README.md

Compare two Excel files using Python

The compare_excel_files Python script is designed to streamline the process of analyzing and identifying changes in stock levels between two Excel files. The script reads two Excel files, merges them based on the 'SKU' column, identifies rows with changes in the stock levels, and saves the changes to a new Excel file. The script provides a convenient way to compare two sets of stock data. This is how it works:

1. Importing Libraries:

   import pandas as pd

   This line imports the pandas library and gives it the alias pd. pandas is a powerful data manipulation and analysis library in Python.

2. Defining the Function:

   def compare_excel_files(file1, file2, output_file):

   This line defines a function named compare_excel_files that takes three arguments: file1, file2, and output_file. These arguments represent the file paths for the two input Excel files and the output Excel file.

3. Reading Excel Files:

   df1 = pd.read_excel(file1)
   df2 = pd.read_excel(file2)

   These lines use pandas to read the Excel files specified by file1 and file2 and store them as DataFrames (df1 and df2 respectively). A DataFrame is a tabular data structure similar to a spreadsheet.

4. Merging DataFrames:

   merged = df1.merge(df2, on='SKU', how='outer', suffixes=('_old', '_new'))

   This line merges the two DataFrames (df1 and df2) based on a common column, in this case, 'SKU'. The how='outer' parameter means that it will perform an outer join, which includes all rows from both DataFrames.

   The suffixes=('_old', '_new') parameter adds suffixes to the column names to indicate which DataFrame they originated from.

5. Identifying Changed Rows:

   changed_rows = merged[merged['STOCK_old'] != merged['STOCK_new']]

   This line creates a new DataFrame changed_rows containing only the rows where the 'STOCK_old' column is not equal to the 'STOCK_new' column. This means it will contain rows where the stock levels have changed.

6. Saving Changes to Excel File:

   changed_rows.to_excel(output_file, index=False)

   This line saves the DataFrame changed_rows to an Excel file specified by output_file. The index=False parameter ensures that the row indices are not included in the output.

7. Usage Example:

   compare_excel_files('file1.xlsx', 'file2.xlsx', 'changes.xlsx')

   This line calls the compare_excel_files function with the file paths 'file1.xlsx' and 'file2.xlsx' as input, and specifies 'changes.xlsx' as the output file.

In summary, this script reads two Excel files, merges them based on the 'SKU' column, identifies rows with changes in the stock levels, and saves the changes to a new Excel file. The script provides a convenient way to compare two sets of stock data.

Installation

To install and use this Python script along with its dependencies, you can follow these steps:

1. Clone the GitHub repository:

   You can clone the repository using Git. Open your terminal/command prompt and run:

   git clone https://github.com/widilo/compare-two-excel-files-with-python.git
   

2. Install the dependencies:

   Run the following command to install the required dependencies using pip:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Run the script:

   To execute the script, simply run it using a Python interpreter:

   python compare_excel_files.py
   

Note: Make sure you have Python and Git installed on your system before following these steps.

How to add additional columns

As an example, let's add a "Price" column to the script. We'll assume that the SKU values remain constant, while the STOCK and PRICE values may change:

import pandas as pd

def compare_excel_files(file1, file2, output_file):
    # Read the Excel files
    df1 = pd.read_excel(file1)
    df2 = pd.read_excel(file2)

    # Merge the data frames on the 'SKU' column
    merged = df1.merge(df2, on='SKU', how='outer', suffixes=('_old', '_new'))

    # Identify rows with changes in stock or price
    changed_rows = merged[(merged['STOCK_old'] != merged['STOCK_new']) | 
                          (merged['PRICE_old'] != merged['PRICE_new'])]

    # Save the changes to a new Excel file
    changed_rows.to_excel(output_file, index=False)

# Usage example
compare_excel_files('file1.xlsx', 'file2.xlsx', 'changes.xlsx')

In this modified script, we've added a new column called "PRICE". The script now identifies rows with changes in both STOCK and PRICE. The script will now compare both stock levels and prices, identifying rows where either or both of these values have changed.

License

Compare two Excel files using Python by widilo is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0