read_excel crash with empty Exception

[bteplygin]

If read one empty column from excel file, read_excel raise Exception without error message.
Small test case: content of excel file:

A	B	C	D
	1	100	f
	2	200	f
	3	300	f
	4	400	f

Run:

import pandas as pd
pd.read_excel("test_excel_.xls", parse_cols=[0], header=None)

Result:

File "/home/.../python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/excel.py", line 170, in read_excelskip_footer=skip_footer, converters=converters, **kwds)
File "/home/.../python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/excel.py", line 436, in _parse_excel**kwds)
File "/home/.../python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/parsers.py", line 1346, in TextParserreturn TextFileReader(*args, **kwds)
File "/home/.../python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/parsers.py", line 590, in __init__self._make_engine(self.engine)
File "/home/.../python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/parsers.py", line 737, in _make_engineself._engine = klass(self.f, **self.options)
File "/home/.../python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/parsers.py", line 1452, in __init__self.columns, self.num_original_columns = self._infer_columns()
File "/home/.../python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/parsers.py", line 1735, in _infer_columnsline = self._buffered_line()
File "/home/.../python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/parsers.py", line 1793, in _buffered_linereturn self._next_line()
File "/home/.../python2.7/site-packages/pandas/io/parsers.py", line 1817, in _next_lineraise StopIteration

Python 2.7.7
pandas 0.17.1
xlrd 0.9.4

[jreback]

can you programatically create this example as a frame and write it to excel, alternatively post a link to the actual excel file (first is preferred if you can replicate the actual error)

[bteplygin]

For example:

import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame([["", 1, 100], ["", 2, 200], ["", 3, 300], ["", 4, 400]])
df.to_excel("test_excel.xls", index=False, header=False)
pd.read_excel("test_excel.xls", parse_cols=[0], header=None)

[jreback]

@bteblygin thanks!

PR to fix would be great!