Related
I have a excel (.xslx) file with 4 columns:
pmid (int)
gene (string)
disease (string)
label (string)
I attempt to load this directly into python with pandas.read_excel
df = pd.read_excel(path, parse_dates=False)
capture from excel
capture from pandas using my ide debugger
As shown above, pandas tries to be smart, automatically converting some of gene fields such as 3.Oct, 4.Oct to a datetime type. The issue is that 3.Oct or 4.Oct is a abbreviation of Gene type and totally different meaning. so I don't want pandas to do so. How can I prevent pandas from converting types automatically?
Update:
In fact, there is no conversion. The value appears as 2020-10-03 00:00:00 in Pandas because it is the real value stored in the cell. Excel show this value in another format
Update 2:
To keep the same format as Excel, you can use pd.to_datetime and a custom function to reformat the date.
# Sample
>>> df
gene
0 PDGFRA
1 2021-10-03 00:00:00 # Want: 3.Oct
2 2021-10-04 00:00:00 # Want: 4.Oct
>>> df['gene'] = (pd.to_datetime(df['gene'], errors='coerce')
.apply(lambda dt: f"{dt.day}.{calendar.month_abbr[dt.month]}"
if dt is not pd.NaT else np.NaN)
.fillna(df['gene']))
>>> df
gene
0 PDGFRA
1 3.Oct
2 4.Oct
Old answer
Force dtype=str to prevent Pandas try to transform your dataframe
df = pd.read_excel(path, dtype=str)
Or use converters={'colX': str, ...} to map the dtype for each columns.
pd.read_excel has a dtype argument you can use to specify data types explicitly.
Pandas behaves in an unusual way when interacting with datetime information when the data type is a Series vs when it is not. Specifically, either .dt is required (if it's a Series) or .dt will throw an error (if it's not a Series.) I've spent the better part of an hour tracking the behavior down.
import pandas as pd
data = {'dates':['2019-03-01','2019-03-02'],'event':[0,1]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)
df['dates'] = pd.to_datetime(df['dates'])
Pandas Series:
df['dates'][0:1].dt.year
>>>
0 2019
Name: dates, dtype: int64
df['dates'][0:1].year
>>>
AttributeError: 'Series' object has no attribute 'year'
Not Pandas Series:
df['dates'][0].year
>>>
2019
df['dates'][0].dt.year
>>>
AttributeError: 'Timestamp' object has no attribute 'dt'
Does anyone know why Pandas behaves this way? Is this a "feature not a bug" like it's actually useful in setting?
This behaviour is consistent with python. A collection of datetimes is fundamentally different than a single datetime.
We can see this simply with list vs datetime object:
from datetime import datetime
a = datetime.now()
print(a.year)
# 2021
list_of_datetimes = [datetime.now(), datetime.now()]
print(list_of_datetimes.year)
# AttributeError: 'list' object has no attribute 'year'
Naturally a list does not have a year attribute, because in python we cannot guarantee the list contains only datetimes.
We would have to apply some function to each element in the list to access the year, for example:
from datetime import datetime
list_of_datetimes = [datetime.now(), datetime.now()]
print(*map(lambda d: d.year, list_of_datetimes))
# 2021 2021
This concept of "applying an operation over a collection of datetimes" is fundamentally what the dt accessor does. By extension, this accessor is unnecessary when affecting a single element as it is when working with only a single datetime.
In pandas we can only use the dt accessor with DateTime Series.
There are a lot of guarantees needed to be made in order to apply the year to all elements in the Series:
import pandas as pd
data = {'dates': ['2019-03-01', '2019-03-02'], 'event': [0, 1]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)
df['dates'] = pd.to_datetime(df['dates'])
print(df['dates'].dt.year)
0 2019
1 2019
Name: dates, dtype: int64
Again, however, since a column of object type could contain both datetimes and non-datetimes we may need to access the individual elements. Like:
import pandas as pd
data = {'dates': ['2019-03-01', 87], 'event': [0, 1]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)
print(df)
# dates event
# 0 2019-03-01 0
# 1 87 1
# Convert only 1 value to datetime
df.loc[0, 'dates'] = pd.to_datetime(df.loc[0, 'dates'])
print(df.loc[0, 'dates'].year)
# 2019
print(df.loc[1, 'dates'].year)
# AttributeError: 'int' object has no attribute 'year'
I have one field in a pandas DataFrame that was imported as string format.
It should be a datetime variable. How do I convert it to a datetime column and then filter based on date.
Example:
df = pd.DataFrame({'date': ['05SEP2014:00:00:00.000']})
Use the to_datetime function, specifying a format to match your data.
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f')
If you have more than one column to be converted you can do the following:
df[["col1", "col2", "col3"]] = df[["col1", "col2", "col3"]].apply(pd.to_datetime)
You can use the DataFrame method .apply() to operate on the values in Mycol:
>>> df = pd.DataFrame(['05SEP2014:00:00:00.000'],columns=['Mycol'])
>>> df
Mycol
0 05SEP2014:00:00:00.000
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> df['Mycol'] = df['Mycol'].apply(lambda x:
dt.datetime.strptime(x,'%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f'))
>>> df
Mycol
0 2014-09-05
Use the pandas to_datetime function to parse the column as DateTime. Also, by using infer_datetime_format=True, it will automatically detect the format and convert the mentioned column to DateTime.
import pandas as pd
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'], infer_datetime_format=True)
chrisb's answer works:
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f')
however it results in a Python warning of
A value is trying to be set on a copy of a slice from a DataFrame.
Try using .loc[row_indexer,col_indexer] = value instead
I would guess this is due to some chaining indexing.
Time Saver:
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'])
To silence SettingWithCopyWarning
If you got this warning, then that means your dataframe was probably created by filtering another dataframe. Make a copy of your dataframe before any assignment and you're good to go.
df = df.copy()
df['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f')
errors='coerce' is useful
If some rows are not in the correct format or not datetime at all, errors= parameter is very useful, so that you can convert the valid rows and handle the rows that contained invalid values later.
df['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f', errors='coerce')
# for multiple columns
df[['start', 'end']] = df[['start', 'end']].apply(pd.to_datetime, format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f', errors='coerce')
Setting the correct format= is much faster than letting pandas find out1
Long story short, passing the correct format= from the beginning as in chrisb's post is much faster than letting pandas figure out the format, especially if the format contains time component. The runtime difference for dataframes greater than 10k rows is huge (~25 times faster, so we're talking like a couple minutes vs a few seconds). All valid format options can be found at https://strftime.org/.
1 Code used to produce the timeit test plot.
import perfplot
from random import choices
from datetime import datetime
mdYHMSf = range(1,13), range(1,29), range(2000,2024), range(24), *[range(60)]*2, range(1000)
perfplot.show(
kernels=[lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x),
lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x, format='%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f'),
lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x, infer_datetime_format=True),
lambda s: s.apply(lambda x: datetime.strptime(x, '%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f'))],
labels=["pd.to_datetime(df['date'])",
"pd.to_datetime(df['date'], format='%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f')",
"pd.to_datetime(df['date'], infer_datetime_format=True)",
"df['date'].apply(lambda x: datetime.strptime(x, '%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f'))"],
n_range=[2**k for k in range(20)],
setup=lambda n: pd.Series([f"{m}/{d}/{Y} {H}:{M}:{S}.{f}"
for m,d,Y,H,M,S,f in zip(*[choices(e, k=n) for e in mdYHMSf])]),
equality_check=pd.Series.equals,
xlabel='len(df)'
)
Just like we convert object data type to float or int. Use astype()
raw_data['Mycol']=raw_data['Mycol'].astype('datetime64[ns]')
I have one field in a pandas DataFrame that was imported as string format.
It should be a datetime variable. How do I convert it to a datetime column and then filter based on date.
Example:
df = pd.DataFrame({'date': ['05SEP2014:00:00:00.000']})
Use the to_datetime function, specifying a format to match your data.
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f')
If you have more than one column to be converted you can do the following:
df[["col1", "col2", "col3"]] = df[["col1", "col2", "col3"]].apply(pd.to_datetime)
You can use the DataFrame method .apply() to operate on the values in Mycol:
>>> df = pd.DataFrame(['05SEP2014:00:00:00.000'],columns=['Mycol'])
>>> df
Mycol
0 05SEP2014:00:00:00.000
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> df['Mycol'] = df['Mycol'].apply(lambda x:
dt.datetime.strptime(x,'%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f'))
>>> df
Mycol
0 2014-09-05
Use the pandas to_datetime function to parse the column as DateTime. Also, by using infer_datetime_format=True, it will automatically detect the format and convert the mentioned column to DateTime.
import pandas as pd
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'], infer_datetime_format=True)
chrisb's answer works:
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f')
however it results in a Python warning of
A value is trying to be set on a copy of a slice from a DataFrame.
Try using .loc[row_indexer,col_indexer] = value instead
I would guess this is due to some chaining indexing.
Time Saver:
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'])
To silence SettingWithCopyWarning
If you got this warning, then that means your dataframe was probably created by filtering another dataframe. Make a copy of your dataframe before any assignment and you're good to go.
df = df.copy()
df['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f')
errors='coerce' is useful
If some rows are not in the correct format or not datetime at all, errors= parameter is very useful, so that you can convert the valid rows and handle the rows that contained invalid values later.
df['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f', errors='coerce')
# for multiple columns
df[['start', 'end']] = df[['start', 'end']].apply(pd.to_datetime, format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f', errors='coerce')
Setting the correct format= is much faster than letting pandas find out1
Long story short, passing the correct format= from the beginning as in chrisb's post is much faster than letting pandas figure out the format, especially if the format contains time component. The runtime difference for dataframes greater than 10k rows is huge (~25 times faster, so we're talking like a couple minutes vs a few seconds). All valid format options can be found at https://strftime.org/.
1 Code used to produce the timeit test plot.
import perfplot
from random import choices
from datetime import datetime
mdYHMSf = range(1,13), range(1,29), range(2000,2024), range(24), *[range(60)]*2, range(1000)
perfplot.show(
kernels=[lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x),
lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x, format='%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f'),
lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x, infer_datetime_format=True),
lambda s: s.apply(lambda x: datetime.strptime(x, '%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f'))],
labels=["pd.to_datetime(df['date'])",
"pd.to_datetime(df['date'], format='%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f')",
"pd.to_datetime(df['date'], infer_datetime_format=True)",
"df['date'].apply(lambda x: datetime.strptime(x, '%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f'))"],
n_range=[2**k for k in range(20)],
setup=lambda n: pd.Series([f"{m}/{d}/{Y} {H}:{M}:{S}.{f}"
for m,d,Y,H,M,S,f in zip(*[choices(e, k=n) for e in mdYHMSf])]),
equality_check=pd.Series.equals,
xlabel='len(df)'
)
Just like we convert object data type to float or int. Use astype()
raw_data['Mycol']=raw_data['Mycol'].astype('datetime64[ns]')
I have one field in a pandas DataFrame that was imported as string format.
It should be a datetime variable. How do I convert it to a datetime column and then filter based on date.
Example:
df = pd.DataFrame({'date': ['05SEP2014:00:00:00.000']})
Use the to_datetime function, specifying a format to match your data.
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f')
If you have more than one column to be converted you can do the following:
df[["col1", "col2", "col3"]] = df[["col1", "col2", "col3"]].apply(pd.to_datetime)
You can use the DataFrame method .apply() to operate on the values in Mycol:
>>> df = pd.DataFrame(['05SEP2014:00:00:00.000'],columns=['Mycol'])
>>> df
Mycol
0 05SEP2014:00:00:00.000
>>> import datetime as dt
>>> df['Mycol'] = df['Mycol'].apply(lambda x:
dt.datetime.strptime(x,'%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f'))
>>> df
Mycol
0 2014-09-05
Use the pandas to_datetime function to parse the column as DateTime. Also, by using infer_datetime_format=True, it will automatically detect the format and convert the mentioned column to DateTime.
import pandas as pd
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'], infer_datetime_format=True)
chrisb's answer works:
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f')
however it results in a Python warning of
A value is trying to be set on a copy of a slice from a DataFrame.
Try using .loc[row_indexer,col_indexer] = value instead
I would guess this is due to some chaining indexing.
Time Saver:
raw_data['Mycol'] = pd.to_datetime(raw_data['Mycol'])
To silence SettingWithCopyWarning
If you got this warning, then that means your dataframe was probably created by filtering another dataframe. Make a copy of your dataframe before any assignment and you're good to go.
df = df.copy()
df['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f')
errors='coerce' is useful
If some rows are not in the correct format or not datetime at all, errors= parameter is very useful, so that you can convert the valid rows and handle the rows that contained invalid values later.
df['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['date'], format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f', errors='coerce')
# for multiple columns
df[['start', 'end']] = df[['start', 'end']].apply(pd.to_datetime, format='%d%b%Y:%H:%M:%S.%f', errors='coerce')
Setting the correct format= is much faster than letting pandas find out1
Long story short, passing the correct format= from the beginning as in chrisb's post is much faster than letting pandas figure out the format, especially if the format contains time component. The runtime difference for dataframes greater than 10k rows is huge (~25 times faster, so we're talking like a couple minutes vs a few seconds). All valid format options can be found at https://strftime.org/.
1 Code used to produce the timeit test plot.
import perfplot
from random import choices
from datetime import datetime
mdYHMSf = range(1,13), range(1,29), range(2000,2024), range(24), *[range(60)]*2, range(1000)
perfplot.show(
kernels=[lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x),
lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x, format='%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f'),
lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x, infer_datetime_format=True),
lambda s: s.apply(lambda x: datetime.strptime(x, '%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f'))],
labels=["pd.to_datetime(df['date'])",
"pd.to_datetime(df['date'], format='%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f')",
"pd.to_datetime(df['date'], infer_datetime_format=True)",
"df['date'].apply(lambda x: datetime.strptime(x, '%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S.%f'))"],
n_range=[2**k for k in range(20)],
setup=lambda n: pd.Series([f"{m}/{d}/{Y} {H}:{M}:{S}.{f}"
for m,d,Y,H,M,S,f in zip(*[choices(e, k=n) for e in mdYHMSf])]),
equality_check=pd.Series.equals,
xlabel='len(df)'
)
Just like we convert object data type to float or int. Use astype()
raw_data['Mycol']=raw_data['Mycol'].astype('datetime64[ns]')