[SOLVED] What does In-place sort_values in pandas exactly mean?

What does In-place sort_values in pandas exactly mean?

I am stuck in: pandas.Series has a method sort_values and there is an option to do it "in place" or not. Could anyone give me some illustrative explanation how these two options differ each other?

Solution

Here an example. df1 will hold sorted dataframe and df will be intact

import pandas as pd
from datetime import datetime as dt
df = pd.DataFrame(data=[22,22,3],
                  index=[dt(2016, 11, 10, 0), dt(2016, 11, 10, 13), dt(2016, 11, 13, 5)],
                  columns=['foo'])

df1 = df.sort_values(by='foo')
print(df, df1)

In the case below, df will hold sorted values

import pandas as pd
from datetime import datetime as dt

df = pd.DataFrame(data=[22,22,3],
                  index=[dt(2016, 11, 10, 0), dt(2016, 11, 10, 13), dt(2016, 11, 13, 5)],
                  columns=['foo'])

df.sort_values(by='foo', inplace=True)
print(df)