I have a dataframe (df) that has 44 columns and I want to rename columns 2:44. I have a list (namesList) of length 42 that has the new column names. I then try to rename my columns by using the list:
df.columns[2:len(df.columns)] = namesList However I get the error:
TypeError: Index does not support mutable operations
Why do I get this error?
You need generate new columns names - first and second value from old one and another from list:
df.columns = df.columns[:2].tolist() + namesList Sample:
df = pd.DataFrame({'A':[1,2,3], 'B':[4,5,6], 'C':[7,8,9], 'D':[1,3,5], 'E':[5,3,6], 'F':[7,4,3]}) print (df) A B C D E F 0 1 4 7 1 5 7 1 2 5 8 3 3 4 2 3 6 9 5 6 3 namesList = ['K','L','M','N'] df.columns = df.columns[:2].tolist() + namesList print (df) A B K L M N 0 1 4 7 1 5 7 1 2 5 8 3 3 4 2 3 6 9 5 6 3 I have come across renaming the first N column and last N columns. Replace the value for N according to your need.
1) To Rename Last N Columns (ignoring the first 2)
cols_to_update = df.columns[:N].tolist() + ['col2_new','col3_new'] df.columns = cols_to_update 2) To Rename First N columns (ignoring Last N )
cols_to_update = ['col3_new','col4_new'] + df.columns[N:].tolist() df.columns = cols_to_update 3) Rename Columns in the middle
cols_to_update = df.columns[:N].tolist() + ['col2_new','col3_new'] + df.columns[Y:].tolist() df.columns = cols_to_update 4) To rename all columns - Make sure the list you assign is the same length as df.columns.
list = ['col1_new','col2_new', 'col3_new','col4_new'] df.columns = list You can find more examples @ Multiple ways to Rename Columns in pandas
