ENH: make read_excel dtype parameter compatible with multiple sheets (e.g sheet_name =[0,"list_of_sheets"])

[struck89]

Feature Type

• Adding new functionality to pandas

• Changing existing functionality in pandas

• Removing existing functionality in pandas

Problem Description

I would like the dtype parameter to be compatible with opening multiple sheets.

Feature Description

when a list of sheets is passed, dtype could be a dictionary with {elem_on_list: usual_dtype_parameter}
so if
sheet_name = [0,'Sheet3']
dtype could be
dtype={0:{'colA':str, 'colB': 'float64'}, 'Sheet3':{'colA':'datetime64[ns]', 'colB': str}

Alternative Solutions

Iterate yourself and create the dictionary yourself with

dfs = {}
dtypes={0:{'colA':str, 'colB': 'float64'}, 'Sheet3':{'colA':'datetime64[ns]', 'colB': str}
for sheet_name in [0,'Sheet3']:
   dfs[sheet_name] = pd.read_excel('file.xlsx',sheet_name=sheet_name,dtype=dtypes[sheet_name])

Additional Context

In my case, pandas automatic decision of what the object is, doesn't work well in my scenarios. It always assumes numbers, even if the column has explicitly been marked as "text" in Excel, so I need to specify dtypes.

This would make my life easier, and would make sense that the multiple sheet name functionality is compatible with also giving multiple dtype arguments per sheet. I haven't tested if just adding all the columns at the dictionary would work, regardless of the Sheet, but it's very obvious that one can have the same column name in two sheets, and that one might want different datatypes there. And given that I plan to use something like this for automation purposes, I can't just assume same column name will always be the same type.

[rhshadrach]

Thanks for the report!

In my case, pandas automatic decision of what the object is, doesn't work well in my scenarios. It always assumes numbers, even if the column has explicitly been marked as "text" in Excel, so I need to specify dtypes.

Can you give a reproducible example where this happens?