How to write to an existing excel file without overwriting data (using pandas)?

UPDATE: Starting from Pandas 1.3.0 the following function will not work properly, because functions DataFrame.to_excel() and pd.ExcelWriter() have been changed - a new if_sheet_exists parameter has been introduced, which has invalidated the function below.

Here you can find an updated version of the append_df_to_excel(), which is working for Pandas 1.3.0+.

---

Here is a helper function:

import os
from openpyxl import load_workbook


def append_df_to_excel(filename, df, sheet_name='Sheet1', startrow=None,
                       truncate_sheet=False, 
                       **to_excel_kwargs):
    """
    Append a DataFrame [df] to existing Excel file [filename]
    into [sheet_name] Sheet.
    If [filename] doesn't exist, then this function will create it.

    @param filename: File path or existing ExcelWriter
                     (Example: '/path/to/file.xlsx')
    @param df: DataFrame to save to workbook
    @param sheet_name: Name of sheet which will contain DataFrame.
                       (default: 'Sheet1')
    @param startrow: upper left cell row to dump data frame.
                     Per default (startrow=None) calculate the last row
                     in the existing DF and write to the next row...
    @param truncate_sheet: truncate (remove and recreate) [sheet_name]
                           before writing DataFrame to Excel file
    @param to_excel_kwargs: arguments which will be passed to `DataFrame.to_excel()`
                            [can be a dictionary]
    @return: None

    Usage examples:

    >>> append_df_to_excel('d:/temp/test.xlsx', df)

    >>> append_df_to_excel('d:/temp/test.xlsx', df, header=None, index=False)

    >>> append_df_to_excel('d:/temp/test.xlsx', df, sheet_name='Sheet2',
                           index=False)

    >>> append_df_to_excel('d:/temp/test.xlsx', df, sheet_name='Sheet2', 
                           index=False, startrow=25)

    (c) [MaxU](https://stackoverflow.com/users/5741205/maxu?tab=profile)
    """
    # Excel file doesn't exist - saving and exiting
    if not os.path.isfile(filename):
        df.to_excel(
            filename,
            sheet_name=sheet_name, 
            startrow=startrow if startrow is not None else 0, 
            **to_excel_kwargs)
        return
    
    # ignore [engine] parameter if it was passed
    if 'engine' in to_excel_kwargs:
        to_excel_kwargs.pop('engine')

    writer = pd.ExcelWriter(filename, engine='openpyxl', mode='a')

    # try to open an existing workbook
    writer.book = load_workbook(filename)
    
    # get the last row in the existing Excel sheet
    # if it was not specified explicitly
    if startrow is None and sheet_name in writer.book.sheetnames:
        startrow = writer.book[sheet_name].max_row

    # truncate sheet
    if truncate_sheet and sheet_name in writer.book.sheetnames:
        # index of [sheet_name] sheet
        idx = writer.book.sheetnames.index(sheet_name)
        # remove [sheet_name]
        writer.book.remove(writer.book.worksheets[idx])
        # create an empty sheet [sheet_name] using old index
        writer.book.create_sheet(sheet_name, idx)
    
    # copy existing sheets
    writer.sheets = {ws.title:ws for ws in writer.book.worksheets}

    if startrow is None:
        startrow = 0

    # write out the new sheet
    df.to_excel(writer, sheet_name, startrow=startrow, **to_excel_kwargs)

    # save the workbook
    writer.save()

Tested with the following versions:

• Pandas 1.2.3
• Openpyxl 3.0.5

Pandas docs says it uses openpyxl for xlsx files. Quick look through the code in ExcelWriter gives a clue that something like this might work out:

import pandas
from openpyxl import load_workbook

book = load_workbook('Masterfile.xlsx')
writer = pandas.ExcelWriter('Masterfile.xlsx', engine='openpyxl') 
writer.book = book

## ExcelWriter for some reason uses writer.sheets to access the sheet.
## If you leave it empty it will not know that sheet Main is already there
## and will create a new sheet.

writer.sheets = dict((ws.title, ws) for ws in book.worksheets)

data_filtered.to_excel(writer, "Main", cols=['Diff1', 'Diff2'])

writer.save()