Smart Excel Import in Python: Flexible Column Detection and Heterogeneous Data Cleaning

Mon, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been working with Excel spreadsheets that arrive from different departments. Each one uses different column names, the data is dirty (phone numbers with notes, tax IDs mixed with text), and codes have inconsistent formats. Here I document the solution I built.

The real problem
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I was receiving Excel files where:

Columns called “NIF” in one, “CIF” in another, “Identification” in the third
Phone numbers like “123-456-7890 (ext 5)”, “9876543210 - unavailable”
Tax IDs with dashes, spaces and varied letters
Product codes with inconsistent prefixes

I couldn’t expect everyone to format the same way. I needed a system that was flexible.

Openpyxl on Servicios Rogeliowar

Smart Excel Import in Python: Flexible Column Detection and Heterogeneous Data Cleaning

The real problem #

The real problem
#