In the pandas
library, the DataFrame is a two-dimensional labeled data structure with columns that can be of different types. The index of a DataFrame helps in the quick retrieval of data and can be named for better understanding and clarity. In this article, we’ll explore how to set the index name for a DataFrame using various options.
DataFrame creation
Let’s start by creating a basic DataFrame
import pandas as pd
data = {
'Name': ['Sachin', 'Rajesh', 'Dennis'],
'Age': [25, 30, 35],
'City': ['New York', 'Los Angeles', 'Chicago']
}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)
print(df)
Output
Name Age City
0 Sachin 25 New York
1 Rajesh 30 Los Angeles
2 Dennis 35 Chicago
Setting the index name
To set the index name of a DataFrame, you can simply assign a string to the name
attribute of the DataFrame’s index:
df.index.name = 'ID'
print(df)
The DataFrame now looks like:
Name Age City
ID
0 Sachin 25 New York
1 Rajesh 30 Los Angeles
2 Dennis 35 Chicago
The index now has the name “ID”.
Setting index name while creating a dataframe
You can also set the index name directly when creating the DataFrame:
df = pd.DataFrame(data, index=pd.RangeIndex(start=0, stop=3, name='ID'))
print(df)
This produces the same result as the previous example.
Name Age City
ID
0 Sachin 25 New York
1 Rajesh 30 Los Angeles
2 Dennis 35 Chicago
Resetting the index name
To reset or remove the index name, simply assign None
to the name
attribute of the index:
df.index.name = None
print(df)
Name Age City
0 Sachin 25 New York
1 Rajesh 30 Los Angeles
2 Dennis 35 Chicago