The data I have to work with is a bit messy.. It has header names inside of its data. How can I choose a row from an existing pandas dataframe and make it (rename it to) a column header?
I want to do something like:
header = df[df['old_header_name1'] == 'new_header_name1']
df.columns = header
In [21]: df = pd.DataFrame([(1,2,3), ('foo','bar','baz'), (4,5,6)])
In [22]: df
Out[22]:
0 1 2
0 1 2 3
1 foo bar baz
2 4 5 6
Set the column labels to equal the values in the 2nd row (index location 1):
In [23]: df.columns = df.iloc[1]
If the index has unique labels, you can drop the 2nd row using:
In [24]: df.drop(df.index[1])
Out[24]:
1 foo bar baz
0 1 2 3
2 4 5 6
If the index is not unique, you could use:
In [133]: df.iloc[pd.RangeIndex(len(df)).drop(1)]
Out[133]:
1 foo bar baz
0 1 2 3
2 4 5 6
Using df.drop(df.index[1]) removes all rows with the same label as the second row. Because non-unique indexes can lead to stumbling blocks (or potential bugs) like this, it's often better to take care that the index is unique (even though Pandas does not require it).