pivot in pandas

Topics

• pandas

Reshaping data is common task in data analysis. Pandas offers pivot and pivot_table for this. Both rearrange data based on unique values in specified columns, creating new index, columns, and values.

df.pivot

Reshapes DataFrame based on column values. Requires three columns: one for index, one for columns, one for values.

• index: Column to use to make new frame index
• columns: Column to use to make new frame columns
• values: Column to use for filling new frame values

Warning

Cannot handle duplicate entries for same index/column combination. If duplicates exist, pivot will raise an error.

import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'date': ['2023-01-01', '2023-01-01', '2023-01-02', '2023-01-02'],
    'city': ['New York', 'Los Angeles', 'New York', 'Los Angeles'],
    'temperature': [32, 65, 30, 68]
})
pivot_df = df.pivot(index='date', columns='city', values='temperature')
print(pivot_df)
 

city       Los Angeles  New York
date
2023-01-01           65        32
2023-01-02           68        30

df.pivot_table

Useful when combinations of index and columns values are not unique in original data. pivot_table will group rows with same index/column combination and apply aggfunc.

More general function than pivot. Also reshapes data but can handle duplicate entries by aggregating them. Essentially a generalization of pivot that can perform aggregation.

• values: Column to aggregate
• index: Column or list of columns for index
• columns: Column or list of columns for columns
• aggfunc: Function or list of functions to aggregate values (default ‘mean’). Can be string name (‘sum’, ‘mean’, ‘count’) or function (np.sum)

pivot_table is essentially a fancier groupby().agg() followed by reshaping.

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'date': ['2023-01-01', '2023-01-01', '2023-01-01', '2023-01-02'],
    'city': ['New York', 'New York', 'Los Angeles', 'New York'],
    'temperature': [32, 35, 65, 30],
    'humidity': [80, 75, 20, 85]
})
# Using pivot_table with duplicate date/city ('2023-01-01', 'New York')
# Default aggfunc='mean'
pivot_table_df = df.pivot_table(index='date', columns='city', values='temperature')
print(pivot_table_df)
 
# Using multiple values and different aggfunc
pivot_table_multi = df.pivot_table(index='date', columns='city', values=['temperature', 'humidity'], aggfunc={'temperature': np.mean, 'humidity': np.max})
print(pivot_table_multi)

city       Los Angeles  New York
date
2023-01-01         65.0      33.5
2023-01-02          NaN      30.0


                   humidity               temperature
city            Los Angeles New York    Los Angeles New York
date
2023-01-01           20.0     80.0         65.0     33.5
2023-01-02            NaN     85.0          NaN     30.0