be the file column
 indices to be parsed.
 
 .. code-block:: python
 
-   read_excel('path_to_file.xls', 'Sheet1', parse_cols=[0, 2, 3])
+   read_excel('path_to_file.xls', 'Sheet1', usecols=[0, 2, 3])
 
 
 Parsing Dates

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt

@@ -658,6 +658,7 @@ Deprecations
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 - :func:`read_excel()` has deprecated ``sheetname`` in favor of ``sheet_name`` for consistency with ``.to_excel()`` (:issue:`10559`).
+- :func:`read_excel()` has deprecated ``parse_cols`` in favor of ``usecols`` for consistency with :func:`read_csv` (:issue:`4988`)
 - The ``convert`` parameter has been deprecated in the ``.take()`` method, as it was not being respected (:issue:`16948`)
 - ``pd.options.html.border`` has been deprecated in favor of ``pd.options.display.html.border`` (:issue:`15793`).
 - :func:`SeriesGroupBy.nth` has deprecated ``True`` in favor of ``'all'`` for its kwarg ``dropna`` (:issue:`11038`).

pandas/io/excel.py

@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
 import pandas.compat.openpyxl_compat as openpyxl_compat
 from warnings import warn
 from distutils.version import LooseVersion
-from pandas.util._decorators import Appender
+from pandas.util._decorators import Appender, deprecate_kwarg
 from textwrap import fill
 
 __all__ = ["read_excel", "ExcelWriter", "ExcelFile"]
@@ -115,6 +115,10 @@
     .. versionadded:: 0.19.0
 
 parse_cols : int or list, default None
+    .. deprecated:: 0.21.0
+       Pass in `usecols` instead.
+
+usecols : int or list, default None
     * If None then parse all columns,
     * If int then indicates last column to be parsed
     * If list of ints then indicates list of column numbers to be parsed
@@ -205,8 +209,9 @@ def get_writer(engine_name):
 
 
 @Appender(_read_excel_doc)
+@deprecate_kwarg("parse_cols", "usecols")
 def read_excel(io, sheet_name=0, header=0, skiprows=None, skip_footer=0,
-               index_col=None, names=None, parse_cols=None, parse_dates=False,
+               index_col=None, names=None, usecols=None, parse_dates=False,
                date_parser=None, na_values=None, thousands=None,
                convert_float=True, converters=None, dtype=None,
                true_values=None, false_values=None, engine=None,
@@ -226,7 +231,7 @@ def read_excel(io, sheet_name=0, header=0, skiprows=None, skip_footer=0,
 
     return io._parse_excel(
         sheetname=sheet_name, header=header, skiprows=skiprows, names=names,
-        index_col=index_col, parse_cols=parse_cols, parse_dates=parse_dates,
+        index_col=index_col, parse_cols=usecols, parse_dates=parse_dates,
         date_parser=date_parser, na_values=na_values, thousands=thousands,
         convert_float=convert_float, skip_footer=skip_footer,
         converters=converters, dtype=dtype, true_values=true_values,

pandas/tests/io/test_excel.py

@@ -158,56 +158,74 @@ def setup_method(self, method):
         self.check_skip()
         super(ReadingTestsBase, self).setup_method(method)
 
-    def test_parse_cols_int(self):
+    def test_usecols_int(self):
 
         dfref = self.get_csv_refdf('test1')
         dfref = dfref.reindex(columns=['A', 'B', 'C'])
-        df1 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0, parse_cols=3)
+        df1 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0, usecols=3)
         df2 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1], index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols=3)
+                               usecols=3)
+
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
+            df3 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1],
+                                   index_col=0, parse_cols=3)
+
         # TODO add index to xls file)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df1, dfref, check_names=False)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df2, dfref, check_names=False)
+        tm.assert_frame_equal(df3, dfref, check_names=False)
 
-    def test_parse_cols_list(self):
+    def test_usecols_list(self):
 
         dfref = self.get_csv_refdf('test1')
         dfref = dfref.reindex(columns=['B', 'C'])
         df1 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols=[0, 2, 3])
+                               usecols=[0, 2, 3])
         df2 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1], index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols=[0, 2, 3])
+                               usecols=[0, 2, 3])
+
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
+            df3 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1],
+                                   index_col=0, parse_cols=[0, 2, 3])
+
         # TODO add index to xls file)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df1, dfref, check_names=False)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df2, dfref, check_names=False)
+        tm.assert_frame_equal(df3, dfref, check_names=False)
 
-    def test_parse_cols_str(self):
+    def test_usecols_str(self):
 
         dfref = self.get_csv_refdf('test1')
 
         df1 = dfref.reindex(columns=['A', 'B', 'C'])
         df2 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols='A:D')
+                               usecols='A:D')
         df3 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1], index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols='A:D')
+                               usecols='A:D')
+
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
+            df4 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1],
+                                   index_col=0, parse_cols='A:D')
+
         # TODO add index to xls, read xls ignores index name ?
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df2, df1, check_names=False)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df3, df1, check_names=False)
+        tm.assert_frame_equal(df4, df1, check_names=False)
 
         df1 = dfref.reindex(columns=['B', 'C'])
         df2 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols='A,C,D')
+                               usecols='A,C,D')
         df3 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1], index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols='A,C,D')
+                               usecols='A,C,D')
         # TODO add index to xls file
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df2, df1, check_names=False)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df3, df1, check_names=False)
 
         df1 = dfref.reindex(columns=['B', 'C'])
         df2 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols='A,C:D')
+                               usecols='A,C:D')
         df3 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1], index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols='A,C:D')
+                               usecols='A,C:D')
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df2, df1, check_names=False)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df3, df1, check_names=False)
 
@@ -457,14 +475,14 @@ def test_read_one_empty_col_no_header(self):
             actual_header_none = read_excel(
                 path,
                 'no_header',
-                parse_cols=[0],
+                usecols=[0],
                 header=None
             )
 
             actual_header_zero = read_excel(
                 path,
                 'no_header',
-                parse_cols=[0],
+                usecols=[0],
                 header=0
             )
         expected = DataFrame()
@@ -486,14 +504,14 @@ def test_read_one_empty_col_with_header(self):
             actual_header_none = read_excel(
                 path,
                 'with_header',
-                parse_cols=[0],
+                usecols=[0],
                 header=None
             )
 
             actual_header_zero = read_excel(
                 path,
                 'with_header',
-                parse_cols=[0],
+                usecols=[0],
                 header=0
             )
         expected_header_none = DataFrame(pd.Series([0], dtype='int64'))