**Why It Matters (Architectural Logic)**: Excel is common for business users; pipelines must handle it reliably. Define schema—inference is slow and inconsistent.
Excel to Delta in Databricks: Read Excel via `pd.read_excel()` (small files) or `openpyxl`/`xlrd`, then convert: `spark_df = spark.createDataFrame(pd_df)`. Or use `com.crealytics.spark.excel` package: `spark.read.format("com.crealytics.spark.excel").option("header", "true").load("dbfs:/path/file.xlsx")`....
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