How to set in pandas the first column and row as index?

Question

When I read in a CSV, I can say pd.read_csv(\'my.csv\', index_col=3) and it sets the third column as index.

How can I do the same if I have a pandas datafra

Answer 1

Making the first (or n-th) column the index in increasing order of verboseness:

df.set_index(list(df)[0])
df.set_index(df.columns[0])
df.set_index(df.columns.tolist()[0])

Making the first (or n-th) row the index:

df.set_index(df.iloc[0].values)

You can use both if you want a multi-level index:

df.set_index([df.iloc[0], df.columns[0]])

Observe that using a column as index will automatically drop it as column. Using a row as index is just a copy operation and won't drop the row from the DataFrame.

Answer 2

Maybe try set_index()?

df = df.set_index([2])

Answer 3

You can try this regardless of the number of rows

df = pd.read_csv('data.csv', index_col=0)