Selecting multiple columns in a pandas dataframe

Question

I have data in different columns but I don\'t know how to extract it to save it in another variable.

index  a   b   c
1      2   3   4
2      3   4   5
         


        

Answer 1

You can use pandas. I create the DataFrame:

    import pandas as pd
    df = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2,5], [5,4, 5], [7,7, 8], [7,6,9]], 
                      index=['Jane', 'Peter','Alex','Ann'],
                      columns=['Test_1', 'Test_2', 'Test_3'])

The DataFrame:

           Test_1  Test_2  Test_3
    Jane        1       2       5
    Peter       5       4       5
    Alex        7       7       8
    Ann         7       6       9

To select 1 or more columns by name:

    df[['Test_1','Test_3']]

           Test_1  Test_3
    Jane        1       5
    Peter       5       5
    Alex        7       8
    Ann         7       9

You can also use:

    df.Test_2

And yo get column Test_2

    Jane     2
    Peter    4
    Alex     7
    Ann      6

You can also select columns and rows from these rows using .loc(). This is called "slicing". Notice that I take from column Test_1to Test_3

    df.loc[:,'Test_1':'Test_3']

The "Slice" is:

            Test_1  Test_2  Test_3
     Jane        1       2       5
     Peter       5       4       5
     Alex        7       7       8
     Ann         7       6       9

And if you just want Peter and Ann from columns Test_1 and Test_3:

    df.loc[['Peter', 'Ann'],['Test_1','Test_3']]

You get:

           Test_1  Test_3
    Peter       5       5
    Ann         7       9