Pandas index column title or name

How do I get the index column name in python pandas? Here’s an example dataframe:

             Column 1
Index Title          
Apples              1
Oranges             2
Puppies             3
Ducks               4

What I’m trying to do is get/set the dataframe index title. Here is what i tried:

import pandas as pd
data = {'Column 1'     : [1., 2., 3., 4.],
        'Index Title'  : ["Apples", "Oranges", "Puppies", "Ducks"]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)
df.index = df["Index Title"]
del df["Index Title"]
print df

Anyone know how to do this?

Answers:

Thank you for visiting the Q&A section on Magenaut. Please note that all the answers may not help you solve the issue immediately. So please treat them as advisements. If you found the post helpful (or not), leave a comment & I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Method 1

You can just get/set the index via its name property

In [7]: df.index.name
Out[7]: 'Index Title'

In [8]: df.index.name = 'foo'

In [9]: df.index.name
Out[9]: 'foo'

In [10]: df
Out[10]: 
         Column 1
foo              
Apples          1
Oranges         2
Puppies         3
Ducks           4

Method 2

You can use rename_axis, for removing set to None:

d = {'Index Title': ['Apples', 'Oranges', 'Puppies', 'Ducks'],'Column 1': [1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0]}
df = pd.DataFrame(d).set_index('Index Title')
print (df)
             Column 1
Index Title          
Apples            1.0
Oranges           2.0
Puppies           3.0
Ducks             4.0

print (df.index.name)
Index Title

print (df.columns.name)
None

The new functionality works well in method chains.

df = df.rename_axis('foo')
print (df)
         Column 1
foo              
Apples        1.0
Oranges       2.0
Puppies       3.0
Ducks         4.0

You can also rename column names with parameter axis:

d = {'Index Title': ['Apples', 'Oranges', 'Puppies', 'Ducks'],'Column 1': [1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0]}
df = pd.DataFrame(d).set_index('Index Title').rename_axis('Col Name', axis=1)
print (df)
Col Name     Column 1
Index Title          
Apples            1.0
Oranges           2.0
Puppies           3.0
Ducks             4.0

print (df.index.name)
Index Title

print (df.columns.name)
Col Name
print df.rename_axis('foo').rename_axis("bar", axis="columns")
bar      Column 1
foo              
Apples        1.0
Oranges       2.0
Puppies       3.0
Ducks         4.0

print df.rename_axis('foo').rename_axis("bar", axis=1)
bar      Column 1
foo              
Apples        1.0
Oranges       2.0
Puppies       3.0
Ducks         4.0

From version pandas 0.24.0+ is possible use parameter index and columns:

df = df.rename_axis(index='foo', columns="bar")
print (df)
bar      Column 1
foo              
Apples        1.0
Oranges       2.0
Puppies       3.0
Ducks         4.0

Removing index and columns names means set it to None:

df = df.rename_axis(index=None, columns=None)
print (df)
         Column 1
Apples        1.0
Oranges       2.0
Puppies       3.0
Ducks         4.0

If MultiIndex in index only:

mux = pd.MultiIndex.from_arrays([['Apples', 'Oranges', 'Puppies', 'Ducks'],
                                  list('abcd')], 
                                  names=['index name 1','index name 1'])


df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randint(10, size=(4,6)), 
                  index=mux, 
                  columns=list('ABCDEF')).rename_axis('col name', axis=1)
print (df)
col name                   A  B  C  D  E  F
index name 1 index name 1                  
Apples       a             5  4  0  5  2  2
Oranges      b             5  8  2  5  9  9
Puppies      c             7  6  0  7  8  3
Ducks        d             6  5  0  1  6  0

print (df.index.name)
None

print (df.columns.name)
col name

print (df.index.names)
['index name 1', 'index name 1']

print (df.columns.names)
['col name']

df1 = df.rename_axis(('foo','bar'))
print (df1)
col name     A  B  C  D  E  F
foo     bar                  
Apples  a    5  4  0  5  2  2
Oranges b    5  8  2  5  9  9
Puppies c    7  6  0  7  8  3
Ducks   d    6  5  0  1  6  0

df2 = df.rename_axis('baz', axis=1)
print (df2)
baz                        A  B  C  D  E  F
index name 1 index name 1                  
Apples       a             5  4  0  5  2  2
Oranges      b             5  8  2  5  9  9
Puppies      c             7  6  0  7  8  3
Ducks        d             6  5  0  1  6  0

df2 = df.rename_axis(index=('foo','bar'), columns='baz')
print (df2)
baz          A  B  C  D  E  F
foo     bar                  
Apples  a    5  4  0  5  2  2
Oranges b    5  8  2  5  9  9
Puppies c    7  6  0  7  8  3
Ducks   d    6  5  0  1  6  0

Removing index and columns names means set it to None:

df2 = df.rename_axis(index=(None,None), columns=None)
print (df2)

           A  B  C  D  E  F
Apples  a  6  9  9  5  4  6
Oranges b  2  6  7  4  3  5
Puppies c  6  3  6  3  5  1
Ducks   d  4  9  1  3  0  5

For MultiIndex in index and columns is necessary working with .names instead .name and set by list or tuples:

mux1 = pd.MultiIndex.from_arrays([['Apples', 'Oranges', 'Puppies', 'Ducks'],
                                  list('abcd')], 
                                  names=['index name 1','index name 1'])


mux2 = pd.MultiIndex.from_product([list('ABC'),
                                  list('XY')], 
                                  names=['col name 1','col name 2'])

df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randint(10, size=(4,6)), index=mux1, columns=mux2)
print (df)
col name 1                 A     B     C   
col name 2                 X  Y  X  Y  X  Y
index name 1 index name 1                  
Apples       a             2  9  4  7  0  3
Oranges      b             9  0  6  0  9  4
Puppies      c             2  4  6  1  4  4
Ducks        d             6  6  7  1  2  8

Plural is necessary for check/set values:

print (df.index.name)
None

print (df.columns.name)
None

print (df.index.names)
['index name 1', 'index name 1']

print (df.columns.names)
['col name 1', 'col name 2']

df1 = df.rename_axis(('foo','bar'))
print (df1)
col name 1   A     B     C   
col name 2   X  Y  X  Y  X  Y
foo     bar                  
Apples  a    2  9  4  7  0  3
Oranges b    9  0  6  0  9  4
Puppies c    2  4  6  1  4  4
Ducks   d    6  6  7  1  2  8

df2 = df.rename_axis(('baz','bak'), axis=1)
print (df2)
baz                        A     B     C   
bak                        X  Y  X  Y  X  Y
index name 1 index name 1                  
Apples       a             2  9  4  7  0  3
Oranges      b             9  0  6  0  9  4
Puppies      c             2  4  6  1  4  4
Ducks        d             6  6  7  1  2  8

df2 = df.rename_axis(index=('foo','bar'), columns=('baz','bak'))
print (df2)
baz          A     B     C   
bak          X  Y  X  Y  X  Y
foo     bar                  
Apples  a    2  9  4  7  0  3
Oranges b    9  0  6  0  9  4
Puppies c    2  4  6  1  4  4
Ducks   d    6  6  7  1  2  8

Removing index and columns names means set it to None:

df2 = df.rename_axis(index=(None,None), columns=(None,None))
print (df2)

           A     B     C   
           X  Y  X  Y  X  Y
Apples  a  2  0  2  5  2  0
Oranges b  1  7  5  5  4  8
Puppies c  2  4  6  3  6  5
Ducks   d  9  6  3  9  7  0

And @Jeff solution:

df.index.names = ['foo','bar']
df.columns.names = ['baz','bak']
print (df)

baz          A     B     C   
bak          X  Y  X  Y  X  Y
foo     bar                  
Apples  a    3  4  7  3  3  3
Oranges b    1  2  5  8  1  0
Puppies c    9  6  3  9  6  3
Ducks   d    3  2  1  0  1  0

Method 3

df.index.name should do the trick.

Python has a dir function that let’s you query object attributes. dir(df.index) was helpful here.

Method 4

Use df.index.rename('foo', inplace=True) to set the index name.

Seems this api is available since pandas 0.13.

Method 5

If you do not want to create a new row but simply put it in the empty cell then use:

df.columns.name = 'foo'

Otherwise use:

df.index.name = 'foo'

Method 6

Setting the index name can also be accomplished at creation:

pd.DataFrame(data={'age': [10,20,30], 'height': [100, 170, 175]}, index=pd.Series(['a', 'b', 'c'], name='Tag'))

Method 7

df.columns.values also give us the column names

Method 8

The solution for multi-indexes is inside jezrael’s cyclopedic answer, but it took me a while to find it so I am posting a new answer:

df.index.names gives the names of a multi-index (as a Frozenlist).

Method 9

To just get the index column names df.index.names will work for both a single Index or MultiIndex as of the most recent version of pandas.

As someone who found this while trying to find the best way to get a list of index names + column names, I would have found this answer useful:

names = list(filter(None, df.index.names + df.columns.values.tolist()))

This works for no index, single column Index, or MultiIndex. It avoids calling reset_index() which has an unnecessary performance hit for such a simple operation. I’m surprised there isn’t a built in method for this (that I’ve come across). I guess I run into needing this more often because I’m shuttling data from databases where the dataframe index maps to a primary/unique key, but is really just another column to me.


All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x