How to unpack the columns of a pandas DataFrame to multiple variables
Lists or numpy arrays can be unpacked to multiple variables if the dimensions match. For a 3xN array, the following will work:
import numpy as np
a,b = [[1,2,3],[4,5,6]]
a,b = np.array([[1,2,3],[4,5,6]])
# result: a=[1,2,3], b=[4,5,6]
How can I achieve a similar behaviour for the columns of a pandas DataFrame? Extending the above example:
import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame([[1,2,3],[4,5,6]])
df.columns = ['A','B','C'] # Rename cols and
df.index = ['i', 'ii'] # rows for clarity
The following does not work as expected:
a,b = df.T
# result: a='i', b='ii'
a,b,c = df
# result: a='A', b='B', c='C'
However, what I would like to get is the following:
a,b,c = unpack(df)
result: a=df['A'], b=df['B'], c=df['C']
Is the function unpack already available in pandas? Or can it be mimicked in an easy way?
Answer
I just figured that the following works, which is already close to what I try to achieve:
a,b,c = df.T.values
# pd.DataFrame.as_matrix() is deprecated