Data Combining

Anh-Thi Dinh
Sometimes, we wanna couple multiple dataframes together. In this note, I use df as DataFrame, s as Series.

Libraries

1import pandas as pd
2import numpy as np

Coupling dfs with merge()

There are 4 types of merging, like in SQL.
  • Inner: only includes elements that appear in both dataframes with a common key.
  • Outer: includes all data from both dataframes.
  • Left: includes all of the rows from the "left" dataframe along with any rows from the "right" dataframe with a common key; the result retains all columns from both of the original dataframes.
  • Right: includes all of the rows from the "right" dataframe along with any rows from the "left" dataframe with a common key; the result retains all columns from both of the original dataframes.
On the same column name
1# left
2df_left = pd.merge(left=df1, right=df2, how='left', on='Col_1', suffixes=('_df1', '_df2'))
3# right
4df_right = pd.merge(left=df1, right=df2, how='right', on='Col_1', suffixes=('_df1', '_df2'))
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1
1
E
3
2
C
NaN
3
D
NaN
4
B
2
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1
1
B
2
2
C
-3
3
F
-4
4
E
NaN
Col_1
Col_2_df1
Col_2_df2
0
A
1
1
1
E
3
NaN
2
C
NaN
-3
3
D
NaN
NaN
4
B
2
2
Col_1
Col_2_df1
Col_2_df2
0
A
1
1
1
E
3
NaN
2
C
NaN
-3
3
B
2
2
4
F
NaN
-4
1# inner (defaut)
2df_inner = pd.merge(left=df1, right=df2, on='Col_1', suffixes=('_df1', '_df2'))
3# outer
4df_outer = pd.merge(left=df1, right=df2, how='outer', on='Col_1', suffixes=('_df1', '_df2'))
5
6display_side_by_side(df1, df2, df_inner, df_outer)
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1
1
E
3
2
C
NaN
3
D
NaN
4
B
2
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1
1
B
2
2
C
-3
3
F
-4
4
E
NaN
Col_1
Col_2_df1
Col_2_df2
0
A
1
1
1
E
3
NaN
2
C
NaN
-3
3
B
2
2
Col_1
Col_2_df1
Col_2_df2
0
A
1
1
1
E
3
NaN
2
C
NaN
-3
3
D
NaN
NaN
4
B
2
2
5
F
NaN
-4
On the different column names
1# left
2df_left = pd.merge(left=df1, right=df2, how='left', left_on='Col_1', right_on='Col_X', suffixes=('_df1', '_df2'))
3
4display_side_by_side(df1, df2, df_left)
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1
1
E
3
2
C
NaN
3
D
NaN
4
B
2
Col_X
Col_2
0
A
1
1
B
2
2
C
-3
3
F
-4
4
E
NaN
Col_1
Col_2_df1
Col_X
Col_2_df2
0
A
1
A
1
1
E
3
E
NaN
2
C
NaN
C
-3
3
D
NaN
NaN
NaN
4
B
2
B
2
The result keeps both Col_1 and Col_X while in the case of the same column name, there is only 1 column. Other words, in this case, we only want to keep Col_1 and don't need Col_X. How to do that?
1df_left = df1.set_index('Col_1').join(df2.set_index('Col_X'), how="left", lsuffix="_df1", rsuffix="_df2").reset_index()
2
3display_side_by_side(df1, df2, df_left)
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1.0
1
E
3.0
2
C
NaN
3
D
NaN
4
B
2.0
Col_X
Col_2
0
A
1.0
1
B
2.0
2
C
-3.0
3
F
-4.0
4
E
NaN
Col_1
Col_2_df1
Col_2_df2
0
A
1.0
1.0
1
E
3.0
NaN
2
C
NaN
-3.0
3
D
NaN
NaN
4
B
2.0
2.0

Concatenate dfs with concat()

1# axis=0 (default)
2df_concat_0 = pd.concat([df1, df2]) # the same columns
3df_concat_1 = pd.concat([df1, df2], axis=1) # the same rows
4
5df_concat_0_idx = pd.concat([df1, df2], ignore_index=True)
6# ignore_index=True prevent duplicating indexes
7
8display_side_by_side(df1, df2)
9display_side_by_side(df_concat_0, df_concat_1, df_concat_0_idx)
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1.0
1
E
3.0
2
C
NaN
3
D
NaN
4
B
2.0
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1.0
1
B
2.0
2
C
-3.0
3
F
-4.0
4
E
NaN
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1.0
1
E
3.0
2
C
NaN
3
D
NaN
4
B
2.0
0
A
1.0
1
B
2.0
2
C
-3.0
3
F
-4.0
4
E
NaN
Col_1
Col_2
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1.0
A
1.0
1
E
3.0
B
2.0
2
C
NaN
C
-3.0
3
D
NaN
F
-4.0
4
B
2.0
E
NaN
 
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1.0
1
E
3.0
2
C
NaN
3
D
NaN
4
B
2.0
5
A
1.0
6
B
2.0
7
C
-3.0
8
F
-4.0
9
E
NaN

Combine 2 dataframes with missing values

We consider a situation in that we need to combine 2 dfs containing missing values in each. The missing values will be filled by taking from the others. For example, the value of C in the left df can be fulfilled by the value of in the right df.
1df_comb = df1.copy() # we don't want to change df1
2df_new = df_comb.fillna(df2)
3
4display_side_by_side(df1, df2, df_comb, df_new)
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1.0
1
E
3.0
2
C
NaN
3
D
NaN
4
B
2.0
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1.0
1
B
2.0
2
C
-3.0
3
F
-4.0
4
E
NaN
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1.0
1
E
3.0
2
C
NaN
3
D
NaN
4
B
2.0
Col_1
Col_2
0
A
1.0
1
E
3.0
2
C
-3.0
3
D
-4.0
4
B
2.0