implement changes request in PR#16488

- removed usecols mention in Other Enhancments section,
remains in Deprecations.
- removed test_parse_* test methods in favor of test_usecols_* methods.
- changed parse_cols to usecols in test_read_one_empty_col_* instead
of catching warning.

doc/source/io.rst

@@ -2754,7 +2754,7 @@ to be parsed.
 
    read_excel('path_to_file.xls', 'Sheet1', parse_cols=2)
 
-If `parse_cols` is a list of integers, then it is assumed to be the file column
+If `usecols` is a list of integers, characters, or both, then it is assumed to be the file column
 indices to be parsed.
 
 .. code-block:: python

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt

@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ Other API Changes
 Deprecations
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 - :func:`read_excel()` has deprecated ``sheetname`` in favor of ``sheet_name`` for consistency with to_excel() (:issue:`10559`).
+- :func:`read_excel()` has deprecated ``parse_cols`` in favor of ``usecols`` for consistency with other read_* functions (:issue:`4988`).
 
 
 .. _whatsnew_0210.prior_deprecations:

pandas/tests/io/test_excel.py

@@ -166,36 +166,38 @@ def setup_method(self, method):
         self.check_skip()
         super(ReadingTestsBase, self).setup_method(method)
 
-    def test_parse_cols_int(self):
-
+    def test_usecols_int(self):
+        # GH4988: inconsistent naming convention for read_excel column select
         dfref = self.get_csv_refdf('test1')
         dfref = dfref.reindex(columns=['A', 'B', 'C'])
-        df1 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0, parse_cols=3)
+        df1 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0, usecols=3)
         df2 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1], index_col=0,
                                parse_cols=3)
         # TODO add index to xls file)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df1, dfref, check_names=False)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df2, dfref, check_names=False)
 
-    def test_parse_cols_list(self):
-
+    def test_usecols_list(self):
+        # GH4988: inconsistent naming convention for read_excel column select
         dfref = self.get_csv_refdf('test1')
         dfref = dfref.reindex(columns=['B', 'C'])
         df1 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0,
                                parse_cols=[0, 2, 3])
         df2 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1], index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols=[0, 2, 3])
-        # TODO add index to xls file)
+                               usecols=[0, 2, 3])
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning, check_stacklevel=False):
+            df3 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0,
+                                   parse_cols=[0, 2, 3])
+
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df1, dfref, check_names=False)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df2, dfref, check_names=False)
 
-    def test_parse_cols_str(self):
-
+    def test_usecols_str(self):
+        # GH4988: inconsistent naming convention for read_excel column select
         dfref = self.get_csv_refdf('test1')
 
         df1 = dfref.reindex(columns=['A', 'B', 'C'])
-        df2 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', index_col=0,
-                               parse_cols='A:D')
+        df2 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet1', usecol=0, usecols='A:D')
         df3 = self.get_exceldf('test1', 'Sheet2', skiprows=[1], index_col=0,
                                parse_cols='A:D')
         # TODO add index to xls, read xls ignores index name ?
@@ -465,14 +467,14 @@ def test_read_one_empty_col_no_header(self):
             actual_header_none = read_excel(
                 path,
                 'no_header',
-                parse_cols=[0],
+                usecols=[0],
                 header=None
             )
 
             actual_header_zero = read_excel(
                 path,
                 'no_header',
-                parse_cols=[0],
+                usecols=[0],
                 header=0
             )
         expected = DataFrame()
@@ -494,14 +496,14 @@ def test_read_one_empty_col_with_header(self):
             actual_header_none = read_excel(
                 path,
                 'with_header',
-                parse_cols=[0],
+                usecols=[0],
                 header=None
             )
 
             actual_header_zero = read_excel(
                 path,
                 'with_header',
-                parse_cols=[0],
+                usecols=[0],
                 header=0
             )
         expected_header_none = DataFrame(pd.Series([0], dtype='int64'))