python pandas remove duplicate columns
What is the easiest way to remove duplicate columns from a dataframe?
I am reading a text file that has duplicate columns via:
import pandas as pd
df=pd.read_table(fname)
The column names are:
Time, Time Relative, N2, Time, Time Relative, H2, etc...
All the Time and Time Relative columns contain the same data. I want:
Time, Time Relative, N2, H2
All my attempts at dropping, deleting, etc such as:
df=df.T.drop_duplicates().T
Result in uniquely valued index errors:
Reindexing only valid with uniquely valued index objects
Sorry for being a Pandas noob. Any Suggestions would be appreciated.
Additional Details
Pandas version: 0.9.0
Python Version: 2.7.3
Windows 7
(installed via Pythonxy 2.7.3.0)
data file (note: in the real file, columns are separated by tabs, here they are separated by 4 spaces):
Time Time Relative [s] N2[%] Time Time Relative [s] H2[ppm]
2/12/2013 9:20:55 AM 6.177 9.99268e+001 2/12/2013 9:20:55 AM 6.177 3.216293e-005
2/12/2013 9:21:06 AM 17.689 9.99296e+001 2/12/2013 9:21:06 AM 17.689 3.841667e-005
2/12/2013 9:21:18 AM 29.186 9.992954e+001 2/12/2013 9:21:18 AM 29.186 3.880365e-005
... etc ...
2/12/2013 2:12:44 PM 17515.269 9.991756+001 2/12/2013 2:12:44 PM 17515.269 2.800279e-005
2/12/2013 2:12:55 PM 17526.769 9.991754e+001 2/12/2013 2:12:55 PM 17526.769 2.880386e-005
2/12/2013 2:13:07 PM 17538.273 9.991797e+001 2/12/2013 2:13:07 PM 17538.273 3.131447e-005
Here's a one line solution to remove columns based on duplicate column names:
df = df.loc[:,~df.columns.duplicated()]
How it works:
Suppose the columns of the data frame are ['alpha','beta','alpha']
df.columns.duplicated() returns a boolean array: a True or False for each column. If it is False then the column name is unique up to that point, if it is True then the column name is duplicated earlier. For example, using the given example, the returned value would be [False,False,True].
Pandas allows one to index using boolean values whereby it selects only the True values. Since we want to keep the unduplicated columns, we need the above boolean array to be flipped (ie [True, True, False] = ~[False,False,True])
Finally, df.loc[:,[True,True,False]] selects only the non-duplicated columns using the aforementioned indexing capability.
Note: the above only checks columns names, not column values.
It sounds like you already know the unique column names. If that's the case, then df = df['Time', 'Time Relative', 'N2'] would work.
If not, your solution should work:
In [101]: vals = np.random.randint(0,20, (4,3))
vals
Out[101]:
array([[ 3, 13, 0],
[ 1, 15, 14],
[14, 19, 14],
[19, 5, 1]])
In [106]: df = pd.DataFrame(np.hstack([vals, vals]), columns=['Time', 'H1', 'N2', 'Time Relative', 'N2', 'Time'] )
df
Out[106]:
Time H1 N2 Time Relative N2 Time
0 3 13 0 3 13 0
1 1 15 14 1 15 14
2 14 19 14 14 19 14
3 19 5 1 19 5 1
In [107]: df.T.drop_duplicates().T
Out[107]:
Time H1 N2
0 3 13 0
1 1 15 14
2 14 19 14
3 19 5 1
You probably have something specific to your data that's messing it up. We could give more help if there's more details you could give us about the data.
Edit: Like Andy said, the problem is probably with the duplicate column titles.
For a sample table file 'dummy.csv' I made up:
Time H1 N2 Time N2 Time Relative
3 13 13 3 13 0
1 15 15 1 15 14
14 19 19 14 19 14
19 5 5 19 5 1
using read_table gives unique columns and works properly:
In [151]: df2 = pd.read_table('dummy.csv')
df2
Out[151]:
Time H1 N2 Time.1 N2.1 Time Relative
0 3 13 13 3 13 0
1 1 15 15 1 15 14
2 14 19 19 14 19 14
3 19 5 5 19 5 1
In [152]: df2.T.drop_duplicates().T
Out[152]:
Time H1 Time Relative
0 3 13 0
1 1 15 14
2 14 19 14
3 19 5 1
If your version doesn't let your, you can hack together a solution to make them unique:
In [169]: df2 = pd.read_table('dummy.csv', header=None)
df2
Out[169]:
0 1 2 3 4 5
0 Time H1 N2 Time N2 Time Relative
1 3 13 13 3 13 0
2 1 15 15 1 15 14
3 14 19 19 14 19 14
4 19 5 5 19 5 1
In [171]: from collections import defaultdict
col_counts = defaultdict(int)
col_ix = df2.first_valid_index()
In [172]: cols = []
for col in df2.ix[col_ix]:
cnt = col_counts[col]
col_counts[col] += 1
suf = '_' + str(cnt) if cnt else ''
cols.append(col + suf)
cols
Out[172]:
['Time', 'H1', 'N2', 'Time_1', 'N2_1', 'Time Relative']
In [174]: df2.columns = cols
df2 = df2.drop([col_ix])
In [177]: df2
Out[177]:
Time H1 N2 Time_1 N2_1 Time Relative
1 3 13 13 3 13 0
2 1 15 15 1 15 14
3 14 19 19 14 19 14
4 19 5 5 19 5 1
In [178]: df2.T.drop_duplicates().T
Out[178]:
Time H1 Time Relative
1 3 13 0
2 1 15 14
3 14 19 14
4 19 5 1
Transposing is inefficient for large DataFrames. Here is an alternative:
def duplicate_columns(frame):
groups = frame.columns.to_series().groupby(frame.dtypes).groups
dups = []
for t, v in groups.items():
dcols = frame[v].to_dict(orient="list")
vs = dcols.values()
ks = dcols.keys()
lvs = len(vs)
for i in range(lvs):
for j in range(i+1,lvs):
if vs[i] == vs[j]:
dups.append(ks[i])
break
return dups
Use it like this:
dups = duplicate_columns(frame)
frame = frame.drop(dups, axis=1)
Edit
A memory efficient version that treats nans like any other value:
from pandas.core.common import array_equivalent
def duplicate_columns(frame):
groups = frame.columns.to_series().groupby(frame.dtypes).groups
dups = []
for t, v in groups.items():
cs = frame[v].columns
vs = frame[v]
lcs = len(cs)
for i in range(lcs):
ia = vs.iloc[:,i].values
for j in range(i+1, lcs):
ja = vs.iloc[:,j].values
if array_equivalent(ia, ja):
dups.append(cs[i])
break
return dups
If I'm not mistaken, the following does what was asked without the memory problems of the transpose solution and with fewer lines than @kalu 's function, keeping the first of any similarly named columns.
Cols = list(df.columns)
for i,item in enumerate(df.columns):
if item in df.columns[:i]: Cols[i] = "toDROP"
df.columns = Cols
df = df.drop("toDROP",1)