topic Re: spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled false at cluster level in Data Engineering

spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled false at cluster level

der — Mon, 18 May 2026 09:18:57 GMT

Native databricks excel data source is GA
https://www.reddit.com/r/databricks/comments/1t4un82/native_excel_support_is_now_ga/
https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/query/formats/excel

However, as long as it is not possible to read from another adress than A1 without specify a full range .option("dataAddress", "Sheet1!E10"), we stick to open source solution. However, it is not possible to deactivate the native databricks excel source on cluster level ☹️

Compute → <YOUR CLUSTER> → Configuration → Advanced → Spark spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled false

spark.conf.get("spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled")

'true'

If you do the same on notebook level, it works.

spark.conf.set("spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled", "false")
spark.conf.get("spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled")

'false'

@mmayorga

Re: spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled false at cluster level

der — Mon, 18 May 2026 09:25:57 GMT

I missed to add the job error, if we add it on cluster spark configuration:

[MULTIPLE_EXCEL_DATA_SOURCE] Detected multiple Excel data sources with the name excel (dev.mauch.spark.excel.v2.ExcelDataSource, org.apache.spark.sql.execution.datasources.excel.ExcelFileFormat). Please specify the fully qualified class name or remove dev.mauch.spark.excel.v2.ExcelDataSource from the classpath. SQLSTATE: 42710

Re: spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled false at cluster level

nidhin — Mon, 18 May 2026 09:41:05 GMT

Just wondering ,why do you need it cluster wide instead of notebook or session level? Any specific job requirement? Notebook level works!

Re: spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled false at cluster level

der — Mon, 18 May 2026 11:35:13 GMT

Define it once on cluster VS define it in each notebook session. Get Consistency across all notebooks. And why should it not work on cluster level?

Re: spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled false at cluster level

szymon_dybczak — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:16:48 GMT

Hi @der ,

Most likely because spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled is a Databricks SQL/session-level internal config, not a SparkConf setting.

This specific key appears to be read from the Spark SQL session config, so setting it after the notebook session starts works:

spark.conf.set("spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled", "false")

But putting this in the cluster Spark config:

spark.databricks.sql.excel.enabled false

is ignored when Databricks initializes the SQL session