Get the name of a pandas DataFrame

Question

How do I get the name of a DataFrame and print it as a string?

Example:

boston (var name assigned to a csv file)

import pandas as pd
boston = pd.read_csv('boston.csv')

print('The winner is team A based on the %s table.) % boston

Solution 1

You can name the dataframe with the following, and then call the name wherever you like:

import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame( data=np.ones([4,4]) )
df.name = 'Ones'

print df.name
>>>
Ones

Hope that helps.

Solution 2

Sometimes df.name doesn't work.

you might get an error message:

'DataFrame' object has no attribute 'name'

try the below function:

def get_df_name(df):
    name =[x for x in globals() if globals()[x] is df][0]
    return name

Solution 3

In many situations, a custom attribute attached to a pd.DataFrame object is not necessary. In addition, note that pandas-object attributes may not serialize. So pickling will lose this data.

Instead, consider creating a dictionary with appropriately named keys and access the dataframe via dfs['some_label'].

df = pd.DataFrame()

dfs = {'some_label': df}

Solution 4

From here what I understand DataFrames are:

DataFrame is a 2-dimensional labeled data structure with columns of potentially different types. You can think of it like a spreadsheet or SQL table, or a dict of Series objects.

And Series are:

Series is a one-dimensional labeled array capable of holding any data type (integers, strings, floating point numbers, Python objects, etc.).

Series have a name attribute which can be accessed like so:

 In [27]: s = pd.Series(np.random.randn(5), name='something')

 In [28]: s
 Out[28]: 
 0    0.541
 1   -1.175
 2    0.129
 3    0.043
 4   -0.429
 Name: something, dtype: float64

 In [29]: s.name
 Out[29]: 'something'

EDIT: Based on OP's comments, I think OP was looking for something like:

 >>> df = pd.DataFrame(...)
 >>> df.name = 'df' # making a custom attribute that DataFrame doesn't intrinsically have
 >>> print(df.name)
 'df'

Solution 5

Here is a sample function: 'df.name = file` : Sixth line in the code below

def df_list():
    filename_list = current_stage_files(PATH)
    df_list = []
    for file in filename_list:
        df = pd.read_csv(PATH+file)
        df.name = file
        df_list.append(df)
    return df_list

View more solutions

Comments

[Anand S Kumar]

Do you mean variable name?

[kwinkunks]

It's worth reading this and this, and the comments and links therein.

[leo]

i need the name to be a variable somewhat like name=<table name>

[leo]

I need to have the name as a variable. import pandas as pd df = pd.DataFrame( data=np.ones([4,4]) ) df.name = 'df' print df.name >>> df

[aznbanana9]

What do you mean variable? Like calling df prints the name "df" instead of printing the dataframe?

[leo]

Yes. That's what I meant.

[aznbanana9]

But how do you want the data frame to be called?

[leo]

say the name of the file is apple.csv. I want it to get printed like The file came from apple. --- only that apple has to be dynamic depending on the name of the csv file.

[tmthydvnprt]

For posterity, as of v 0.18.1 this does not survive pickling (for v 0.18.1 use to_pickle/ read_pickle instead of save/load if trying to reproduce the GitHub comment).

[tmthydvnprt]

A workaround I found is to place your DataFrame's name in the index's name attribute (e.g. df.index.name = 'Ones'). This is maintained during pickling. This only works if your DataFrame's index is not already named something useful...

[tmthydvnprt]

FYI, this was found while using DataFrames inside multiprocessing.Pool() workers. The attributes were not maintained during .map() because of the pickling it uses.

[IndigoChild]

@leo, any solution to this? did you get the dataframe name without the quotes?

[sapo_cosmico]

This is a poor idea because if you as much as drop something, the returned object will no longer have a name attribute. It's tempting, but will create inexplicable errors down the line.

[Mohamed Thasin ah]

It will throw ` 'DataFrame' object has no attribute 'name'` when it doesn't assign any name

[Admin]

Really veru bad idea. If you call df.name = Ones is the same than df['name] = 'Ones'. it means the valiues for that column will be 'One'. SO it is not a correct answer. You can stor your dataframes within a dictionary and use the key to identify them

[Zecong Hu]

Just to make sure people aren't confused: what the snippet here does is to find the dataframe in all currently defined global variables and return its variable name. This is NOT guaranteed to work (e.g. your DF is a local variable) and there are no error handling mechanisms in place. You should only use this if you're sure what you're doing!