Python-Programming-Lesson-Notes

Episode 2 Exercise 6

Many Ways of Access

There are at least two ways of accessing a value or slice of a DataFrame: by name or index. However, there are many others. For example, a single column or row can be accessed either as a DataFrame or a Series object.

Suggest different ways of doing the following operations on a DataFrame:

  1. Access a single column
  2. Access a single row
  3. Access an individual DataFrame element
  4. Access several columns
  5. Access several rows
  6. Access a subset of specific rows and columns
  7. Access a subset of row and column ranges

Solution

  1. Access a single column:
# by name
data["col_name"]   # as a Series
data[["col_name"]] # as a DataFrame

# by name using .loc
data.T.loc["col_name"]  # as a Series
data.T.loc[["col_name"]].T  # as a DataFrame

# Dot notation (Series)
data.col_name

# by index (iloc)
data.iloc[:, col_index]   # as a Series
data.iloc[:, [col_index]] # as a DataFrame

# using a mask
data.T[data.T.index == "col_name"].T
  1. Access a single row:
# by name using .loc
data.loc["row_name"] # as a Series
data.loc[["row_name"]] # as a DataFrame

# by name
data.T["row_name"] # as a Series
data.T[["row_name"]].T as a DataFrame

# by index
data.iloc[row_index]   # as a Series
data.iloc[[row_index]]   # as a DataFrame

# using mask
data[data.index == "row_name"]
  1. Access an individual DataFrame element:
# by column/row names
data["column_name"]["row_name"]         # as a Series

data[["col_name"]].loc["row_name"]  # as a Series
data[["col_name"]].loc[["row_name"]]  # as a DataFrame

data.loc["row_name"]["col_name"]  # as a value
data.loc[["row_name"]]["col_name"]  # as a Series
data.loc[["row_name"]][["col_name"]]  # as a DataFrame

data.loc["row_name", "col_name"]  # as a value
data.loc[["row_name"], "col_name"]  # as a Series. Preserves index. Column name is moved to `.name`.
data.loc["row_name", ["col_name"]]  # as a Series. Index is moved to `.name.` Sets index to column name.
data.loc[["row_name"], ["col_name"]]  # as a DataFrame (preserves original index and column name)

# by column/row names: Dot notation
data.col_name.row_name

# by column/row indices
data.iloc[row_index, col_index] # as a value
data.iloc[[row_index], col_index] # as a Series. Preserves index. Column name is moved to `.name`
data.iloc[row_index, [col_index]] # as a Series. Index is moved to `.name.` Sets index to column name.
data.iloc[[row_index], [col_index]] # as a DataFrame (preserves original index and column name)

# column name + row index
data["col_name"][row_index]
data.col_name[row_index]
data["col_name"].iloc[row_index]

# column index + row name
data.iloc[:, [col_index]].loc["row_name"]  # as a Series
data.iloc[:, [col_index]].loc[["row_name"]]  # as a DataFrame

# using masks
data[data.index == "row_name"].T[data.T.index == "col_name"].T
  1. Access several columns:
# by name
data[["col1", "col2", "col3"]]
data.loc[:, ["col1", "col2", "col3"]]

# by index
data.iloc[:, [col1_index, col2_index, col3_index]]
  1. Access several rows
# by name
data.loc[["row1", "row2", "row3"]]

# by index
data.iloc[[row1_index, row2_index, row3_index]]
  1. Access a subset of specific rows and columns
# by names
data.loc[["row1", "row2", "row3"], ["col1", "col2", "col3"]]

# by indices
data.iloc[[row1_index, row2_index, row3_index], [col1_index, col2_index, col3_index]]

# column names + row indices
data[["col1", "col2", "col3"]].iloc[[row1_index, row2_index, row3_index]]

# column indices + row names
data.iloc[:, [col1_index, col2_index, col3_index]].loc[["row1", "row2", "row3"]]
  1. Access a subset of row and column ranges
# by name
data.loc["row1":"row2", "col1":"col2"]

# by index
data.iloc[row1_index:row2_index, col1_index:col2_index]

# column names + row indices
data.loc[:, "col1_name":"col2_name"].iloc[row1_index:row2_index]

# column indices + row names
data.iloc[:, col1_index:col2_index].loc["row1":"row2"]

Episode 3 Exercise 1