Can I set variable column widths in pandas?

The easiest solution I have found on newer versions of Pandas is outlined in this page of the Pandas reference materials. Search for display.max_colwidth -- about 1/3rd of the way down the page describes how to use it e.g.:

pd.set_option('max_colwidth', 400)

Note that this will set the value for the session, or until changed.

If you only want to make temporary changes see this info on temporarily setting context e.g.:

from pandas import option_context

with option_context('display.max_colwidth', 400):
    display(df.head())

I've not found an obvious way to set individual columns but this approach only scales up those that need more space to the maximum you set.

Also possibly of use if trying to adjust how to fit things on screen/in tables/making space for other columns is pd.set_option('precision', 2) which changes the no of decimal places.

The answer involving pd.set_option('max_colwidth', 400) didn't work for me.

However Dataframe.style.set_table_styles() worked for me. Knowing about this is great because we can do many things with it.

E.g.:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(4, 4),
                  columns=['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'])

Now, let's change the width of Column A with df.style.set_table_styles().

df.style.set_table_styles({
    'A': [{'selector': '',
           'props': [('width', '200px')]}],
}, overwrite=False)

Now, let's do some more stuff:

df.style.set_table_styles({
    'A': [{'selector': '',
           'props': [('color', 'red'), ('width', '200px')]}],
    'B': [{'selector': 'td',
           'props': [('color', 'blue')]}]
}, overwrite=False)

We can even do this kind of stuff for multi-index data frames.

import numpy as np
df = pd.DataFrame([[38.0, 2.0, 18.0, 22.0, 21, np.nan],[19, 439, 6, 452, 226,232]],
                  index=pd.Index(['Tumour (Positive)', 'Non-Tumour (Negative)'], name='Actual Label:'),
                  columns=pd.MultiIndex.from_product([['Decision Tree', 'Regression', 'Random'],['Tumour', 'Non-Tumour']], names=['Model:', 'Predicted:']))
df

Then change table properties

df.style.set_table_styles({
    ('Regression', 'Tumour'): [{'selector': '',
                                'props': [('background-color', '#00aaaa')]},
                            ],
     ('Regression', 'Non-Tumour'): [{'selector': '',
                                'props': [('background-color', '#00aaff'), ('width', '200px')]},
                            ]
}, axis=0)

We can also play with rows.

df.style.set_table_styles([{'selector': 'tr',
                                'props': [('line-height', '40px')]},
                            ], axis=1)

Here is what worked for me:

Keep in mind, replace the payload with your data.

payload = {'col1': 'col1', 'col2': 'col2'}

df = pd.DataFrame(payload)

response = HttpResponse(content_type='application/xlsx')
response['Content-Disposition'] = f'attachment; filename="{filename}.xlsx"'
with pd.ExcelWriter(response) as writer:
    df.to_excel(writer, sheet_name=f'worksheet_name', index=False)
    # Manually adjust the width of column
    for column in df:
        column_width = max(df[column].astype(str).map(len).max(), len(column))
        col_idx = df.columns.get_loc(column)
        writer.sheets[f'worksheet_name'].set_column(col_idx, col_idx, column_width)

return response