How do I fix this error "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process"?

Question

This is the snippet of the code which throws the error:

writer=pd.ExcelWriter('C:\\Users\\aji/Curve.xlsx',engine='openpyxl')   
if os.path.exists('C:\\Users\\aji/Curve.xlsx'):
        os.remove('C:\\Users\\aji/Curve.xlsx')

I got this error message:

PermissionError: [WinError 32] The process cannot access the file because it is being used by
another process: 'C:\\Users\\aji/Curve.xlsx'

I'm pretty sure the file in the path is not open. What is causing this problem and how do I fix it?

Answer 1

I don't think you're writing to the file properly. As a result, your writer has the file open.

According to the documentation:

The writer should be used as a context manager. Otherwise, call close() to save and close any opened file handles.

Try this instead (assuming the DataFrame you wish to write is stored in df):

with pd.ExcelWriter('C:\\Users\\aji/Curve.xlsx', engine='openpyxl') as writer:
    df.to_excel(writer)

if os.path.exists('C:\\Users\\aji/Curve.xlsx'):
    os.remove('C:\\Users\\aji/Curve.xlsx')

There are other good examples in the link I provided above. I suggest reviewing them in case another is a better fit for your use case.

And as a commenter suggested, mixing slashes is confusing. Either use backslashes everywhere, or forward slashes everywhere. But that shouldn't technically cause problems, it's just distracting.