What does inplace mean in Pandas?

What does inplace mean in Pandas?

In the Pandas library for Python, the term inplace is a frequently used parameter for many methods. The inplace parameter determines whether the operation modifies the original object or returns a new object.

Here's what it means:

  • inplace=True:

    • The operation modifies the original object.
    • No new object is returned.
    • The method will return None.

  • inplace=False (or if inplace is not specified since False is typically the default):

    • The original object remains unchanged.
    • A new object with the operation's result is returned.

Here are some examples:

  1. Using drop method on a DataFrame:

    import pandas as pd df = pd.DataFrame({'A': [1, 2, 3], 'B': [4, 5, 6]}) df.drop('A', axis=1, inplace=True) print(df) # Output: # B # 0 4 # 1 5 # 2 6

    In the above example, the column 'A' is dropped from the original df DataFrame because inplace=True.

  2. Using rename method on a DataFrame:

    import pandas as pd df = pd.DataFrame({'A': [1, 2, 3], 'B': [4, 5, 6]}) df2 = df.rename(columns={'A': 'X'}) print(df) # Output: # A B # 0 1 4 # 1 2 5 # 2 3 6 print(df2) # Output: # X B # 0 1 4 # 1 2 5 # 2 3 6

    In this example, the original df remains unchanged, and a new DataFrame df2 is returned with the renamed columns. This is because inplace is not specified, and its default value is False.

In summary, when inplace=True, the changes are made directly to the object and nothing is returned. When inplace=False, a new object with the changes is returned, and the original object remains unchanged.

More Tags

android-actionbar crystal-reports-formulas html5-canvas pcap jq database-schema histogram sql-server-2008 apache-commons-beanutils cdo-climate

More Programming Guides

Other Guides

More Programming Examples