Set value for particular cell in pandas DataFrame using index

Question

I\'ve created a Pandas DataFrame

df = DataFrame(index=[\'A\',\'B\',\'C\'], columns=[\'x\',\'y\'])

and got this

    x    y
A  NaN         


        

Answer 1

The recommended way (according to the maintainers) to set a value is:

df.ix['x','C']=10

Using 'chained indexing' (df['x']['C']) may lead to problems.

See:

• https://stackoverflow.com/a/21287235/1579844
• http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/dev/indexing.html#indexing-view-versus-copy
• https://github.com/pydata/pandas/pull/6031

Answer 2

set_value() is deprecated.

Starting from the release 0.23.4, Pandas "announces the future"...

>>> df
                   Cars  Prices (U$)
0               Audi TT        120.0
1 Lamborghini Aventador        245.0
2      Chevrolet Malibu        190.0
>>> df.set_value(2, 'Prices (U$)', 240.0)
__main__:1: FutureWarning: set_value is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
Please use .at[] or .iat[] accessors instead

                   Cars  Prices (U$)
0               Audi TT        120.0
1 Lamborghini Aventador        245.0
2      Chevrolet Malibu        240.0

Considering this advice, here's a demonstration of how to use them:

• by row/column integer positions

---

>>> df.iat[1, 1] = 260.0
>>> df
                   Cars  Prices (U$)
0               Audi TT        120.0
1 Lamborghini Aventador        260.0
2      Chevrolet Malibu        240.0

• by row/column labels

---

>>> df.at[2, "Cars"] = "Chevrolet Corvette"
>>> df
                  Cars  Prices (U$)
0               Audi TT        120.0
1 Lamborghini Aventador        260.0
2    Chevrolet Corvette        240.0

References:

• pandas.DataFrame.iat
• pandas.DataFrame.at

Answer 3

I tested and the output is df.set_value is little faster, but the official method df.at looks like the fastest non deprecated way to do it.

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.rand(100, 100))

%timeit df.iat[50,50]=50 # ✓
%timeit df.at[50,50]=50 #  ✔
%timeit df.set_value(50,50,50) # will deprecate
%timeit df.iloc[50,50]=50
%timeit df.loc[50,50]=50

7.06 µs ± 118 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100000 loops each)
5.52 µs ± 64.2 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100000 loops each)
3.68 µs ± 80.8 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100000 loops each)
98.7 µs ± 1.07 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10000 loops each)
109 µs ± 1.42 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10000 loops each)

Note this is setting the value for a single cell. For the vectors loc and iloc should be better options since they are vectorized.

Answer 4

You can also use a conditional lookup using .loc as seen here:

df.loc[df[<some_column_name>] == <condition>, [<another_column_name>]] = <value_to_add>

where <some_column_name is the column you want to check the <condition> variable against and <another_column_name> is the column you want to add to (can be a new column or one that already exists). <value_to_add> is the value you want to add to that column/row.

This example doesn't work precisely with the question at hand, but it might be useful for someone wants to add a specific value based on a condition.

Answer 5

Soo, your question to convert NaN at ['x',C] to value 10

the answer is..

df['x'].loc['C':]=10
df

alternative code is

df.loc['C':'x']=10
df

Answer 6

From version 0.21.1 you can also use .at method. There are some differences compared to .loc as mentioned here - pandas .at versus .loc, but it's faster on single value replacement