Find element's index in pandas Series
Solution 1:
>>> myseries[myseries == 7]
3 7
dtype: int64
>>> myseries[myseries == 7].index[0]
3
Though I admit that there should be a better way to do that, but this at least avoids iterating and looping through the object and moves it to the C level.
Solution 2:
Converting to an Index, you can use get_loc
In [1]: myseries = pd.Series([1,4,0,7,5], index=[0,1,2,3,4])
In [3]: Index(myseries).get_loc(7)
Out[3]: 3
In [4]: Index(myseries).get_loc(10)
KeyError: 10
Duplicate handling
In [5]: Index([1,1,2,2,3,4]).get_loc(2)
Out[5]: slice(2, 4, None)
Will return a boolean array if non-contiguous returns
In [6]: Index([1,1,2,1,3,2,4]).get_loc(2)
Out[6]: array([False, False, True, False, False, True, False], dtype=bool)
Uses a hashtable internally, so fast
In [7]: s = Series(randint(0,10,10000))
In [9]: %timeit s[s == 5]
1000 loops, best of 3: 203 µs per loop
In [12]: i = Index(s)
In [13]: %timeit i.get_loc(5)
1000 loops, best of 3: 226 µs per loop
As Viktor points out, there is a one-time creation overhead to creating an index (its incurred when you actually DO something with the index, e.g. the is_unique)
In [2]: s = Series(randint(0,10,10000))
In [3]: %timeit Index(s)
100000 loops, best of 3: 9.6 µs per loop
In [4]: %timeit Index(s).is_unique
10000 loops, best of 3: 140 µs per loop
Solution 3:
I'm impressed with all the answers here. This is not a new answer, just an attempt to summarize the timings of all these methods. I considered the case of a series with 25 elements and assumed the general case where the index could contain any values and you want the index value corresponding to the search value which is towards the end of the series.
Here are the speed tests on a 2013 MacBook Pro in Python 3.7 with Pandas version 0.25.3.
In [1]: import pandas as pd
In [2]: import numpy as np
In [3]: data = [406400, 203200, 101600, 76100, 50800, 25400, 19050, 12700,
...: 9500, 6700, 4750, 3350, 2360, 1700, 1180, 850,
...: 600, 425, 300, 212, 150, 106, 75, 53,
...: 38]
In [4]: myseries = pd.Series(data, index=range(1,26))
In [5]: myseries[21]
Out[5]: 150
In [7]: %timeit myseries[myseries == 150].index[0]
416 µs ± 5.05 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1000 loops each)
In [8]: %timeit myseries[myseries == 150].first_valid_index()
585 µs ± 32.5 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1000 loops each)
In [9]: %timeit myseries.where(myseries == 150).first_valid_index()
652 µs ± 23.3 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1000 loops each)
In [10]: %timeit myseries.index[np.where(myseries == 150)[0][0]]
195 µs ± 1.18 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10000 loops each)
In [11]: %timeit pd.Series(myseries.index, index=myseries)[150]
178 µs ± 9.35 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10000 loops each)
In [12]: %timeit myseries.index[pd.Index(myseries).get_loc(150)]
77.4 µs ± 1.41 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10000 loops each)
In [13]: %timeit myseries.index[list(myseries).index(150)]
12.7 µs ± 42.5 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100000 loops each)
In [14]: %timeit myseries.index[myseries.tolist().index(150)]
9.46 µs ± 19.2 ns per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 100000 loops each)
@Jeff's answer seems to be the fastest - although it doesn't handle duplicates.
Correction: Sorry, I missed one, @Alex Spangher's solution using the list index method is by far the fastest.
Update: Added @EliadL's answer.
Hope this helps.
Amazing that such a simple operation requires such convoluted solutions and many are so slow. Over half a millisecond in some cases to find a value in a series of 25.
Solution 4:
In [92]: (myseries==7).argmax()
Out[92]: 3
This works if you know 7 is there in advance. You can check this with (myseries==7).any()
Another approach (very similar to the first answer) that also accounts for multiple 7's (or none) is
In [122]: myseries = pd.Series([1,7,0,7,5], index=['a','b','c','d','e'])
In [123]: list(myseries[myseries==7].index)
Out[123]: ['b', 'd']
Solution 5:
Another way to do this, although equally unsatisfying is:
s = pd.Series([1,3,0,7,5],index=[0,1,2,3,4])
list(s).index(7)
returns: 3
On time tests using a current dataset I'm working with (consider it random):
[64]: %timeit pd.Index(article_reference_df.asset_id).get_loc('100000003003614')
10000 loops, best of 3: 60.1 µs per loop
In [66]: %timeit article_reference_df.asset_id[article_reference_df.asset_id == '100000003003614'].index[0]
1000 loops, best of 3: 255 µs per loop
In [65]: %timeit list(article_reference_df.asset_id).index('100000003003614')
100000 loops, best of 3: 14.5 µs per loop