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Rename columns in Pandas dataframe using the df.rename() function. This function takes a dict object as an argument that contains the mapping of old column names to new column names. You can also use the df.columns property to set the new column names directly. Examples of how to rename columns in Pandas dataframe are provided below.
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.
Related:
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.