Pandas: sum up multiple columns into one column without last column

Question

If I have a dataframe similar to this one

Apples   Bananas   Grapes   Kiwis
2        3         nan      1
1        3         7        nan
nan      nan       2            


        

Answer 1

It is possible to do it without knowing the number of columns and even without iloc:

print(df)
   Apples  Bananas  Grapes  Kiwis
0     2.0      3.0     NaN    1.0
1     1.0      3.0     7.0    NaN
2     NaN      NaN     2.0    3.0

cols_to_sum = df.columns[ : df.shape[1]-1]

df['Fruit Total'] = df[cols_to_sum].sum(axis=1)

print(df)
   Apples   Bananas Grapes  Kiwis   Fruit Total
0  2.0      3.0     NaN     1.0     5.0
1  1.0      3.0     7.0     NaN     11.0
2  NaN      NaN     2.0     3.0     2.0

Answer 2

You can first select by iloc and then sum:

df['Fruit Total']= df.iloc[:, -4:-1].sum(axis=1)
print (df)
   Apples  Bananas  Grapes  Kiwis  Fruit Total
0     2.0      3.0     NaN    1.0          5.0
1     1.0      3.0     7.0    NaN         11.0
2     NaN      NaN     2.0    3.0          2.0

For sum all columns use:

df['Fruit Total']= df.sum(axis=1)

Answer 3

Using df['Fruit Total']= df.iloc[:, -4:-1].sum(axis=1) over your original df won't add the last column ('Kiwis'), you should use df.iloc[:, -4:] instead to select all columns:

print(df)
   Apples  Bananas  Grapes  Kiwis
0     2.0      3.0     NaN    1.0
1     1.0      3.0     7.0    NaN
2     NaN      NaN     2.0    3.0

df['Fruit Total']=df.iloc[:,-4:].sum(axis=1)

print(df)
   Apples  Bananas  Grapes  Kiwis  Fruit Total
0     2.0      3.0     NaN    1.0          6.0
1     1.0      3.0     7.0    NaN         11.0
2     NaN      NaN     2.0    3.0          5.0