Splitting dataframe into multiple dataframes

Question

I have a very large dataframe (around 1 million rows) with data from an experiment (60 respondents).

I would like to split the dataframe into 60 dataframes (a dataframe for each participant).

In the dataframe, data, there is a variable called 'name', which is the unique code for each participant.

I have tried the following, but nothing happens (or execution does not stop within an hour). What I intend to do is to split the data into smaller dataframes, and append these to a list (datalist):

import pandas as pd

def splitframe(data, name='name'):
    
    n = data[name][0]

    df = pd.DataFrame(columns=data.columns)

    datalist = []

    for i in range(len(data)):
        if data[name][i] == n:
            df = df.append(data.iloc[i])
        else:
            datalist.append(df)
            df = pd.DataFrame(columns=data.columns)
            n = data[name][i]
            df = df.append(data.iloc[i])
        
    return datalist

I do not get an error message, the script just seems to run forever!

Is there a smart way to do it?

Answer 1

Can I ask why not just do it by slicing the data frame. Something like

#create some data with Names column
data = pd.DataFrame({'Names': ['Joe', 'John', 'Jasper', 'Jez'] *4, 'Ob1' : np.random.rand(16), 'Ob2' : np.random.rand(16)})

#create unique list of names
UniqueNames = data.Names.unique()

#create a data frame dictionary to store your data frames
DataFrameDict = {elem : pd.DataFrame for elem in UniqueNames}

for key in DataFrameDict.keys():
    DataFrameDict[key] = data[:][data.Names == key]

Hey presto you have a dictionary of data frames just as (I think) you want them. Need to access one? Just enter

DataFrameDict['Joe']

Hope that helps