[Django]-Using Pandas with Django to read and parse excel file

No, it is not overkill. In this situation, pandas can add flexibility rather than restrictions.

For example, you can allow users to upload any of: excel, csv, csv.gz. Since pandas has a library of methods to handle various formats you can write a function to select the appropriate method and convert to a dataframe.

Once in a dataframe, conversion to dictionary is trivial.

Here’s an example of a function I use for this purpose:

import os, pandas as pd

def read_file(filename, **kwargs):

    """Read file with **kwargs; files supported: xls, xlsx, csv, csv.gz, pkl"""

    read_map = {'xls': pd.read_excel, 'xlsx': pd.read_excel, 'csv': pd.read_csv,
                'gz': pd.read_csv, 'pkl': pd.read_pickle}

    ext = os.path.splitext(filename)[1].lower()[1:]
    assert ext in read_map, "Input file not in correct format, must be xls, xlsx, csv, csv.gz, pkl; current format '{0}'".format(ext)
    assert os.path.isfile(filename), "File Not Found Exception '{0}'.".format(filename)

    return read_map[ext](filename, **kwargs)

Then simply call it as follows:

df = read_file('file.xlsx')  # or 'file.csv', 'file.csv.gz', etc