title: list indices must be integers or slices, not str
body: <p>Just started learning python. I am trying to open two files with these codes but getting error - list indices must be integers or slices, not str</p>
  
  <p>Please help.</p>
  
  <pre><code>import numpy as np
  import pandas as pd
  import datetime as dt
  
  
  real_gdp = pd.read_csv('GDPC1.csv',index_col=['DATE'],parse_dates=['DATE'])
  
  
  real_gdppot = pd.read_excel('GDPPOT.xls','GDPPOT',skiprows=13,index_col=['DATE']) 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Traceback (most recent call last):</p>
  
  <pre><code>File "&lt;ipython-input-5-dd98dfff0f6b&gt;", line 14, in &lt;module&gt; index_col=['DATE'])
  
  File "C:\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\io\excel.py", line 170, in       read_excel skip_footer=skip_footer, converters=converters, **kwds)
  
  File "C:\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\io\excel.py", line 418, in _parse_excel last = data[offset][col]
  
  TypeError: list indices must be integers or slices, not str
  </code></pre>