Pandas is an open-source Python library that is powerful and flexible for data analysis. If there is something you want to do with data, the chances are it will be possible in pandas. There are a vast number of possibilities within pandas, but most users find themselves using the same methods time after time. In this article, we compiled the best cheat sheets from across the web, which show you these core methods at a glance.

The primary data structure in pandas is the DataFrame used to store two-dimensional data, along with a label for each corresponding column and row. If you are familiar with Excel spreadsheets or SQL databases, you can think of the DataFrame as being the pandas equivalent. If we take a single column from a DataFrame, we have one-dimensional data. In pandas, this is called a Series. DataFrames can be created from scratch in your code, or loaded into Python from some external location, such as a CSV. This is often the first stage in any data analysis task. We can then do any number of things with our DataFrame in Pandas, including removing or editing values, filtering our data, or combining this DataFrame with another DataFrame. Each line of code in these cheat sheets lets you do something different with a DataFrame. Also, if you are coming from an Excel background, you will enjoy the performance pandas has to offer. After you get over the learning curve, you will be even more impressed with the functionality.

Pandas Cheat Sheet for Python For working with data in python, Pandas is an essential tool you must use. This is a fast, powerful, flexible and easy to use open source data analysis and manipulation tool, built on top of the Python programming language. Python - Pandas Cheat Sheet by aggialavura - Cheatography.com Created Date: 4251Z. Read and Write to CSV. pd.readcsv('file.csv', header=None, nrows=5). Tidy Data –A foundation for wrangling in pandas In a tidy data set: F M A Each variable is saved in its own column & Each observation is saved in its own row Tidy data complements pandas’svectorized operations. Pandas will automatically preserve observations as you manipulate variables. No other format works as intuitively with pandas.

Whether you are already familiar with pandas and are looking for a handy reference you can print out, or you have never used pandas and are looking for a resource to help you get a feel for the library- there is a cheat sheet here for you!

1. The Most Comprehensive Cheat Sheet

This one is from the pandas guys, so it makes sense that this is a comprehensive and inclusive cheat sheet. It covers the vast majority of what most pandas users will ever need to do to a DataFrame. Have you already used pandas for a little while? And are you looking to up your game? This is your cheat sheet! However, if you are newer to pandas and this cheat sheet is a bit overwhelming, don’t worry! You definitely don’t need to understand everything in this cheat sheet to get started. Instead, check out the next cheat sheet on this list.

2. The Beginner’s Cheat Sheet

Dataquest is an online platform that teaches Data Science using interactive coding challenges. I love this cheat sheet they have put together. It has everything the pandas beginner needs to start using pandas right away in a friendly, neat list format. It covers the bare essentials of each stage in the data analysis process:

• Importing and exporting your data from an Excel file, CSV, HTML table or SQL database
• Cleaning your data of any empty rows, changing data formats to allow for further analysis or renaming columns
• Filtering your data or removing anomalous values
• Different ways to view the data and see it’s dimensions
• Selecting any combination of columns and rows within the DataFrame using loc and iloc
• Using the .apply method to apply a formula to a particular column in the DataFrame
• Creating summary statistics for columns in the DataFrame. This includes the median, mean and standard deviation
• Combining DataFrames

3. The Excel User’s Cheat Sheet

Ok, this isn’t quite a cheat sheet, it’s more of an entire manifesto on the pandas DataFrame! If you have a little time on your hands, this will help you get your head around some of the theory behind DataFrames. It will take you all the way from loading in your trusty CSV from Microsoft Excel to viewing your data in Jupyter and handling the basics. The article finishes off by using the DataFrame to create a histogram and bar chart. For migrating your spreadsheet work from Excel to pandas, this is a fantastic guide. It will teach you how to perform many of the Excel basics in pandas. If you are also looking for how to perform the pandas equivalent of a VLOOKUP in Excel, check out Shane’s article on the merge method.

4. The Most Beautiful Cheat Sheet

If you’re more of a visual learner, try this cheat sheet! Many common pandas tasks have intricate, color-coded illustrations showing how the operation works. On page 3, there is a fantastic section called ‘Computation with Series and DataFrames’, which provides an intuitive explanation for how DataFrames work and shows how the index is used to align data when DataFrames are combined and how element-wise operations work in contrast to operations which work on each row or column. At 8 pages long, it’s more of a booklet than a cheat sheet, but it can still make for a great resource!

5. The Best Machine Learning Cheat Sheet

Much like the other cheat sheets, there is comprehensive coverage of the pandas basic in here. So, that includes filtering, sorting, importing, exploring, and combining DataFrames. However, where this Cheat Sheet differs is that it finishes off with an excellent section on scikit-learn, Python’s machine learning library. In this section, the DataFrame is used to train a machine learning model. This cheat sheet will be perfect for anybody who is already familiar with machine learning and is transitioning from a different technology, such as R.

Python Basics Cheat Sheet

6. The Most Compact Cheat Sheet

Data Camp is an online platform that teaches Data Science with videos and coding exercises. They have made cheat sheets on a bunch of the most popular Python libraries, which you can also check out here. This cheat sheet nicely introduces the DataFrame, and then gives a quick overview of the basics. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide any information on the various ways you can combine DataFrames, but it does all fit on one page and looks great. So, if you are looking to stick a pandas cheat sheet on your bedroom wall and nail home the basics, this one might be for you! The cheat sheet finishes with a small section introducing NaN values, which come from NumPy. These indicate a null value and arise when the indices of two Series don’t quite match up in this case.

7. The Best Statistics Cheat Sheet

While there aren’t any pictures to be found in this sheet, it is an incredibly detailed set of notes on the pandas DataFrame. This cheat shines with its complete section on time series and statistics. There are methods for calculating covariance, correlation, and regression here. So, if you are using pandas for some advanced statistics or any kind of scientific work, this is going to be your cheat sheet.

Where to go from here?

For just automating a few tedious tasks at work, or using pandas to replace your crashing Excel spreadsheet, everything covered in these cheat sheets should be entirely sufficient for your purposes.

If you are looking to use pandas for Data Science, then you are only going to be limited by your knowledge of statistics and probability. This is the area that most people lack when they try to enter this field. I highly recommend checking out Think Stats by Allen B Downey, which provides an introduction to statistics using Python.

For those a little more advanced, looking to do some machine learning, you will want to start taking a look at the scikit-learn library. Data Camp has a great cheat sheet for this. You will also want to pick up a linear algebra textbook to understand the theory of machine learning. For something more practical, perhaps give the famous Kaggle Titanic machine learning competition.

Learning about pandas has many uses, and can be interesting simply for its own sake. However, Python is massively in demand right now, and for that reason, it is a high-income skill. At any given time, there are thousands of people searching for somebody to solve their problems with Python. So, if you are looking to use Python to work as a freelancer, then check out the Finxter Python Freelancer Course. This provides the step by step path to go from nothing to earning a full-time income with Python in a few months, and gives you the tools to become a six-figure developer!

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By Karlijn Willems, Data Science Journalist & DataCamp Contributor.

Data Wrangling With Python

A very important component in the data science workflow is data wrangling. And just like matplotlib is one of the preferred tools for data visualization in data science, the Pandas library is the one to use if you want to do data manipulation and analysis in Python. This library was originally built on NumPy, the fundamental library for scientific computing in Python. The data structures that the Pandas library offers are fast, flexible and expressive and are specifically designed to make real-world data analysis significantly easier.

However, this flexibility might come at a cost for beginners; When you’re first starting out, the Pandas library can seem very elaborate and it might be hard to find a single point of entry to the material: with other learning materials focusing on different aspects of this library, you can definitely use a reference sheet to help you get the hang of it.

That’s where DataCamp’s Pandas tutorial and cheat sheet comes in.

Pandas Cheat Sheet

One of the first things that you need to do to make use of this library is importing it. What might come unnaturally to people who are just starting with Python and/or programming is the import convention. However, if you have seen the first cheat sheet, you’ll already have some idea; In this case, the import convention states that you should import pandas as pd. You can then use this abbreviation whenever you use Pandas modules in your code.

That’s very handy!

Pandas Data Structures

You’ll immediately see how this import works when you’re getting started with the Pandas data structures. But what is exactly meant when you talk about “data structures”? The easiest way to think of them as structured containers for your data. Or, if you have already worked with NumPy, these data structures are basically arrays with indices.

Watch this video if you want to know more about how Pandas data structures are connected to NumPy arrays.

In any case, the basic structures that the Pandas library uses are Series and DataFrames. A Series is basically a 1D array with indices. To make a simple Series, you use pd.Series(). Pass a list to this function and, if you want, some specific indices. The result can be seen in the picture on the left-hand side.

Note that Series can hold any data type.

To create DataFrames, two-dimensional structures that have columns of different data types, you can use pd.DataFrame(). In this case, you pass a dictionary to this function and some extra indices to specify the columns.

I/O

Simcasino crack. When you’re using the Pandas library for data wrangling, one of the first things that you won’t do is inventing a DataFrame yourself; Rather, you’ll import data from an external source and you’ll put it in a DataFrame so that it becomes easier to handle. As you have read in the introduction, the ultimate purpose of Pandas is to make real-world data analysis significantly easier.

As most of your data won’t necessarily come from text files alone, the cheat sheet includes three ways to input and output your data to DataFrames or files, namely CSV, Excel and SQL Queries/Database Table. These three are considered the three most important ways in which your data comes to you. You’ll see how Pandas has specific functions to pull and push the data in and out these files: pd.read_csv(), pd.read_excel() and pd.read_sql(). But you can also use pd.read_sql_table() or pd.read_sql_query(), depending on whether you’re reading from a table or a query.

Note that to_sql() is a convenience wrapper around the two latter functions. That means that it’s a function that does nothing more than call another function. Likewise, if you want to output your data into files, you make use of pd.to_csv(), pd.to_excel() and pd.to_sql().

Do you want to know more about importing your data with Pandas and using it to explore your data? Consider taking DataCamp’s Pandas Foundations course.

Help!

One of the things that just never seizes to be handy, is the help() function. What you should not forget when you’re using this function is to always be as complete as you can be: if you want to get more information of a function or concept that is included into the Pandas library, such as Series, call pd.Series.

Selection

When you finally have all the information that you need about Series and DataFrames, and you have imported the data into these structures (or maybe you have made your own example Series and DataFrames, just like in the cheat sheet), you might want to inspect the data structures more closely. One of the ways to do this is by selecting elements. As a hint, the cheat sheet indicates that you might also check out how you do this with NumPy arrays. If you already know about NumPy, you clearly have an advantage here!

If you need to get started with this Python library for scientific computing, consider this NumPy tutorial.

And indeed, the procedure to selection is very similar if you already have worked with NumPy. Don’t worry if you haven’t gotten there yet, because it’s easy: to get one element, you use the square brackets [] and put the desired index to it. In this case, you put ‘b’ in the square brackets and you get back -5. If you look back to the “Pandas Data Structures”, you’ll see that this is correct. A similar thing holds for when you’re working with the 2D DataFrame structure: you use the square brackets in combination with a colon. What you put in front of the colon, is the number to designate the row index; In the second example df[1:], you ask for all the rows, starting at index 1.This means that the row with the Belgium entry will not appear in the result.

To select a value based on its position in the DataFrame or Series, you not only make use of the square brackets in combination with the indices, but you also use the iloc() or iat(). However, you can also select elements by row and column labels. As you have seen before in the introduction of the Pandas data structures, the columns had labels: “Country”, “Capital” and “Population”. With the help of the loc() and at(), you can actually select elements based on these labels. Besides these four functions, there is also an indexer that works on labels or positions: ix is primarily label-based but when no label is provided, it will accept integers to indicate the position in the DataFrame or Series from where you want to retrieve a value.

Boolean indexing is also included in the cheat sheet; It’s an important mechanism to select only values that fulfill a certain condition from your original DataFrame or Series. Conditions can easily be specified with logical operators & or | in combination with the operators <, >, or combinations, such as <= or >=.

Lastly, there is also the option to set values: in this case, you change the index a of a Series to the value 6 instead of the original value 3.

Are you interested in learning more about how you can manipulate your DataFrames to get the most of them? Consider taking DataCamp’s Manipulating DataFrames with Pandas course.

Dropping Values

Besides getting, selecting, indexing and setting your DataFrame or Series values, you will also need the flexibility to drop values if you no longer need them. Make use of the drop() to drop values from columns or rows. The default axis that is affected by this functions is the axis 0 or the rows. That means that if you want to remove values from columns, you shouldn’t forget to add the argument axis=1 to your code!

Sorting & Ranking

Another way to manipulate your DataFrame or Series is to sort and/or rank the values that are included in the data structures. Use sort_index() to sort by labels along an axis or sort_values() to sort by values along an axis. As you would have expected, rank() allows you to rank entries of your DataFrame or Series.

Retrieving DataFrame/Series Information

When you have finally gotten hold on data for your data science project, it might be handy to know some basic information about your DataFrames or Series, especially when that information can tell you more about the shape, the indices, columns and the number of non-NA values. Also any other information that you can get through info()will be more than welcome when you’re working with data that is unfamiliar or new to you.

Next to the attributes and functions that you see on the left-hand side, you can also make use of aggregate functions to get to know your data. You’ll see that most of them should look familiar to you as functions that are frequently used in statistics, such as mean() or median().

Python Pandas Plot Cheat Sheet

Applying Functions

Python Pandas Cheat Sheet Pdf

In some cases, you’ll also want to apply functions to your DataFrames or Series. Besides the lambda functions, which you might already know from DataCamp’s Python Data Science Toolbox course , you can also use apply() to apply a function to the whole set of your data or applymap(), in cases where you want to apply the function element-wise. In other words, you’ll apply the function on each element of your DataFrame or Series. Do you want to see some examples on how this works in practice? Try out DataCamp’s Pandas DataFrame tutorial.

Data Alignment

The last thing that you need to know to get started with Pandas is how your data gets handled when your indices are not syncing up. In the example that the cheat sheet gives, you see that the indices of s3 aren’t equal to the ones your Series s has.

This could happen very often!

What Pandas does for you in such cases is introduce NA values in the indices that don’t overlap. Whenever this happens, you could pass a fill_value argument to the arithmetic function that you make use of, so that any NA values are replaced with a meaningful alternative value.

Python For Data Science Cheat Sheet

Now that you have seen the separate components that make up the basics of Pandas, click the image below to access the full cheat sheet.

DataCamp is an online interactive education platform that that focuses on building the best learning experience specifically for Data Science. Our courses on R, Python and Data Science are built around a certain topic, and combine video instruction with in-browser coding challenges so that you can learn by doing. You can start every course for free, whenever you want, wherever you want.

Bio: Karlijn Willems is a data science journalist and writes for the DataCamp community, focusing on data science education, the latest news and the hottest trends. She holds degrees in Literature and Linguistics and Information Management.

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