How to Open a Parquet File in Excel
In this Excel tutorial, I will show you how to open a parquet file in Excel.
You can’t directly open a Parquet file in Excel because Excel lacks native support for this format. Parquet is optimized for storing and retrieving large datasets, commonly used in big data processing. However, there are alternative methods.
Conversion
One approach is conversion. Converting the Parquet file to a compatible format like CSV (Comma Separated Values) is a common solution. You can achieve this using various tools or programming libraries. For instance, if you’re comfortable with Python, the Pandas library provides a straightforward way to do this: you can read the Parquet file using pd.read_parquet and then save it as a CSV file using df.to_csv.
Several online converters are also available if you search for “Parquet to CSV converter”. Besides CSV, you could also convert to other Excel-compatible formats such as XLSX (Excel Workbook) or TXT (Tab Delimited Text).
Additional Tools
Another option involves using tools that support Parquet. Although Excel itself doesn’t directly support Parquet, Power Query, a data transformation engine within Excel, can be extended with third-party connectors. By installing a connector from providers like CData or Simba, Power Query gains the ability to read Parquet files. Once the connector is installed, you can use Power Query to import data from your Parquet file.
Furthermore, specialized data analysis tools like Tableau, Power BI, and dedicated data viewers can directly open and work with Parquet files. Some online spreadsheet tools, such as Gigasheet or Row Zero, also offer direct handling of Parquet files, allowing you to view, edit, and export them.
Key considerations include file size and data complexity. Parquet files are often large, and converting to CSV can create even larger files, potentially exceeding Excel’s row limits. Also, Parquet supports complex data types, and converting to a simpler format like CSV might result in some loss of structure. If you are working with very large Parquet files or need to maintain the data structure, using a dedicated data analysis tool or Power Query with a connector is generally preferable to converting to CSV.
