You can use one of the following three methods to rename columns in a pandas DataFrame:

Method 1: Rename Specific Columns

df.rename(columns = {'old_col1':'new_col1', 'old_col2':'new_col2'}, inplace = True)

Method 2: Rename All Columns

df.columns = ['new_col1', 'new_col2', 'new_col3', 'new_col4']

Method 3: Replace Specific Characters in Columns

df.columns = df.columns.str.replace('old_char', 'new_char')

The following examples show how to use each of these methods in practice.

Method 1: Rename Specific Columns

The following code shows how to rename specific columns in a pandas DataFrame:

import pandas as pd

#define DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({'team':['A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'B', 'B', 'B', 'B'],
                   'points': [25, 12, 15, 14, 19, 23, 25, 29],
                   'assists': [5, 7, 7, 9, 12, 9, 9, 4],
                   'rebounds': [11, 8, 10, 6, 6, 5, 9, 12]})

#list column names
list(df)

['team', 'points', 'assists', 'rebounds']

#rename specific column names
df.rename(columns = {'team':'team_name', 'points':'points_scored'}, inplace = True)

#view updated list of column names
list(df)

['team_name', 'points_scored', 'assists', 'rebounds']

Notice that the ‘team’ and ‘points’ columns were renamed while all other column names remained the same.

Method 2: Rename All Columns

The following code shows how to rename all columns in a pandas DataFrame:

import pandas as pd

#define DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({'team':['A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'B', 'B', 'B', 'B'],
                   'points': [25, 12, 15, 14, 19, 23, 25, 29],
                   'assists': [5, 7, 7, 9, 12, 9, 9, 4],
                   'rebounds': [11, 8, 10, 6, 6, 5, 9, 12]})

#list column names
list(df)

['team', 'points', 'assists', 'rebounds']

#rename all column names
df.columns = ['_team', '_points', '_assists', '_rebounds']
#view updated list of column names
list(df)

['_team', '_points', '_assists', '_rebounds']

Note that it’s faster to use this method when you want to rename most or all of the column names in the DataFrame.

Method 3: Replace Specific Characters in Columns

The following code shows how to replace a specific character in each column name:

import pandas as pd

#define DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({'$team':['A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'B', 'B', 'B', 'B'],
                   '$points': [25, 12, 15, 14, 19, 23, 25, 29],
                   '$assists': [5, 7, 7, 9, 12, 9, 9, 4],
                   '$rebounds': [11, 8, 10, 6, 6, 5, 9, 12]})

#list column names
list(df)

['team', 'points', 'assists', 'rebounds']

#rename $ with blank in every column name
df.columns = df.columns.str.replace('$', '')

#view updated list of column names
list(df)

['team', 'points', 'assists', 'rebounds']

Notice that this method allowed us to quickly remove the ‘$’ from each column name.

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in pandas: