Adding new column to existing DataFrame in Python pandas

Question

I have the following indexed DataFrame with named columns and rows not- continuous numbers:

          a         b         c         d
2  0.671399  0.101208 -         


        

Answer 1

Super simple column assignment

A pandas dataframe is implemented as an ordered dict of columns.

This means that the __getitem__ [] can not only be used to get a certain column, but __setitem__ [] = can be used to assign a new column.

For example, this dataframe can have a column added to it by simply using the [] accessor

    size      name color
0    big      rose   red
1  small    violet  blue
2  small     tulip   red
3  small  harebell  blue

df['protected'] = ['no', 'no', 'no', 'yes']

    size      name color protected
0    big      rose   red        no
1  small    violet  blue        no
2  small     tulip   red        no
3  small  harebell  blue       yes

Note that this works even if the index of the dataframe is off.

df.index = [3,2,1,0]
df['protected'] = ['no', 'no', 'no', 'yes']
    size      name color protected
3    big      rose   red        no
2  small    violet  blue        no
1  small     tulip   red        no
0  small  harebell  blue       yes

[]= is the way to go, but watch out!

However, if you have a pd.Series and try to assign it to a dataframe where the indexes are off, you will run in to trouble. See example:

df['protected'] = pd.Series(['no', 'no', 'no', 'yes'])
    size      name color protected
3    big      rose   red       yes
2  small    violet  blue        no
1  small     tulip   red        no
0  small  harebell  blue        no

This is because a pd.Series by default has an index enumerated from 0 to n. And the pandas [] = method tries to be "smart"

What actually is going on.

When you use the [] = method pandas is quietly performing an outer join or outer merge using the index of the left hand dataframe and the index of the right hand series. df['column'] = series

Side note

This quickly causes cognitive dissonance, since the []= method is trying to do a lot of different things depending on the input, and the outcome cannot be predicted unless you just know how pandas works. I would therefore advice against the []= in code bases, but when exploring data in a notebook, it is fine.

Going around the problem

If you have a pd.Series and want it assigned from top to bottom, or if you are coding productive code and you are not sure of the index order, it is worth it to safeguard for this kind of issue.

You could downcast the pd.Series to a np.ndarray or a list, this will do the trick.

df['protected'] = pd.Series(['no', 'no', 'no', 'yes']).values

or

df['protected'] = list(pd.Series(['no', 'no', 'no', 'yes']))

But this is not very explicit.

Some coder may come along and say "Hey, this looks redundant, I'll just optimize this away".

Explicit way

Setting the index of the pd.Series to be the index of the df is explicit.

df['protected'] = pd.Series(['no', 'no', 'no', 'yes'], index=df.index)

Or more realistically, you probably have a pd.Series already available.

protected_series = pd.Series(['no', 'no', 'no', 'yes'])
protected_series.index = df.index

3     no
2     no
1     no
0    yes

Can now be assigned

df['protected'] = protected_series

    size      name color protected
3    big      rose   red        no
2  small    violet  blue        no
1  small     tulip   red        no
0  small  harebell  blue       yes

Alternative way with df.reset_index()

Since the index dissonance is the problem, if you feel that the index of the dataframe should not dictate things, you can simply drop the index, this should be faster, but it is not very clean, since your function now probably does two things.

df.reset_index(drop=True)
protected_series.reset_index(drop=True)
df['protected'] = protected_series

    size      name color protected
0    big      rose   red        no
1  small    violet  blue        no
2  small     tulip   red        no
3  small  harebell  blue       yes

Note on df.assign

While df.assign make it more explicit what you are doing, it actually has all the same problems as the above []=

df.assign(protected=pd.Series(['no', 'no', 'no', 'yes']))
    size      name color protected
3    big      rose   red       yes
2  small    violet  blue        no
1  small     tulip   red        no
0  small  harebell  blue        no

Just watch out with df.assign that your column is not called self. It will cause errors. This makes df.assign smelly, since there are these kind of artifacts in the function.

df.assign(self=pd.Series(['no', 'no', 'no', 'yes'])
TypeError: assign() got multiple values for keyword argument 'self'

You may say, "Well, I'll just not use self then". But who knows how this function changes in the future to support new arguments. Maybe your column name will be an argument in a new update of pandas, causing problems with upgrading.