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14.3: More about Pandas series

  • Page ID
    23974
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    In NumPy, you access individual elements using its integer index, with zero-based indexing: array[0] for the first element, array[1] for the second, and so on. You can also use negative integers to index elements from the end of the array; for example, array[-1] will give you the last element.

    if you have Pandas series named animal_weights with the index the animal types and the data the weight in pounds, it might look like this:

    Elephant    13000
    Horse        1200
    Kangaroo      200
    Penguin        25
    Python        150

    We use the iloc method for integer-location based indexing like NumPy. For example, animal_weights.iloc[0] will return the first row:

    Elephant   13000

    and animal_weights.iloc[-1] will return the last row:

    Python     150

    In NumPy, you can extract a subset of the array using the syntax array[start:stop:step]. For instance, array[2:5] would extract elements at indices 2, 3, and 4.  In a similar way, you can extract subsets of a Pandas series with animal_weights.iloc[2:5], which returns

    Horse        1200
    Kangaroo      200
    Penguin        25

    If this were all there were, then Pandas would present little benefit over NumPy.  But Pandas also lets you access rows based on the index labels, not their integer location.  For example, we can access the weight of a Kangaroo with the syntax: animal_weights['Kangaroo'] or, even simpler, animal_weights.Kangaroo.  This makes accessing data much simpler than NumPy because you don't have to figure out which row the data you want is — you just use the index label to find it.

    You can also select several rows using slicing similar to NumPy.  For example, you can extract the middle three rows using the syntax: animal_weights.loc['Horse':'Penguin'].  This would return the Pandas series:

    Horse        1200
    Kangaroo      200
    Penguin        25

    Three things to note: 1) when you slice into a Pandas series, you get the entire row: both the indices and values.  2) Remember that label-based indexing uses the .loc method, while integer indexing uses.iloc.  3) Unlike integer indexing, where the extracted subset does NOT include the last number, when you use label-based indexing, you get row corresponding to the last index (in this case, 'Penguin').


    14.3: More about Pandas series is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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