Below are three Panda functions that I use to load data into a dataframe. I use read_csv() to read a regular .csv file. For excel files, I use read_excel(). And finally, for those weird tab-delimited files the extension of .tsv, I also use read_csv() but with the added parameter of sep='t'.
# we must first import pandas
# add it at the beginning of your code
import pandas as pd
# to read a regular good ol' csv file
df = pd.read_csv('../data/data_file.csv')
# to read an excel (:::gasp:::) file
df = pd.read_excel('../data/data_file.xlsx')
# to read a .tsv file
df = pd.read_csv('../data/data_file.tsv', sep='t')