Set value for particular cell in pandas DataFrame using index

RukTech's answer, df.set_value('C', 'x', 10), is far and away faster than the options I've suggested below. However, it has been slated for deprecation.

Going forward, the recommended method is .iat/.at.

Why df.xs('C')['x']=10 does not work:

df.xs('C') by default, returns a new dataframe with a copy of the data, so

df.xs('C')['x']=10

modifies this new dataframe only.

df['x'] returns a view of the df dataframe, so

df['x']['C'] = 10

modifies df itself.

Warning: It is sometimes difficult to predict if an operation returns a copy or a view. For this reason the docs recommend avoiding assignments with "chained indexing".

So the recommended alternative is

df.at['C', 'x'] = 10

which does modify df.

In [18]: %timeit df.set_value('C', 'x', 10)
100000 loops, best of 3: 2.9 µs per loop

In [20]: %timeit df['x']['C'] = 10
100000 loops, best of 3: 6.31 µs per loop

In [81]: %timeit df.at['C', 'x'] = 10
100000 loops, best of 3: 9.2 µs per loop

Update: The .set_value method is going to be deprecated. .iat/.at are good replacements, unfortunately pandas provides little documentation

The fastest way to do this is using set_value. This method is ~100 times faster than .ix method. For example:

df.set_value('C', 'x', 10)