Tables (pandas)

Last updated: 2026-02-12 16:03:09

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Introduction

Tables are a fundamental data structure, common to many software interfaces, such as spreadsheet programs, relational databases, statistical software, etc. In general, a table is a two-dimensional structure where:

• Columns represent variables

• Rows represent observations

Accordingly, the data in a given table column is usually of the same type. For example, a text column may be used to store product names, and a numeric column may be used for storing product prices. Conversely, the data in a given row may comprise mixed types, such as the product name (text) and the price (a number) of a specific product.

In this chapter we introduce methods for working with tables in Python, through a popular third-party package named pandas, introducing two table-related data structures: Series and DataFrame. As we will see, the latter data structures are closely related to numpy, which was covered in the previous chapter (see Arrays (numpy)), since the data in each table column is actually stored as an “extended” one-dimensional numpy array. We are going to cover standard table-related operations, such as:

• Creating tables (see Table from scratch and Reading from file)

• Examining table properties (see DataFrame properties)

• Modifying tables (see Renaming columns, Modifying the index, Sorting, Operators, and Creating new columns)

• Subsetting tables (see Subsetting Series, Subsetting DataFrames, and DataFrame filtering)

• Working with missing data (pandas)

• Conversion to simpler data structures (see Series/DataFrame to ndarray and Conversion to list)

• Plotting table data (see Plotting (pandas))

• Exporting a table to file (see Writing DataFrame to file)

In the next chapter, we are going to discuss more advanced operations with tables, such as table aggregation and table joins (see Table reshaping and joins). Later on, we are going to learn about the geopandas package for working with vector layers, which is an extension of pandas (see Vector layers (geopandas) and Geometric operations).

What is pandas?

pandas is a popular Python package which provides a flexible set of tools for working with tabular data. Since tables are fundamental in data analysis, pandas is one of the most important packages for data analysis in Python. Moreover, as we will see later on in the book (see Vector layers (geopandas)), a vector layer is represented by an “extended” table—a table that has a “geometry” column. Accordingly, the package for working with vector layers, named geopandas, is an extension of pandas.

The pandas package defines two fundamental data structures:

• Series—A one-dimensional structure, representing a table column

• DataFrame—A two-dimensional structure, represent a table

As we will see shortly, pandas is essentially an extension of numpy. A pandas table (a data structure named DataFrame) is a collection of Series representing the table columns, whereas Series are actually nothing more than labelled numpy arrays. To repeat, these two data structures therefore form a hierarchy: each column in a DataFrame is a Series.

Note

For those familiar with the R programming language, the term DataFrame will sound familiar, resembling R’s own data structure for representing tables (the data.frame). Indeed, pandas borrowed many ideas from the R language. A pairwise comparison of pandas vs. R functionality can be found in the pandas documentation Comparison with R / R libraries.

Table from scratch

Creating a Series

To understand how a DataFrame is structured, we will experiment with creating one from scratch. First we need to load the pandas package, as well as numpy which we use in some of the examples:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

A Series can be created, from a list, or from an ndarray, using pd.Series. For example, the following expression creates a Series from a list containing three strings, the names of three railway stations in southern Israel:

name = pd.Series(['Beer-Sheva Center', 'Beer-Sheva University', 'Dimona'])
name

0        Beer-Sheva Center
1    Beer-Sheva University
2                   Dimona
dtype: object

Note

In pandas, strings are always stored as 'object' arrays (Series), unlike numpy which has specialized native data types for strings.

The following expression creates another Series, named lines, containing the number of railway lines going through the latter stations. This time, we create the Series from an ndarray:

lines = pd.Series(np.array([4, 5, 1]))
lines

0    4
1    5
2    1
dtype: int64

A Series object is essentially a numpy array, combined with indices. Here is how we can access each of these components, separately:

lines.to_numpy()  ## Series values, as 'ndarray'

array([4, 5, 1])

lines.index       ## Series index

RangeIndex(start=0, stop=3, step=1)

As you can see, Series values comprise a numpy array, which we are already familiar with. Series indices, however, comprise a special type of object used for indexing in pandas:

type(name.index)

pandas.core.indexes.range.RangeIndex

By default, the index is just a sequence of consecutive integers (such as in names and lines). When necessary, we can define any other sequence of values as the Series index (see Modifying the index), and then use that index to access specific values (see Subsetting Series).

Index objects are similar to arrays in many ways. For example, they have .shape and .dtype attributes, just like arrays do:

lines.index.shape

(3,)

lines.index.dtype

dtype('int64')

Creating a DataFrame

While a Series can be thought of as an extended one-dimensional array, a DataFrame can be thought of as a collection of Series comprising table columns. Unlike a two-dimensional numpy array, a DataFrame can be composed of different types of values (among the columns). Consequently:

• a DataFrame column (i.e., a Series) contains values of the same type, usually representing a particular variable

• a DataFrame row may contain values of different types, usually representing a specific observation

Since a DataFrame is two-dimensional, it has two sets of indices, row and column indices, just like a two-dimensional array. It is important to note that all Series that comprise the columns of a DataFrame share the same index.

A DataFrame can be created from scratch, using the pd.DataFrame function. To do that, let’s create four more Series which are going to comprise the DataFrame columns. Altogether, the DataFrame is going to represent various properties of three railway stations:

city = pd.Series(['Beer-Sheva', 'Beer-Sheva', 'Dimona'])
piano = pd.Series([False, True, False])
lon = pd.Series([34.798443, 34.812831, 35.011635])
lat = pd.Series([31.243288, 31.260284, 31.068616])

Here is a printout of the four Series we just created:

city

0    Beer-Sheva
1    Beer-Sheva
2        Dimona
dtype: object

piano

0    False
1     True
2    False
dtype: bool

lon

0    34.798443
1    34.812831
2    35.011635
dtype: float64

lat

0    31.243288
1    31.260284
2    31.068616
dtype: float64

Now, the six different Series can be combined into a DataFrame by passing them, as a dict (see Dictionaries (dict)), to the pd.DataFrame function. That way, the dict names will form the DataFrame column names, while the corresponding Series will form the column contents:

d = {
    'name': name, 
    'city': city, 
    'lines': lines, 
    'piano': piano, 
    'lon': lon, 
    'lat': lat
}
stations = pd.DataFrame(d)
stations

	name	city	lines	piano	lon	lat
0	Beer-Sheva Center	Beer-Sheva	4	False	34.798443	31.243288
1	Beer-Sheva University	Beer-Sheva	5	True	34.812831	31.260284
2	Dimona	Dimona	1	False	35.011635	31.068616

Note

Note that there are other methods to create a DataFrame, passing different types of input to the pd.DataFrame function. For example, another useful method of creating a DataFrame is passing a two-dimensional array to pd.DataFrame.

DataFrame row indices are analogous to Series indices, and accessed exactly the same way:

stations.index

RangeIndex(start=0, stop=3, step=1)

Additionally, a DataFrame has column indices, which function as column names and can be accessed through the .columns property:

stations.columns

Index(['name', 'city', 'lines', 'piano', 'lon', 'lat'], dtype='object')

Reading from file

In practice, we rarely need to create a DataFrame from scratch. More often, we read a table from a file, e.g., a CSV file.

The pd.read_csv function is used to read a CSV file into a DataFrame in our Python environment. For example, the following expression reads the CSV file named 'ZonAnn.Ts+dSST.csv', which contains global temperature data from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). The temperature values in the table are anomalies, i.e., deviations from the 1951-1980 mean, in the years 1880-2024 ('Year'), both globally ('Glob') and for specific latitudes ('NHem'=Nothern Hemishpere, '24N-90N'=latitudes 24N-90N, etc.):

dat = pd.read_csv('data/ZonAnn.Ts+dSST.csv')
dat

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.40	...	-0.17	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01	-0.36	...	0.08	0.12	-0.05	-0.07	0.62
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01	-0.32	...	-0.07	-0.04	0.01	0.04	0.65
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06	-0.35	...	-0.19	-0.14	-0.04	0.07	0.52
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14	-0.61	...	-0.14	-0.16	-0.18	-0.02	0.67
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67	1.66	...	0.87	0.81	0.59	0.40	0.85
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.72	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62	1.52	...	0.62	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68

145 rows × 15 columns

Note

pandas has several functions named pd.read_* to read formats other than CSV, such as pd.read_excel, pd.read_sql, pd.read_json, pd.read_spss, and pd.read_stata. Similarly, DataFrame objects have multiple methods (see Writing DataFrame to file) to write to various output formats. See the IO tools section in the pandas user guide for an overview of the input/output capabilities.

Note that rows and columns are labelled using indices, as shown above. In this case:

• Rows are labelled with consecutive integers

• Columns are labelled with column names, which were imported from the first row of CSV file

DataFrame properties

Overview

One of the first things we may want to do with a DataFrame imported from a file is to examine its properties, as shown in the next few sections:

• DataFrame dimensions

• DataFrame column names

• DataFrame column types

DataFrame dimensions

DataFrame dimensions are accessible through the .shape property, just like in a numpy array (see Array dimensions). For example, dat (with the temperature data) has 145 rows and 15 columns:

dat.shape

(145, 15)

DataFrame column names

The DataFrame column names can be obtained through the .columns property. Recall that this is a special data structure representing pandas indices (see Table from scratch):

dat.columns

Index(['Year', 'Glob', 'NHem', 'SHem', '24N-90N', '24S-24N', '90S-24S',
       '64N-90N', '44N-64N', '24N-44N', 'EQU-24N', '24S-EQU', '44S-24S',
       '64S-44S', '90S-64S'],
      dtype='object')

Exercise 05-a

• From your experience with Python so far, can you guess how can the columns names be transformed to a plain list? (You can also try searching for the answer online.)

DataFrame column types

The data types (see Data types) of the columns are contained in the .dtypes property:

dat.dtypes

Year         int64
Glob       float64
NHem       float64
SHem       float64
24N-90N    float64
            ...   
EQU-24N    float64
24S-EQU    float64
44S-24S    float64
64S-44S    float64
90S-64S    float64
Length: 15, dtype: object

Note that this is a Series (of dtype objects). This means we can get a specific value by index using the ordinary Series subsetting methods which we learn about later on (see Subsetting Series). For example, the 'Year' column was imported into a Series of type int64:

dat.dtypes.loc['Year']

dtype('int64')

while the 'Glob' column (global temperature anomaly) was imported into a float64 column:

dat.dtypes.loc['Glob']

dtype('float64')

The basic pandas data types are in agreement with numpy data types (see Data types). For example, the dat table contains int64 and float64 data types. However, pandas and its extensions (such as geopandas, see What is geopandas?) also extend the numpy functionality with new data types (such as GeometryDtype, see GeoSeries (geometry) column).

Renaming columns

Sometimes it is necessary to rename DataFrame columns. For example, we may wish to use shorter names which are easier to type, or make the columns match another table we are working with. Columns can be renamed using the .rename method, which accepts a columns argument of the form {'old_name':'new_name',...}. For example, here is how we can replace the 'Year' column name with lowercase 'year':

dat.rename(columns={'Year': 'year'})

	year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.40	...	-0.17	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01	-0.36	...	0.08	0.12	-0.05	-0.07	0.62
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01	-0.32	...	-0.07	-0.04	0.01	0.04	0.65
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06	-0.35	...	-0.19	-0.14	-0.04	0.07	0.52
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14	-0.61	...	-0.14	-0.16	-0.18	-0.02	0.67
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67	1.66	...	0.87	0.81	0.59	0.40	0.85
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.72	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62	1.52	...	0.62	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68

145 rows × 15 columns

Note

Another column renaming technique is to assign a list of strings of the same length as the number of columns to the .columns attribute, as in dat.columns=['col1','col2',...].

Subsetting in pandas

Overview

There are numerous methods of subsetting Series and DataFrames in pandas. For example, Series values can be subsetted using the [ operator. However, this can be confusing since both using numeric indices and the index values are permitted (at the time of writing), and it can be unclear which method is actually employed.

In agreement with the Python philosophy, where explicit is better than implicit, the recommended subsetting methods are using .loc and .iloc, which are discussed in the following sub-sections. The principal difference between .loc and .iloc is:

• .loc uses pandas indices, while

• .iloc uses (implicit) numpy-style numeric indices.

In this book, we are going to use .iloc and .loc methods when subsetting Series (this section) and DataFrame (see Subsetting DataFrames) objects. Nevertheless, for shorter syntax, we are going to use the [ shortcut in the following cases:

• Selecting DataFrame columns using the [ operator and a string, or a list of strings, as in:

  • dat['Year'] instead of dat.loc[:,'Year'] (see Selecting DataFrame columns)

  • dat[['Year']] instead of dat.loc[:,['Year']] (see Selecting DataFrame columns)

• Filtering DataFrame rows using the [ operator and a boolean Series, as in:

  • dat[dat['Year']>2017] instead of dat.loc[dat['Year']>2017] (see DataFrame filtering)

Subsetting Series

As mentioned above, the recommended way to subset Series is using the specialized methods named .loc and .iloc:

• .loc—For subsetting using the Series index

• .iloc—For subsetting using the (implicit) numpy index

What follows after the method are the indices, inside square brackets ([), whereas the indices can be one of:

• An individual value, such as .loc['a'] or .iloc[0]

• A slice, such as .loc['a':'b'] or .iloc[1:2]

• A list, such as .loc[['a','c']] or .iloc[[0,2]]

For the next few examples, let’s create a Series object named s, with:

• values 11, 12, 13, 14, and

• indices 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd',

using the index parameter of pd.Series:

s = pd.Series([11, 12, 13, 14], index=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'])
s

a    11
b    12
c    13
d    14
dtype: int64

Here is how we can use .loc to select values using the three above-mentioned types of indices:

s.loc['a']         ## Individual index

np.int64(11)

s.loc['b':'c']     ## Slice

b    12
c    13
dtype: int64

s.loc[['a', 'c']]  ## 'list' of indices

a    11
c    13
dtype: int64

And here is how we can use .iloc to select values using numpy-style numeric indices:

s.iloc[0]       ## Individual index

np.int64(11)

s.iloc[1:2]     ## Slice

b    12
dtype: int64

s.iloc[[0, 2]]  ## 'list' of indices

a    11
c    13
dtype: int64

In the above examples, note how using an individual index returns a standalone value, while using a slice, or a list of indices, return a Series, even if the list or the slice contains just one element:

s.iloc[[0]]

a    11
dtype: int64

Also note that a slice using indices (such as s.loc['a':'b']) is inclusive, while a slice using implicit indices (such as .iloc[0:1]) excludes the last index, similarly to list and ndarray slicing behavior.

Subsetting DataFrames

Selecting DataFrame columns

A DataFrame is a two-dimensional object, unlike a Series which is one-dimensional. Accordingly, the .loc and iloc methods of a DataFrame accept two indices, separated by a comma:

• The first index refers to rows

• The second index refers to columns

When we want to select all rows or columns, we place : in the respective index, similarly to numpy array subsetting (see Subsetting arrays). Using an individual index returns a Series, while using a slice or a list of indices—even if length 1—returns a DataFrame.

For example, this is how we can use .loc to extract one DataFrame column as a Series:

dat.loc[:, 'Glob']

0     -0.18
1     -0.09
2     -0.11
3     -0.17
4     -0.28
       ... 
140    1.00
141    0.84
142    0.89
143    1.17
144    1.28
Name: Glob, Length: 145, dtype: float64

and here is how we can extract a single column as a DataFrame:

dat.loc[:, ['Glob']]

	Glob
0	-0.18
1	-0.09
2	-0.11
3	-0.17
4	-0.28
...	...
140	1.00
141	0.84
142	0.89
143	1.17
144	1.28

145 rows × 1 columns

As mentioned above (see Overview), we can also use the shortcut [ operator to subset columns(s):

dat['Glob']  ## Shortcut for `dat.loc[:,'Glob']`

0     -0.18
1     -0.09
2     -0.11
3     -0.17
4     -0.28
       ... 
140    1.00
141    0.84
142    0.89
143    1.17
144    1.28
Name: Glob, Length: 145, dtype: float64

dat[['Glob']]  ## Shortcut for `dat.loc[:,['Glob']]`

	Glob
0	-0.18
1	-0.09
2	-0.11
3	-0.17
4	-0.28
...	...
140	1.00
141	0.84
142	0.89
143	1.17
144	1.28

145 rows × 1 columns

Note

Dot notation, as in dat.Glob can also be used to select individual columns of a DataFrame. However, this is not recommended, because it does not work (1) with non-string column names, and (2) with column names that are the same as DataFrame methods, such as .pop.

We can pass a list of column names to select more then one column. For example:

dat[['Year', 'Glob', 'NHem', 'SHem']]

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14
...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91

145 rows × 4 columns

To select all columns except for the specified ones, we can use the .drop method combined with axis=1:

dat.drop(['Year', 'Glob', 'NHem', 'SHem', '24N-90N', '24S-24N', '90S-24S'], axis=1)

	64N-90N	44N-64N	24N-44N	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	-0.80	-0.53	-0.30	-0.17	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69
1	-0.83	-0.48	-0.22	0.08	0.12	-0.05	-0.07	0.62
2	-1.33	-0.30	-0.17	-0.07	-0.04	0.01	0.04	0.65
3	-0.12	-0.57	-0.26	-0.19	-0.14	-0.04	0.07	0.52
4	-1.25	-0.66	-0.47	-0.14	-0.16	-0.18	-0.02	0.67
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	2.87	1.81	1.18	0.87	0.81	0.59	0.40	0.85
141	2.07	1.36	1.26	0.72	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29
142	2.36	1.50	1.26	0.62	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08
143	2.58	1.87	1.46	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
144	2.91	1.95	1.64	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68

145 rows × 8 columns

Another useful technique is to use .loc combined with slices of column names. For example, we can select all columns between two specified ones:

dat.loc[:, 'Year':'SHem']

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14
...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91

145 rows × 4 columns

or all columns before a specified one:

dat.loc[:, :'SHem']

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14
...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91

145 rows × 4 columns

or all columns after a specified one:

dat.loc[:, 'SHem':]

	SHem	24N-90N	24S-24N	90S-24S	64N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	-0.04	-0.40	-0.13	-0.01	-0.80	...	-0.17	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69
1	0.01	-0.36	0.10	-0.07	-0.83	...	0.08	0.12	-0.05	-0.07	0.62
2	-0.01	-0.32	-0.05	0.01	-1.33	...	-0.07	-0.04	0.01	0.04	0.65
3	-0.06	-0.35	-0.17	-0.01	-0.12	...	-0.19	-0.14	-0.04	0.07	0.52
4	-0.14	-0.61	-0.15	-0.13	-1.25	...	-0.14	-0.16	-0.18	-0.02	0.67
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	0.67	1.66	0.84	0.57	2.87	...	0.87	0.81	0.59	0.40	0.85
141	0.55	1.42	0.64	0.53	2.07	...	0.72	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29
142	0.62	1.52	0.56	0.71	2.36	...	0.62	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08
143	0.85	1.78	1.06	0.72	2.58	...	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
144	0.91	1.95	1.18	0.74	2.91	...	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68

145 rows × 12 columns

Again, note that in the last examples, the subset is inclusive, i.e., includes both the start and end columns.

Exercise 05-b

• How can we select all columns after the specified one excluding itself?

Selecting DataFrame rows

Rows can be selected using .loc or .iloc, similarly to the way we use those methods to select columns. The difference is that we specify the first index, instead of the second. For example:

dat.iloc[[0], :]     ## 1st row

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.4	...	-0.17	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69

1 rows × 15 columns

dat.iloc[0:3, :]     ## 1st row (inclusive) to 4th row (exclusive)

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.40	...	-0.17	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01	-0.36	...	0.08	0.12	-0.05	-0.07	0.62
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01	-0.32	...	-0.07	-0.04	0.01	0.04	0.65

3 rows × 15 columns

dat.iloc[[0, 2], :]  ## 1st and 3rd rows

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.40	...	-0.17	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01	-0.32	...	-0.07	-0.04	0.01	0.04	0.65

2 rows × 15 columns

Exercise 05-c

• Create a subset of dat with the 1^st, 3^rd, and 5^th rows.

Selecting rows and columns

Both DataFrame dimensions can be subsetted at once, by passing two indices to .loc or to .iloc. For example, here we select a subset of dat with the first four rows and the first four columns (i.e., the top-left “corner” of the table), using .iloc:

dat.iloc[0:4, 0:4]

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06

The same can be acheived using separate steps, for example using .loc to select columns, and then .iloc to select rows:

dat.loc[:, 'Year':'SHem'].iloc[0:4, :]

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06

Selecting DataFrame values

Using the above-mentioned methods, we can access individual values from a DataFrame in several ways. The clearest syntax is probably splitting the operation into two parts: first selecting the column, then selecting the index within the column. For example, here is how we can get the first value in the 'Year' column of dat:

dat['Year'].iloc[0]

np.int64(1880)

Exercise 05-d

• How can we get the last value in the 'Year' column of dat, without explicitly typing its index (e.g. 145)?

Series/DataFrame to ndarray

A Series or a DataFrame is accessible as an ndarray, through the .to_numpy method. For example:

dat['Year'].iloc[0:3].to_numpy()  ## 'Series' to array

array([1880, 1881, 1882])

dat.iloc[0:3, 1:3].to_numpy()     ## 'DataFrame' to array

array([[-0.18, -0.31],
       [-0.09, -0.19],
       [-0.11, -0.23]])

Note that a Series is translated to a one-dimensional array, while a DataFrame is translated to a two-dimensional array.

Conversion to list

Series to list

In some cases we may prefer to use basic Python methods to work with data contained in a Series or in a DataFrame. For that purpose, the Series or the DataFrame can be converted to a list.

A Series can be converted to a list by directly applying the .to_list method, which is analogous to the .tolist method of ndarray (see ndarray to list). For example, let’s take a small Series of length 5:

s = dat['Glob'].iloc[0:5]
s

0   -0.18
1   -0.09
2   -0.11
3   -0.17
4   -0.28
Name: Glob, dtype: float64

Here is how the Series can be converted to a list, using the .to_list method:

s.to_list()

[-0.18, -0.09, -0.11, -0.17, -0.28]

DataFrame to list

A DataFrame can also be converted to a list, in which case the list will be nested, with each column represented by an internal list. let’s take a small DataFrame with five rows and three columns as an example:

dat1 = dat[['Year', 'NHem', 'SHem']].iloc[0:5, :]
dat1

	Year	NHem	SHem
0	1880	-0.31	-0.04
1	1881	-0.19	0.01
2	1882	-0.23	-0.01
3	1883	-0.29	-0.06
4	1884	-0.44	-0.14

To convert the DataFrame to a list, we can use the .to_records method (possibly with index=False to omit the index), followed by .tolist. The result is a list to tuples, where each tuple represents a row:

dat1.to_records(index=False).tolist()

[(1880, -0.31, -0.04),
 (1881, -0.19, 0.01),
 (1882, -0.23, -0.01),
 (1883, -0.29, -0.06),
 (1884, -0.44, -0.14)]

Modifying the index

Overivew

In the above examples, the Series and DataFrame we created got the default, consecutive integer, index. As we will see, the index plays an important role in many operations in pandas. Therefore, often we would like to set a more meaningful, custom index. For example, it usually makes sense to set the index of a table representing a time series (such as dat) to the time points (such as 'Year' values). Many pandas operations then utilize the index. For example, when plotting the data, the x-axis will show the time labels (see Line plots (pandas)).

To set a new index, we:

• Assign to the .index property of a Series (see Setting Series index)

• Use the .set_index method of a DataFrame (see Setting DataFrame index)

To reset the index, i.e., get back to the default consecutive integer index, we use the .reset_index method (see Resetting the index).

We demonstrate these three techniques in the following sub-sections.

Setting Series index

let’s go back to the name series from the beginning of the chapter (Creating a Series):

name

0        Beer-Sheva Center
1    Beer-Sheva University
2                   Dimona
dtype: object

The following expression sets the index of the name series as ['a','b','c'], by assigning a list into the .index property:

name.index = ['a', 'b', 'c']
name

a        Beer-Sheva Center
b    Beer-Sheva University
c                   Dimona
dtype: object

Setting DataFrame index

The (row) index of a DataFrame can also be “manually” set by assignment to .index. However, a more useful scenario is where we want one of the columns in the DataFrame to serve as the index, while also removing it from the DataFrame columns to avoid duplication. This can be done using .set_index.

For example, the following expression changes the index of stations to the station names:

stations = stations.set_index('name')
stations

	city	lines	piano	lon	lat
name
Beer-Sheva Center	Beer-Sheva	4	False	34.798443	31.243288
Beer-Sheva University	Beer-Sheva	5	True	34.812831	31.260284
Dimona	Dimona	1	False	35.011635	31.068616

Now, name is no longer a column, but the index of stations.

Resetting the index

To reset the index of a Series or a DataFrame, we use the .reset_index method. As a result, the index will be replaced with the default consecutive integer sequence. In case we want to remove the information in the index altoghether, we use the drop=True option. Otherwise, the index will be “transferred” into a new column.

For example, here is how we remove the ['a','b','c'] index, to get the original default index in the name Series. Note that the information in the index is lost and we get back to the original Series, due to the drop=True option:

name = name.reset_index(drop=True)
name

0        Beer-Sheva Center
1    Beer-Sheva University
2                   Dimona
dtype: object

And here is how we reset the row index in the DataFrame named stations. This time, we don’t want to lose the information, therefore the index “goes back” to the 'name' column:

stations = stations.reset_index()
stations

	name	city	lines	piano	lon	lat
0	Beer-Sheva Center	Beer-Sheva	4	False	34.798443	31.243288
1	Beer-Sheva University	Beer-Sheva	5	True	34.812831	31.260284
2	Dimona	Dimona	1	False	35.011635	31.068616

Sorting

A DataFrame can be sorted using the .sort_values method. The first parameter (by) accepts a column name, or a list of column names, to sort by.

For example, the following expression sorts the rows of dat according to the global temperature anomaly (in the 'Glob' column), from lowest to highest:

dat.sort_values('Glob')

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
29	1909	-0.49	-0.51	-0.48	-0.55	...	-0.45	-0.53	-0.37	-0.52	-0.56
24	1904	-0.48	-0.50	-0.46	-0.53	...	-0.46	-0.49	-0.37	-0.49	-1.31
37	1917	-0.47	-0.59	-0.36	-0.51	...	-0.71	-0.59	-0.23	-0.09	0.07
31	1911	-0.45	-0.43	-0.46	-0.43	...	-0.44	-0.45	-0.44	-0.52	0.06
30	1910	-0.44	-0.46	-0.43	-0.43	...	-0.49	-0.50	-0.33	-0.45	0.17
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
139	2019	0.97	1.21	0.74	1.42	...	0.90	0.88	0.74	0.41	0.80
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67	1.66	...	0.87	0.81	0.59	0.40	0.85
136	2016	1.01	1.30	0.72	1.54	...	0.95	1.05	0.67	0.28	0.36
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68

145 rows × 15 columns

The default is to sort in ascending order. If we want the opposite, i.e., a descending order, we need to specify ascending=False:

dat.sort_values('Glob', ascending=False)

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
136	2016	1.01	1.30	0.72	1.54	...	0.95	1.05	0.67	0.28	0.36
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67	1.66	...	0.87	0.81	0.59	0.40	0.85
139	2019	0.97	1.21	0.74	1.42	...	0.90	0.88	0.74	0.41	0.80
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
30	1910	-0.44	-0.46	-0.43	-0.43	...	-0.49	-0.50	-0.33	-0.45	0.17
31	1911	-0.45	-0.43	-0.46	-0.43	...	-0.44	-0.45	-0.44	-0.52	0.06
37	1917	-0.47	-0.59	-0.36	-0.51	...	-0.71	-0.59	-0.23	-0.09	0.07
24	1904	-0.48	-0.50	-0.46	-0.53	...	-0.46	-0.49	-0.37	-0.49	-1.31
29	1909	-0.49	-0.51	-0.48	-0.55	...	-0.45	-0.53	-0.37	-0.52	-0.56

145 rows × 15 columns

Plotting (pandas)

Histograms (pandas)

pandas has several methods to visualize the information in a Series or a DataFrame, which are actually shortcuts to matplotlib functions (see The matplotlib package). These methods are useful for quick visual inspection of the data.

For example, we can draw a histogram of the column(s) in a DataFrame using the .hist method. For example:

dat[['Glob', 'SHem', 'NHem']].hist();

Line plots (pandas)

The .plot method, given a Series (or a DataFrame with one column), creates a line plot with the indices on the x-axis and the values on the y-axis:

dat['Glob'].plot();

Displaying the individual observations, in addition to the line, can be done as follows:

dat['Glob'].plot(marker='o', markerfacecolor='none');

In case we need to change the values on the x-axis, the simplest way is to set the required values as the index (see Modifying the index). For example, here we set the 'Year' column as the DataFrame index, then plot the 'Glob' column. As a result, the measurement year appears on the x-axis instead of the default consecutive index:

dat.set_index('Year')['Glob'].plot();

Pay attention to the order of operations (from left to right) in the above expression:

• dat.set_index('Year')—Setting the index

• ['Glob']—Extracting a column (as Series)

• .plot();—Plotting

When we plot a DataFrame with more than one column, the columns are plotted as separate series in the same line plot. This is useful to compare the values in different columns. For example, plotting the 'Glob', 'NHem', and 'SHem' columns demonstrates that in recent years Northern Hemisphere ('NHem') temperatures have been relatively higher, while Southern Hemisphere ('SHem') temperatures have been relatively lower, compared to the global average ('Glob'):

dat.set_index('Year')[['Glob', 'NHem', 'SHem']].plot();

Scatterplots (pandas)

One more useful type of plot is a scatterplot, where we display the association between two series in the form of scattered points. To produce a scatterplot, we use the .plot.scatter method of a DataFrame, specifying the names of the columns to be displayed in the x-axis (x) and y-axis (y).

For example, the following expression shows the relation between the values in the 'NHem' and 'SHem' columns of dat:

dat.plot.scatter(x='NHem', y='SHem');

We can see a strong positive association between Northern and Southern Hemisphere temperatures across years. Namely, in years when the Nothern Hemisphere temperature is high, the Southern Hemisphere temperature also tends to be high, and vice versa.

Operators

Operators on Series

Operators and summary functions can be applied to Series objects, similarly to the way they can be applied to numpy arrays (see Vectorized operations and Summarizing array values, respectively). For example, summary methods such as .min, .max, and .mean can be applied on a Series to summarize its respective properties. Here is how we can find out the start and end 'Year' in dat:

dat['Year'].min()

np.int64(1880)

dat['Year'].max()

np.int64(2024)

and the average 'Glob' value:

dat['Glob'].mean()

np.float64(0.07206896551724139)

Other methods, such as .abs (absolute value), are applied on each element of a Series, resulting in a matching Series of results:

dat['Glob'].abs()

0      0.18
1      0.09
2      0.11
3      0.17
4      0.28
       ... 
140    1.00
141    0.84
142    0.89
143    1.17
144    1.28
Name: Glob, Length: 145, dtype: float64

We can also combine Series with individual values, or combine two series, to apply pairwise arithmetic or boolean operators. For example, here is how we can subtract 1 from all 'Year' values:

dat['Year'] - 1

0      1879
1      1880
2      1881
3      1882
4      1883
       ... 
140    2019
141    2020
142    2021
143    2022
144    2023
Name: Year, Length: 145, dtype: int64

and here is how we can calculate the yearly differences between the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere temperature anomalies:

dat['NHem'] - dat['SHem']

0     -0.27
1     -0.20
2     -0.22
3     -0.23
4     -0.30
       ... 
140    0.67
141    0.59
142    0.54
143    0.64
144    0.74
Length: 145, dtype: float64

Note that this is an arithmetic operation between two Series, which returns a new series.

Note

When performing operations between pairs of Series or DataFrames, pandas aligns the elements according to the index, rather than the position. When the data come from the same table (such as in the last example), the indices are guaranteed to match. However, when the data come from different tables, you must make sure their indices match.

Operators on DataFrames

Operating on an entire DataFrame is more complex than operating on a Series (see Operators on Series). Accordingly, operators behave in different ways. For example, arithmetic and boolean operations combined with an individual value are applied per-element, resulting in a new DataFrame (assuming that all columns are numeric):

dat - 10

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	1870	-10.18	-10.31	-10.04	-10.40	...	-10.17	-10.09	-10.04	-9.95	-9.31
1	1871	-10.09	-10.19	-9.99	-10.36	...	-9.92	-9.88	-10.05	-10.07	-9.38
2	1872	-10.11	-10.23	-10.01	-10.32	...	-10.07	-10.04	-9.99	-9.96	-9.35
3	1873	-10.17	-10.29	-10.06	-10.35	...	-10.19	-10.14	-10.04	-9.93	-9.48
4	1874	-10.28	-10.44	-10.14	-10.61	...	-10.14	-10.16	-10.18	-10.02	-9.33
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	2010	-9.00	-8.66	-9.33	-8.34	...	-9.13	-9.19	-9.41	-9.60	-9.15
141	2011	-9.16	-8.86	-9.45	-8.58	...	-9.28	-9.43	-9.27	-9.67	-9.71
142	2012	-9.11	-8.84	-9.38	-8.48	...	-9.38	-9.51	-9.21	-9.60	-8.92
143	2013	-8.83	-8.51	-9.15	-8.22	...	-8.92	-8.97	-9.10	-9.54	-9.36
144	2014	-8.72	-8.35	-9.09	-8.05	...	-8.79	-8.85	-9.12	-9.45	-9.32

145 rows × 15 columns

Methods such as .mean, however, are by default applied per column (i.e., axis=0):

dat.mean()

Year       1952.000000
Glob          0.072069
NHem          0.102414
SHem          0.042897
24N-90N       0.131448
              ...     
EQU-24N       0.062483
24S-EQU       0.089034
44S-24S       0.053034
64S-44S      -0.047379
90S-64S      -0.059448
Length: 15, dtype: float64

We elaborate on this type of row- and column-wise operations later on (see Row/col-wise operations).

Creating new columns

New DataFrame columns can be created by assignment of a Series to a non-existing column index. For example, the following expression calculates a Series of yearly differences between the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere temperatures, as shown above, and assigns it to a new column named diff:

dat['diff'] = dat['NHem'] - dat['SHem']
dat

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S	diff
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.40	...	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69	-0.27
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01	-0.36	...	0.12	-0.05	-0.07	0.62	-0.20
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01	-0.32	...	-0.04	0.01	0.04	0.65	-0.22
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06	-0.35	...	-0.14	-0.04	0.07	0.52	-0.23
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14	-0.61	...	-0.16	-0.18	-0.02	0.67	-0.30
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67	1.66	...	0.81	0.59	0.40	0.85	0.67
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29	0.59
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62	1.52	...	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08	0.54
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64	0.64
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68	0.74

145 rows × 16 columns

Here is a plot (Line plots (pandas)) of the differences we just calulated, as function of time:

dat.set_index('Year')['diff'].plot();

We can also assign an expression that combines series with individual values:

dat['NHem2'] = dat['NHem'] * 2
dat

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S	diff	NHem2
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.40	...	-0.04	0.05	0.69	-0.27	-0.62
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01	-0.36	...	-0.05	-0.07	0.62	-0.20	-0.38
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01	-0.32	...	0.01	0.04	0.65	-0.22	-0.46
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06	-0.35	...	-0.04	0.07	0.52	-0.23	-0.58
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14	-0.61	...	-0.18	-0.02	0.67	-0.30	-0.88
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67	1.66	...	0.59	0.40	0.85	0.67	2.68
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.73	0.33	0.29	0.59	2.28
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62	1.52	...	0.79	0.40	1.08	0.54	2.32
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	0.90	0.46	0.64	0.64	2.98
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	0.88	0.55	0.68	0.74	3.30

145 rows × 17 columns

or an individual value on its own (in which case it is duplicated across all rows):

dat['variable'] = 'temperature'
dat

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	64S-44S	90S-64S	diff	NHem2	variable
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.40	...	0.05	0.69	-0.27	-0.62	temperature
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01	-0.36	...	-0.07	0.62	-0.20	-0.38	temperature
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01	-0.32	...	0.04	0.65	-0.22	-0.46	temperature
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06	-0.35	...	0.07	0.52	-0.23	-0.58	temperature
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14	-0.61	...	-0.02	0.67	-0.30	-0.88	temperature
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67	1.66	...	0.40	0.85	0.67	2.68	temperature
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.33	0.29	0.59	2.28	temperature
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62	1.52	...	0.40	1.08	0.54	2.32	temperature
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	0.46	0.64	0.64	2.98	temperature
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	0.55	0.68	0.74	3.30	temperature

145 rows × 18 columns

let’s delete the 'diff', 'NHem2', 'variable' columns we just created to get the original version of dat:

dat = dat.drop(['diff', 'NHem2', 'variable'], axis=1)
dat

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.40	...	-0.17	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01	-0.36	...	0.08	0.12	-0.05	-0.07	0.62
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01	-0.32	...	-0.07	-0.04	0.01	0.04	0.65
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06	-0.35	...	-0.19	-0.14	-0.04	0.07	0.52
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14	-0.61	...	-0.14	-0.16	-0.18	-0.02	0.67
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67	1.66	...	0.87	0.81	0.59	0.40	0.85
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.72	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62	1.52	...	0.62	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68

145 rows × 15 columns

DataFrame filtering

Using conditional operators

Most often, instead of selecting rows by index or by position (see Selecting DataFrame rows), we want to filter rows by a condition that we apply on table values. For example, suppose that we want to get a subset of dat with all rows after the year 2020. To do that, we can create a boolean Series, specifying which rows are to be retained:

sel = dat['Year'] > 2020
sel

0      False
1      False
2      False
3      False
4      False
       ...  
140    False
141     True
142     True
143     True
144     True
Name: Year, Length: 145, dtype: bool

Then, the boolean series can be passed as an index inside square brackets ([), to select those rows corresponding to True:

dat[sel]

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.72	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62	1.52	...	0.62	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68

4 rows × 15 columns

The same can be acheived in a single step, as follows:

dat[dat['Year'] > 2020]

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.72	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62	1.52	...	0.62	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68

4 rows × 15 columns

Here is an example with a more complex condition (note the parantheses!):

dat[(dat['Year'] > 2020) & (dat['Year'] <= 2022)]

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.72	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62	1.52	...	0.62	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08

2 rows × 15 columns

To get the values of partucular column(s), we can use .loc, as follows:

dat.loc[(dat['Year'] > 2020) & (dat['Year'] <= 2022), 'Glob']

141    0.84
142    0.89
Name: Glob, dtype: float64

Exercise 05-e

• Create a subset of dat with all rows where the global temperature anomaly ('Glob') was above 1 degree.

Using .isin

Sometimes, the condition we are interested in is not a comparison against an individual value (such as >2020, see Using conditional operators), but multiple values. For example, suppose we want to extract the rows corresponding to the years 2008, 2012, and 2016, in dat. One way is to compose a combined condition using |, using the numpy syntax we are familiar with (see numpy conditional operators). Again, keep in mind that we must enclose each conditional expression in brackets:

sel = (dat['Year'] == 2008) | (dat['Year'] == 2012) | (dat['Year'] == 2016)
dat[sel]

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
128	2008	0.54	0.67	0.40	0.91	...	0.33	0.41	0.52	0.09	0.64
132	2012	0.64	0.80	0.48	1.02	...	0.47	0.56	0.56	0.20	0.46
136	2016	1.01	1.30	0.72	1.54	...	0.95	1.05	0.67	0.28	0.36

3 rows × 15 columns

As you can imagine, this method quickly becomes unfeasible if the number of items becomes large. Instead, we can use the .isin method, combined with a list of items to compare with the Series values:

sel = dat['Year'].isin([2008, 2012, 2016])
dat[sel]

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
128	2008	0.54	0.67	0.40	0.91	...	0.33	0.41	0.52	0.09	0.64
132	2012	0.64	0.80	0.48	1.02	...	0.47	0.56	0.56	0.20	0.46
136	2016	1.01	1.30	0.72	1.54	...	0.95	1.05	0.67	0.28	0.36

3 rows × 15 columns

Recall the in operator which we learned about earlier (see The in operator). The in operator is analogous to the .isin method, but intended for lists.

Exercise 05-f

• What do you think is the meaning of dat[~sel]? Try it to check your answer.

Assignment to subsets

When assigning to subsets of a column, we need to use the .loc method. Typically we combine:

• A boolean Series in the rows index, to select the observations we want to modify

• An str in the columns index, to select the variable we want to modify

For example, the following expression sets the 'NHem' column value to 9999 in all years after 2021:

dat.loc[dat['Year'] > 2021, 'NHem'] = 9999
dat

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.40	...	-0.17	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01	-0.36	...	0.08	0.12	-0.05	-0.07	0.62
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01	-0.32	...	-0.07	-0.04	0.01	0.04	0.65
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06	-0.35	...	-0.19	-0.14	-0.04	0.07	0.52
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14	-0.61	...	-0.14	-0.16	-0.18	-0.02	0.67
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67	1.66	...	0.87	0.81	0.59	0.40	0.85
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.72	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29
142	2022	0.89	9999.00	0.62	1.52	...	0.62	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08
143	2023	1.17	9999.00	0.85	1.78	...	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
144	2024	1.28	9999.00	0.91	1.95	...	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68

145 rows × 15 columns

To get back to the original values, let’s read the CSV file once again:

dat = pd.read_csv('data/ZonAnn.Ts+dSST.csv')
dat

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem	24N-90N	...	EQU-24N	24S-EQU	44S-24S	64S-44S	90S-64S
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04	-0.40	...	-0.17	-0.09	-0.04	0.05	0.69
1	1881	-0.09	-0.19	0.01	-0.36	...	0.08	0.12	-0.05	-0.07	0.62
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01	-0.32	...	-0.07	-0.04	0.01	0.04	0.65
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06	-0.35	...	-0.19	-0.14	-0.04	0.07	0.52
4	1884	-0.28	-0.44	-0.14	-0.61	...	-0.14	-0.16	-0.18	-0.02	0.67
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
140	2020	1.00	1.34	0.67	1.66	...	0.87	0.81	0.59	0.40	0.85
141	2021	0.84	1.14	0.55	1.42	...	0.72	0.57	0.73	0.33	0.29
142	2022	0.89	1.16	0.62	1.52	...	0.62	0.49	0.79	0.40	1.08
143	2023	1.17	1.49	0.85	1.78	...	1.08	1.03	0.90	0.46	0.64
144	2024	1.28	1.65	0.91	1.95	...	1.21	1.15	0.88	0.55	0.68

145 rows × 15 columns

Working with missing data (pandas)

Missing data in pandas

Missing values, denoting that the true value is unknown, are an inevitable feature of real-world data. In plain-text formats, such as CSV, missing values are commonly just “missing”, i.e., left blank, or marked with a text label such as 'NA'.

Treatment of “No Data” values in Series and DataFrames is derived from the underlying behavior in numpy (Working with missing data (numpy)), as pandas is based on numpy. Namely, “No Data” values are typically represented using np.nan.

pandas may automatically transform the Series data type, and “No Data” representation, for optimized data storage. For example, a Series of type int which contains one or more np.nan value, is automatically transformed to float, similarly to the behaviour we have seen with numpy arrays (Working with missing data (numpy)):

pd.Series([7, 4, 3])

0    7
1    4
2    3
dtype: int64

pd.Series([7, np.nan, 3])

0    7.0
1    NaN
2    3.0
dtype: float64

Moreover, None values are automatically transformed to np.nan (unlike numpy, where None values are preserved, resulting in an object array):

pd.Series([7, None, 3])

0    7.0
1    NaN
2    3.0
dtype: float64

“No Data” values are automatically assigned where necessary when creating a Series or a DataFrame through other methods too. For example, empty cells in a CSV file are interpreted as np.nan when importing the CSV into a DataFrame (see Reading from file).

The 'education.csv' file contains the locations, and other details, about education facilities in Beer-Sheva:

• 'Institutio'—Institution name

• 'type'—Institution type

• 'ADDRESS'—Institution address

• 'oldName'—Institution old name

• 'lat'—Latitude

• 'lon'—Longitude

If you open the CSV file in a spreadsheet program (such as Excel), you will see that some of the cells are empty. Those cells are assigned with np.nan when importing the table:

edu = pd.read_csv('data/education.csv')
edu

	Institutio	type	ADDRESS	oldName	lat	lon
0	דוגית	גן ילדים	משה סתוי נ.זאב	NaN	31.240226	34.767153
1	שומרון	גן ילדים	שומרון שכ לון	NaN	31.246547	34.765438
2	שרת	גן ילדים	משה שרת 13	NaN	31.256681	34.766891
3	חופית	גן ילדים	ניב דוד נ.זאב	NaN	31.238660	34.770356
4	רביבים	גן ילדים	מבצע משה נ.זאב	NaN	31.237117	34.779331
...	...	...	...	...	...	...
484	ברעם	גן ילדים	נחל משמר	NaN	31.233890	34.818100
485	שילה	גן ילדים	נחל יהל 3	NaN	31.232486	34.821510
486	קדם	גן ילדים	נחל יהל 3	NaN	31.232557	34.821390
487	שמים	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254752	34.803860
488	תכלת	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254470	34.804140

489 rows × 6 columns

First, let’s make the column names more convenient:

edu = edu.rename(columns={
    'Institutio': 'name', 
    'ADDRESS': 'address', 
    'oldName': 'old_name'
})
edu

	name	type	address	old_name	lat	lon
0	דוגית	גן ילדים	משה סתוי נ.זאב	NaN	31.240226	34.767153
1	שומרון	גן ילדים	שומרון שכ לון	NaN	31.246547	34.765438
2	שרת	גן ילדים	משה שרת 13	NaN	31.256681	34.766891
3	חופית	גן ילדים	ניב דוד נ.זאב	NaN	31.238660	34.770356
4	רביבים	גן ילדים	מבצע משה נ.זאב	NaN	31.237117	34.779331
...	...	...	...	...	...	...
484	ברעם	גן ילדים	נחל משמר	NaN	31.233890	34.818100
485	שילה	גן ילדים	נחל יהל 3	NaN	31.232486	34.821510
486	קדם	גן ילדים	נחל יהל 3	NaN	31.232557	34.821390
487	שמים	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254752	34.803860
488	תכלת	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254470	34.804140

489 rows × 6 columns

For example, the old name of the first entry is unknown:

edu['old_name'].iloc[0]

nan

Detecting with pd.isna

To detect “No Data” values, the .isna method can be applied on a Series or a DataFrame. The result is a boolean mask that marks the missing values. This is analogous to the np.isnan function for arrays (see Detecting “No Data” (np.isnan)).

For example, edu.isna() returns a boolean DataFrame, of the same shape as edu, with True marking “No Data” values:

edu.isna()

	name	type	address	old_name	lat	lon
0	False	False	False	True	False	False
1	False	False	False	True	False	False
2	False	False	False	True	False	False
3	False	False	False	True	False	False
4	False	False	False	True	False	False
...	...	...	...	...	...	...
484	False	False	False	True	False	False
485	False	False	False	True	False	False
486	False	False	False	True	False	False
487	False	False	False	False	False	False
488	False	False	False	False	False	False

489 rows × 6 columns

Similarly, the .isna() method applied on a Series returns a new boolean Series where “No Data” values are marked with True:

edu['old_name'].isna()

0       True
1       True
2       True
3       True
4       True
       ...  
484     True
485     True
486     True
487    False
488    False
Name: old_name, Length: 489, dtype: bool

The ~ operator (see numpy conditional operators) reverses a boolean Series. This is very useful in the context of “No Data” masks, since it can reverse the mask so that it points at non-missing values.

For example, here is how we can get the reverse of edu.isna():

~edu.isna()

	name	type	address	old_name	lat	lon
0	True	True	True	False	True	True
1	True	True	True	False	True	True
2	True	True	True	False	True	True
3	True	True	True	False	True	True
4	True	True	True	False	True	True
...	...	...	...	...	...	...
484	True	True	True	False	True	True
485	True	True	True	False	True	True
486	True	True	True	False	True	True
487	True	True	True	True	True	True
488	True	True	True	True	True	True

489 rows × 6 columns

and here is how we can get the reverse of edu['old_name'].isna():

~edu['old_name'].isna()

0      False
1      False
2      False
3      False
4      False
       ...  
484    False
485    False
486    False
487     True
488     True
Name: old_name, Length: 489, dtype: bool

Another possible use of ~ and .isna is to extract the non-missing values from a series. Here is an example:

edu.loc[~edu['old_name'].isna(), 'old_name']

6             רד"ק
7           השלושה
10            ברנר
13            רקפת
19          מיתרים
          ...     
365    עובדי מדינה
400       גור אריה
415           תבור
487         מיתרים
488         מיתרים
Name: old_name, Length: 67, dtype: object

However, there is a dedicated method called .dropna to do that with shorter code (see Removing with .dropna):

edu['old_name'].dropna()

6             רד"ק
7           השלושה
10            ברנר
13            רקפת
19          מיתרים
          ...     
365    עובדי מדינה
400       גור אריה
415           תבור
487         מיתרים
488         מיתרים
Name: old_name, Length: 67, dtype: object

Similarly, we can extract DataFrame rows where a particular column is non-missing. For example, here are the edu rows that have a non-missing 'old_name' value:

edu[~edu['old_name'].isna()]

	name	type	address	old_name	lat	lon
6	מאדים	גן ילדים	רד"ק שכ יא	רד"ק	31.256963	34.772220
7	אדמה	גן ילדים	רח טבריה שכ ט	השלושה	31.247157	34.776405
10	חלילית	גן ילדים	ברנר שכ א	ברנר	31.248934	34.793113
13	חרצית	גן ילדים	מבצע ארז שכ ו	רקפת	31.265425	34.782446
19	איילה	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.256078	34.803588
...	...	...	...	...	...	...
365	נבל	גן ילדים	NaN	עובדי מדינה	31.248385	34.786168
400	נווה	גן ילדים	המר 3	גור אריה	31.266327	34.810049
415	ארבל	גן ילדים	מודעי	תבור	31.266514	34.809769
487	שמים	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254752	34.803860
488	תכלת	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254470	34.804140

67 rows × 6 columns

Note

Instead of reversing the output of .isna with the ~ operator, another option is to use the inverse method .notna, which returns the non-missing mask.

Finally, it is often useful to combine the .isna method with .any to find out if a Series contains at least one missing value:

edu['old_name'].isna().any()

np.True_

edu['name'].isna().any()

np.False_

or to find out which columns contain at least one missing value:

edu.isna().any()

name        False
type        False
address      True
old_name     True
lat         False
lon         False
dtype: bool

We can also use .sum to find out how many missing value are there in each column:

edu.isna().sum()

name          0
type          0
address      86
old_name    422
lat           0
lon           0
dtype: int64

or .mean to find the proportion of missing values in each column:

edu.isna().mean()

name        0.000000
type        0.000000
address     0.175869
old_name    0.862986
lat         0.000000
lon         0.000000
dtype: float64

Operators with missing values

When applying a method such as .sum, .mean, .min, or .max (or the respective np.* function) on a Series, the “No Data” values are ignored. That is, the result is based only on the non-missing values. For example:

edu.loc[~edu['old_name'].isna(), 'old_name1'] = 1
edu

	name	type	address	old_name	lat	lon	old_name1
0	דוגית	גן ילדים	משה סתוי נ.זאב	NaN	31.240226	34.767153	NaN
1	שומרון	גן ילדים	שומרון שכ לון	NaN	31.246547	34.765438	NaN
2	שרת	גן ילדים	משה שרת 13	NaN	31.256681	34.766891	NaN
3	חופית	גן ילדים	ניב דוד נ.זאב	NaN	31.238660	34.770356	NaN
4	רביבים	גן ילדים	מבצע משה נ.זאב	NaN	31.237117	34.779331	NaN
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
484	ברעם	גן ילדים	נחל משמר	NaN	31.233890	34.818100	NaN
485	שילה	גן ילדים	נחל יהל 3	NaN	31.232486	34.821510	NaN
486	קדם	גן ילדים	נחל יהל 3	NaN	31.232557	34.821390	NaN
487	שמים	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254752	34.803860	1.0
488	תכלת	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254470	34.804140	1.0

489 rows × 7 columns

edu['old_name1'].sum()

np.float64(67.0)

Note that this behavior is specific to pandas, and unlike what we have seen with numpy arrays, where these opertions return “No Data” if at least one of the values in the array is “No Data” (see Operations with “No Data”):

edu['old_name1'].to_numpy().sum()

np.float64(nan)

Element-by-element operations, however, expectedly result in “No Data” when applied to “No Data” elements, since the result cannot be computed at all. For example:

edu['old_name1'] * 2

0      NaN
1      NaN
2      NaN
3      NaN
4      NaN
      ... 
484    NaN
485    NaN
486    NaN
487    2.0
488    2.0
Name: old_name1, Length: 489, dtype: float64

Removing with .dropna

The .dropna method can be used to remove missing values from a DataFrame (or a Series). The default is to drop all rows that have at least one missing value, i.e., keeping only complete observations. For example:

edu.dropna()

	name	type	address	old_name	lat	lon	old_name1
6	מאדים	גן ילדים	רד"ק שכ יא	רד"ק	31.256963	34.772220	1.0
7	אדמה	גן ילדים	רח טבריה שכ ט	השלושה	31.247157	34.776405	1.0
10	חלילית	גן ילדים	ברנר שכ א	ברנר	31.248934	34.793113	1.0
13	חרצית	גן ילדים	מבצע ארז שכ ו	רקפת	31.265425	34.782446	1.0
19	איילה	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.256078	34.803588	1.0
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
363	אוריה	גן ילדים	בי"ס מוריה שכ א	נריה	31.246930	34.792426	1.0
400	נווה	גן ילדים	המר 3	גור אריה	31.266327	34.810049	1.0
415	ארבל	גן ילדים	מודעי	תבור	31.266514	34.809769	1.0
487	שמים	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254752	34.803860	1.0
488	תכלת	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254470	34.804140	1.0

59 rows × 7 columns

Note

There are other parameters of .dropna for dropping columns instead of rows, or dropping rows or column using a threshold of “acceptable” minimum number of non-missing values. See the documentation for details.

Replacing with .fillna

Missing values can be replaced using the .fillna method. The parameter specifies which new value should be placed instead of the “No Data” values. For example, here is how we can replace the “No Data” values in the 'old_name1' column of edu with 0:

edu['old_name1'].fillna(0)

0      0.0
1      0.0
2      0.0
3      0.0
4      0.0
      ... 
484    0.0
485    0.0
486    0.0
487    1.0
488    1.0
Name: old_name1, Length: 489, dtype: float64

or assign the result back to the edu table:

edu['old_name1'] = edu['old_name1'].fillna(0)
edu

	name	type	address	old_name	lat	lon	old_name1
0	דוגית	גן ילדים	משה סתוי נ.זאב	NaN	31.240226	34.767153	0.0
1	שומרון	גן ילדים	שומרון שכ לון	NaN	31.246547	34.765438	0.0
2	שרת	גן ילדים	משה שרת 13	NaN	31.256681	34.766891	0.0
3	חופית	גן ילדים	ניב דוד נ.זאב	NaN	31.238660	34.770356	0.0
4	רביבים	גן ילדים	מבצע משה נ.זאב	NaN	31.237117	34.779331	0.0
...	...	...	...	...	...	...	...
484	ברעם	גן ילדים	נחל משמר	NaN	31.233890	34.818100	0.0
485	שילה	גן ילדים	נחל יהל 3	NaN	31.232486	34.821510	0.0
486	קדם	גן ילדים	נחל יהל 3	NaN	31.232557	34.821390	0.0
487	שמים	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254752	34.803860	1.0
488	תכלת	גן ילדים	וינגיט שכ ג	מיתרים	31.254470	34.804140	1.0

489 rows × 7 columns

Views and copies (pandas)

One more thing we need to be aware when working with pandas is the distinction between views and copies. The pandas package (and geopandas which extends it, see Vector layers (geopandas)) behaves similarly to numpy with respect to copies (see Views and copies (numpy)). We must be aware of whether we are creating a view or a copy of a DataFrame, to avoid unexpected results.

Here is a small demonstration, very similar to the one we did with numpy arrays (see Views and copies (numpy)). Suppose that we create a copy of dat, named dat2:

dat2 = dat

Next, we modify dat2, assigning a new value such as 9999 into a particular cell (e.g., 2^nd row, 2^nd column):

dat2.iloc[1, 1] = 9999

The printout of the table top-left “corner” demonstrates the value was actually changed:

dat2.iloc[:4, :4]

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04
1	1881	9999.00	-0.19	0.01
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06

What may be surprising, again, is that the original table dat has also changed. We thus demonstrated that dat2 is a reference to dat, rather than an independent copy:

dat.iloc[:4, :4]

	Year	Glob	NHem	SHem
0	1880	-0.18	-0.31	-0.04
1	1881	9999.00	-0.19	0.01
2	1882	-0.11	-0.23	-0.01
3	1883	-0.17	-0.29	-0.06

To create an independent copy, so that its modifications are not reflected in the original, we need to explicitly use the .copy method, as in:

dat2 = dat.copy()

Note

The behavior described in this section can be disabled with pd.options.mode.copy_on_write=True, and will be disabled by default in pandas version 3.0. When disabled, every pandas operation will create an independent copy, and, for example, it would be impossible to update two objects at once as done above.

let’s read the CSV file again to get back to the original values:

dat = pd.read_csv('data/ZonAnn.Ts+dSST.csv')

Writing DataFrame to file

A DataFrame can be exported to several formats, such as CSV or Excel, using the appropriate method. For example, exporting to CSV is done using the .to_csv method.

Here is how we can export the DataFrame named stations, which we created in the beginning of the chapter (see Creating a DataFrame), to a CSV file named 'stations.csv' in the output directory. The additional index=False argument specifies that we don’t want to export the index values, which is usually the case:

stations.to_csv('output/stations.csv', index=False)

Note that the file is exported to a sub-directory named output (which must already exist!).

The way the resulting file stations.csv is displayed in a spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel or LibreOffice Calc, is shown in Fig. 27.

Fig. 27 The DataFrame named stations when exported to CSV file and opened in LibreOffice Calc

More exercises

Exercise 05-g

• Import the file 'education.csv' into a DataFrame

• Rename the columns as shown in Missing data in pandas

• How many observations with non-missing 'old_name' are there?

• How many observations with non-missing 'address' and non-missing 'old_name' are there?

• How many unique institution types are there?

• Create a list of the unique types and print it

Exercise solutions

Exercise 05-d

import pandas as pd
dat = pd.read_csv('data/ZonAnn.Ts+dSST.csv')
dat['Year'].iloc[dat.shape[0]-1]

np.int64(2024)

Exercise 05-g

import pandas as pd
edu = pd.read_csv('data/education.csv')
edu = edu.rename(columns={
    'Institutio': 'name', 
    'ADDRESS': 'address', 
    'oldName': 'old_name'
})

(~edu['old_name'].isna()).sum()

np.int64(67)

(~edu['address'].isna() & ~edu['old_name'].isna()).sum()

np.int64(59)

edu['type'].nunique()

5

edu['type'].unique().tolist()

['גן ילדים', 'מרכז מדעים', 'חווה חקלאי', 'על יסודי', 'בית ספר']