3 Selection

Note

While standard Python / Numpy expressions for selecting and setting are intuitive and come in handy for interactive work, for production code, we recommend the optimized pandas data access methods, .at, .iat, .loc, .iloc and .ix.

See the indexing documentation Indexing and Selecting Data and MultiIndex / Advanced Indexing

3.1 Getting

Selecting a single column, which yields a Series, equivalent to df.A

In [1]: df
Out[1]: 
                   A         B         C         D
2013-01-01  0.469112 -0.282863 -1.509059 -1.135632
2013-01-02  1.212112 -0.173215  0.119209 -1.044236
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -2.104569 -0.494929  1.071804
2013-01-04  0.721555 -0.706771 -1.039575  0.271860
2013-01-05 -0.424972  0.567020  0.276232 -1.087401
2013-01-06 -0.673690  0.113648 -1.478427  0.524988

In [2]: df['A']
Out[2]: 
2013-01-01    0.469112
2013-01-02    1.212112
2013-01-03   -0.861849
2013-01-04    0.721555
2013-01-05   -0.424972
2013-01-06   -0.673690
Freq: D, Name: A, dtype: float64

Selecting via [], which slices the rows.

In [3]: df[0:3]
Out[3]: 
                   A         B         C         D
2013-01-01  0.469112 -0.282863 -1.509059 -1.135632
2013-01-02  1.212112 -0.173215  0.119209 -1.044236
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -2.104569 -0.494929  1.071804

In [4]: df['20130102':'20130104']
Out[4]: 
                   A         B         C         D
2013-01-02  1.212112 -0.173215  0.119209 -1.044236
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -2.104569 -0.494929  1.071804
2013-01-04  0.721555 -0.706771 -1.039575  0.271860

3.2 Selection by Label

See more in Selection by Label

For getting a cross section using a label

In [5]: df.loc[dates[0]]
Out[5]: 
A    0.469112
B   -0.282863
C   -1.509059
D   -1.135632
Name: 2013-01-01 00:00:00, dtype: float64

Selecting on a multi-axis by label

In [6]: df.loc[:,['A','B']]
Out[6]: 
                   A         B
2013-01-01  0.469112 -0.282863
2013-01-02  1.212112 -0.173215
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -2.104569
2013-01-04  0.721555 -0.706771
2013-01-05 -0.424972  0.567020
2013-01-06 -0.673690  0.113648

Showing label slicing, both endpoints are included

In [7]: df.loc['20130102':'20130104',['A','B']]
Out[7]: 
                   A         B
2013-01-02  1.212112 -0.173215
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -2.104569
2013-01-04  0.721555 -0.706771

Reduction in the dimensions of the returned object

In [8]: df.loc['20130102',['A','B']]
Out[8]: 
A    1.212112
B   -0.173215
Name: 2013-01-02 00:00:00, dtype: float64

For getting a scalar value

In [9]: df.loc[dates[0],'A']
Out[9]: 0.46911229990718628

For getting fast access to a scalar (equiv to the prior method)

In [10]: df.at[dates[0],'A']
Out[10]: 0.46911229990718628

3.3 Selection by Position

See more in Selection by Position

Select via the position of the passed integers

In [11]: df.iloc[3]
Out[11]: 
A    0.721555
B   -0.706771
C   -1.039575
D    0.271860
Name: 2013-01-04 00:00:00, dtype: float64

By integer slices, acting similar to numpy/python

In [12]: df.iloc[3:5,0:2]
Out[12]: 
                   A         B
2013-01-04  0.721555 -0.706771
2013-01-05 -0.424972  0.567020

By lists of integer position locations, similar to the numpy/python style

In [13]: df.iloc[[1,2,4],[0,2]]
Out[13]: 
                   A         C
2013-01-02  1.212112  0.119209
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -0.494929
2013-01-05 -0.424972  0.276232

For slicing rows explicitly

In [14]: df.iloc[1:3,:]
Out[14]: 
                   A         B         C         D
2013-01-02  1.212112 -0.173215  0.119209 -1.044236
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -2.104569 -0.494929  1.071804

For slicing columns explicitly

In [15]: df.iloc[:,1:3]
Out[15]: 
                   B         C
2013-01-01 -0.282863 -1.509059
2013-01-02 -0.173215  0.119209
2013-01-03 -2.104569 -0.494929
2013-01-04 -0.706771 -1.039575
2013-01-05  0.567020  0.276232
2013-01-06  0.113648 -1.478427

For getting a value explicitly

In [16]: df.iloc[1,1]
Out[16]: -0.17321464905330858

For getting fast access to a scalar (equiv to the prior method)

In [17]: df.iat[1,1]
Out[17]: -0.17321464905330858

3.4 Boolean Indexing

Using a single column’s values to select data.

In [18]: df[df.A > 0]
Out[18]: 
                   A         B         C         D
2013-01-01  0.469112 -0.282863 -1.509059 -1.135632
2013-01-02  1.212112 -0.173215  0.119209 -1.044236
2013-01-04  0.721555 -0.706771 -1.039575  0.271860

A where operation for getting.

In [19]: df[df > 0]
Out[19]: 
                   A         B         C         D
2013-01-01  0.469112       NaN       NaN       NaN
2013-01-02  1.212112       NaN  0.119209       NaN
2013-01-03       NaN       NaN       NaN  1.071804
2013-01-04  0.721555       NaN       NaN  0.271860
2013-01-05       NaN  0.567020  0.276232       NaN
2013-01-06       NaN  0.113648       NaN  0.524988

Using the isin() method for filtering:

In [20]: df2 = df.copy()

In [21]: df2['E'] = ['one', 'one','two','three','four','three']

In [22]: df2
Out[22]: 
                   A         B         C         D      E
2013-01-01  0.469112 -0.282863 -1.509059 -1.135632    one
2013-01-02  1.212112 -0.173215  0.119209 -1.044236    one
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -2.104569 -0.494929  1.071804    two
2013-01-04  0.721555 -0.706771 -1.039575  0.271860  three
2013-01-05 -0.424972  0.567020  0.276232 -1.087401   four
2013-01-06 -0.673690  0.113648 -1.478427  0.524988  three

In [23]: df2[df2['E'].isin(['two','four'])]
Out[23]: 
                   A         B         C         D     E
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -2.104569 -0.494929  1.071804   two
2013-01-05 -0.424972  0.567020  0.276232 -1.087401  four

3.5 Setting

Setting a new column automatically aligns the data by the indexes

In [24]: s1 = pd.Series([1,2,3,4,5,6], index=pd.date_range('20130102', periods=6))

In [25]: s1
Out[25]: 
2013-01-02    1
2013-01-03    2
2013-01-04    3
2013-01-05    4
2013-01-06    5
2013-01-07    6
Freq: D, dtype: int64

In [26]: df['F'] = s1

Setting values by label

In [27]: df.at[dates[0],'A'] = 0

Setting values by position

In [28]: df.iat[0,1] = 0

Setting by assigning with a numpy array

In [29]: df.loc[:,'D'] = np.array([5] * len(df))

The result of the prior setting operations

In [30]: df
Out[30]: 
                   A         B         C  D    F
2013-01-01  0.000000  0.000000 -1.509059  5  NaN
2013-01-02  1.212112 -0.173215  0.119209  5  1.0
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -2.104569 -0.494929  5  2.0
2013-01-04  0.721555 -0.706771 -1.039575  5  3.0
2013-01-05 -0.424972  0.567020  0.276232  5  4.0
2013-01-06 -0.673690  0.113648 -1.478427  5  5.0

A where operation with setting.

In [31]: df2 = df.copy()

In [32]: df2[df2 > 0] = -df2

In [33]: df2
Out[33]: 
                   A         B         C  D    F
2013-01-01  0.000000  0.000000 -1.509059 -5  NaN
2013-01-02 -1.212112 -0.173215 -0.119209 -5 -1.0
2013-01-03 -0.861849 -2.104569 -0.494929 -5 -2.0
2013-01-04 -0.721555 -0.706771 -1.039575 -5 -3.0
2013-01-05 -0.424972 -0.567020 -0.276232 -5 -4.0
2013-01-06 -0.673690 -0.113648 -1.478427 -5 -5.0