ENH: Add option to only merge column header cells in ExcelFormatter.

doc/source/whatsnew/v3.0.0.rst

@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ Other enhancements
 - Users can globally disable any ``PerformanceWarning`` by setting the option ``mode.performance_warnings`` to ``False`` (:issue:`56920`)
 - :meth:`Styler.format_index_names` can now be used to format the index and column names (:issue:`48936` and :issue:`47489`)
 - :class:`.errors.DtypeWarning` improved to include column names when mixed data types are detected (:issue:`58174`)
+- :func:`DataFrame.to_excel` argument ``merge_cells`` now accepts a value of ``"columns"`` to only merge :class:`MultiIndex` column header header cells (:issue:`35384`)
 - :meth:`DataFrame.corrwith` now accepts ``min_periods`` as optional arguments, as in :meth:`DataFrame.corr` and :meth:`Series.corr` (:issue:`9490`)
 - :meth:`DataFrame.cummin`, :meth:`DataFrame.cummax`, :meth:`DataFrame.cumprod` and :meth:`DataFrame.cumsum` methods now have a ``numeric_only`` parameter (:issue:`53072`)
 - :meth:`DataFrame.fillna` and :meth:`Series.fillna` can now accept ``value=None``; for non-object dtype the corresponding NA value will be used (:issue:`57723`)

pandas/_typing.py

@@ -510,6 +510,7 @@ def closed(self) -> bool:
 
 # ExcelWriter
 ExcelWriterIfSheetExists = Literal["error", "new", "replace", "overlay"]
+ExcelWriterMergeCells = Union[bool, Literal["columns"]]
 
 # Offsets
 OffsetCalendar = Union[np.busdaycalendar, "AbstractHolidayCalendar"]

pandas/io/formats/excel.py

@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
     from pandas._typing import (
+        ExcelWriterMergeCells,
         FilePath,
         IndexLabel,
         StorageOptions,
@@ -523,8 +524,11 @@ class ExcelFormatter:
         Column label for index column(s) if desired. If None is given, and
         `header` and `index` are True, then the index names are used. A
         sequence should be given if the DataFrame uses MultiIndex.
-    merge_cells : bool, default False
-        Format MultiIndex and Hierarchical Rows as merged cells.
+    merge_cells : bool or 'columns', default False
+        Format MultiIndex column headers and Hierarchical Rows as merged cells
+        if True. Merge MultiIndex column headers only if 'columns'.
+        .. versionchanged:: 3.0.0
+            Added the 'columns' option.
     inf_rep : str, default `'inf'`
         representation for np.inf values (which aren't representable in Excel)
         A `'-'` sign will be added in front of -inf.
@@ -547,7 +551,7 @@ def __init__(
         header: Sequence[Hashable] | bool = True,
         index: bool = True,
         index_label: IndexLabel | None = None,
-        merge_cells: bool = False,
+        merge_cells: ExcelWriterMergeCells = False,
         inf_rep: str = "inf",
         style_converter: Callable | None = None,
     ) -> None:
@@ -580,6 +584,9 @@ def __init__(
         self.index = index
         self.index_label = index_label
         self.header = header
+
+        if not isinstance(merge_cells, bool) and merge_cells != "columns":
+            raise ValueError(f"Unexpected value for {merge_cells=}.")
         self.merge_cells = merge_cells
         self.inf_rep = inf_rep
 
@@ -614,7 +621,7 @@ def _format_header_mi(self) -> Iterable[ExcelCell]:
 
         columns = self.columns
         level_strs = columns._format_multi(
-            sparsify=self.merge_cells, include_names=False
+            sparsify=self.merge_cells in {True, "columns"}, include_names=False
         )
         level_lengths = get_level_lengths(level_strs)
         coloffset = 0
@@ -623,7 +630,7 @@ def _format_header_mi(self) -> Iterable[ExcelCell]:
         if self.index and isinstance(self.df.index, MultiIndex):
             coloffset = self.df.index.nlevels - 1
 
-        if self.merge_cells:
+        if self.merge_cells in {True, "columns"}:
             # Format multi-index as a merged cells.
             for lnum, name in enumerate(columns.names):
                 yield ExcelCell(
@@ -793,15 +800,17 @@ def _format_hierarchical_rows(self) -> Iterable[ExcelCell]:
             # with index names (blank if None) for
             # unambiguous round-trip, unless not merging,
             # in which case the names all go on one row Issue #11328
-            if isinstance(self.columns, MultiIndex) and self.merge_cells:
+            if isinstance(self.columns, MultiIndex) and (
+                self.merge_cells in {True, "columns"}
+            ):
                 self.rowcounter += 1
 
             # if index labels are not empty go ahead and dump
             if com.any_not_none(*index_labels) and self.header is not False:
                 for cidx, name in enumerate(index_labels):
                     yield ExcelCell(self.rowcounter - 1, cidx, name, None)
 
-            if self.merge_cells:
+            if self.merge_cells and self.merge_cells != "columns":
                 # Format hierarchical rows as merged cells.
                 level_strs = self.df.index._format_multi(
                     sparsify=True, include_names=False

pandas/io/formats/style.py

@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@
         Axis,
         AxisInt,
         Concatenate,
+        ExcelWriterMergeCells,
         FilePath,
         IndexLabel,
         IntervalClosedType,
@@ -551,7 +552,7 @@ def to_excel(
         startrow: int = 0,
         startcol: int = 0,
         engine: str | None = None,
-        merge_cells: bool = True,
+        merge_cells: ExcelWriterMergeCells = True,
         encoding: str | None = None,
         inf_rep: str = "inf",
         verbose: bool = True,

pandas/tests/io/excel/test_writers.py

@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ def frame(float_frame):
     return float_frame[:10]
 
 
-@pytest.fixture(params=[True, False])
+@pytest.fixture(params=[True, False, "columns"])
 def merge_cells(request):
     return request.param