Content from Getting Started

Last updated on 2024-10-07 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I identify and use key features of JupyterLab to create and manage a Python notebook?
  • How do I run Python code in JupyterLab, and how can I see and interpret the results?

Objectives

  • Identify applications of Python in library and information science environments by the end of this lesson.
  • Launch JupyterLab and create a new Jupyter Notebook.
  • Navigate the JupyterLab interface, including file browsing, cell creation, and cell execution, with confidence.
  • Write and execute Python code in a Jupyter Notebook cell, observing the output and modifying code as needed.
  • Save a Jupyter Notebook as an .ipynb file and verify the file’s location in the directory within the session.

Why Python?

Python is a popular programming language for tasks such as data collection, cleaning, and analysis. Python can help you to create reproducible workflows to accomplish repetitive tasks more efficiently.

This lesson works with a series of CSV files of circulation data from the Chicago Public Library system to demonstrate how to use Python to clean, analyze, and visualize usage data that spans over the course of multiple years.

Python in Libraries

There are a lot of ways that library and information science folks use Python in their work. Go around the room and have helpers and co-teachers share how they have used Python.

Learners: Can you think of other ways to use Python in libraries? Do you have hopes for how you’d like to use Python in the future?

Here a few areas where you might apply Python in your work.

Metadata work. Many cataloging teams use Python to migrate, transform and enrich metadata that they receive from different sources. For example, the pymarc library is a popular Python package for working with MARC21 records.

Collection and citation analysis. Python can automate workflows to analyze library collections. In cases where spreadsheets and OpenRefine are unable to support specific forms of analysis, Python is a more flexible and powerful tool.

Assessment. Library workers often need to collect metrics or statistics on some aspect of their work. Python can be a valuable tool to collect, clean, analyze, and visualize that data in a consistent way over time.

Accessing data. Researchers often use Python to collect data (including textual data) from websites and social media platforms. Academic librarians are often well-positioned to help teach these researchers how to use Python for web scraping or querying Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to access the data they need.

Analyzing data. Python is widely used by scholars who are embarking on different forms of computational research (e.g., network analysis, natural language processing, machine learning). Library workers can leverage Python for their own research in these areas, but also take part in larger networks of academic support related to data science, computational social sciences, and/or digital humanities.

Use JupyterLab to edit and run Python code.

If you haven’t already done so, see the setup instructions for details on how to install JupyterLab and Python via Anaconda. The setup instructions also walk you through the steps you should follow to create an lc-python folder on your Desktop, and to download and unzip the dataset we’ll be working with inside of that directory.

Getting started with JupyterLab

To run Python, we are going to use Jupyter Notebooks via JupyterLab. Jupyter notebooks are common tools for data science and visualization, and serve as a convenient environment for running Python code interactively where we can view and share the results of our Python code.

Alternatives to Juypter

There are other ways of editing, managing, and running Python code. Software developers often use an integrated development environment (IDE) like PyCharm, Spyder or Visual Studio Code (VS Code), to create and edit Python scripts. Others use text editors like Vim or Emacs to hand-code Python. After editing and saving Python scripts you can execute those programs within an IDE or directly on the command line.

Jupyter notebooks let us execute and view the results of our Python code immediately within the notebook. JupyterLab has several other handy features:

  • You can easily type, edit, and copy and paste blocks of code.
  • It allows you to annotate your code with links, different sized text, bullets, etc. to make it more accessible to you and your collaborators.
  • It allows you to display figures next to the code to better explore your data and visualize the results of your analysis.
  • Each notebook contains one or more cells that contain code, text, or images.

Start JupyterLab

Once you have created the lc-python directory on your Desktop, you can start JupyterLab by opening a shell command line interface or by using Anaconda Navigator.

Mac users - Command Line

  1. Press the cmd + spacebar keys and search for Terminal. Click the result or press return. (You can also find Terminal in your Applications folder, under Utilities.)
  2. After you have launched Terminal, change directories to the lc-python folder you created earlier and type jupyter lab. Note that the $ sign is used to indicate a command to be typed on the command prompt, but we never type the $ sign itself, just what follows after it.

BASH 

$ cd ../Desktop/lc-python
$ jupyter lab

Windows users - Command Line

To start the JupyterLab server you will need to access the Anaconda Prompt.

  1. Press the Windows Logo Key and search for Anaconda Prompt, click the result or press enter.

  2. Once you have launched the Anaconda Prompt, type the command jupyter lab. Note that the $ sign is used to indicate a command to be typed on the command prompt, but we never type the $ sign itself, just what follows after it.

BASH 

$ cd ..\Desktop\lc-python
$ jupyter lab

Start JupyterLab from Anaconda Navigator

If you are unfamiliar with the command line, you can launch JupyterLab by opening the Anaconda Navigator app and choosing the Launch button underneath the JuypterLab icon.

First start Anaconda Navigator (click for detailed instructions on macOS, Windows, and Linux). You can search for Anaconda Navigator via Spotlight on macOS (Command + spacebar), or by using the Windows search function (Windows Logo Key).

After you have launched Anaconda Navigator, click the Launch button under JupyterLab. You may need to scroll down to find it. Here is a screenshot of an Anaconda Navigator page similar to the one that should open on either macOS or Windows.

screenshot of the launch button for JuypterLab in Anaconda Navigator
Launch JupyterLab from Anaconda Navigator

The JupyterLab Interface

Launching JupyterLab opens a new tab or window in your preferred web browser. While JupyterLab enables you to run code from your browser, it does not require you to be online. If you take a look at the URL in your browser address bar, you should see that the environment is located at your localhost, meaning it is running from your computer: http://localhost:8888/lab.

When you first open JupyterLab you will see two main panels. In the left sidebar is your file browser. You should see a folder in the file browser named data that contains all of our data.

Creating a Juypter Notebook

To the right you will see a Launcher tab. Here we have options to launch a Python 3 notebook, a Terminal (where we can use shell commands), text files, and other items. For now, we want to launch a new Python 3 notebook, so click once on the Python 3 (ipykernel) button underneath the Notebook header. You can also create a new notebook by selecting New -> Notebook from the File menu in the Menu Bar.

screenshot of the JupyterLab for launching notebook
Launching a new Python 3 Notebook

When you start a new Notebook you should see a new tab labeled Untitled.ipynb. You will also see this file listed in the file browser to the left. Right-click on the Untitled.ipynb file in the file browser and choose Rename from the dropdown options. Let’s call the notebook file, workshop.ipynb.

JupyterLab? What about Jupyter notebooks? Python notebooks? IPython?

JupyterLab is the next stage in the evolution of the Jupyter Notebook. If you have prior experience working with Jupyter notebooks, then you will have a good idea of how to work with JupyterLab. Jupyter was created as a spinoff of IPython in 2014, and includes interactive computing support for languages other than just Python, including R and Julia. While you’ll still see some references to Python and IPython notebooks, IPython notebooks are officially deprecated in favor of Jupyter notebooks.

We will share more features of the JupyterLab environment as we advance through the lesson, but for now let’s turn to how to run Python code.

Running Python code

Jupyter allows you to add code and formatted text in different types of blocks called cells. By default, each new cell in a Jupyter Notebook will be a “code cell” that allows you to input and run Python code. Let’s start by having Python do some arithmetic for us.

In the first cell type 7 * 3, and then press the Shift+Return keys together to execute the contents of the cell. (You can also run a cell by making sure your cursor is in the cell and choosing Run > Run Selected Cells or selecting the “Play” icon (the sideways triangle) at the top of the noteboook.)

PYTHON 

7 * 3

You should see the output appear immediately below the cell, and Jupyter will also create a new code cell for you.

PYTHON 

21

If you move your cursor back to the first cell, just after the 7 * 3 code, and hit the Return key (without shift), you should see a new line in the cell where you can add more Python code. Let’s add another calculation to the same cell:

PYTHON 

7 * 3
2 +1

While Python runs both calculations Juypter will only display the output from the last line of code in a specific cell, unless you tell it to do otherwise.

PYTHON 

3

Editing the notebook

You can use the icons at the top of your notebook to edit the cells in your Notebook:

  • The + icon adds a new cell below the selected cell.
  • The scissors icon will delete the current cell.

You can move cells around in your notebook by hovering over the left-hand margin of a cell until your cursor changes into a four-pointed arrow, and then dragging and dropping the cell where you want it.

Markdown

Instructors: Since the lesson is focused on Python we don’t include any Markdown examples here. If you want to teach Markdown, note that it will slow down the lesson.

You can add text to a Juypter notebook by selecting a cell, and changing the dropdown above the notebook from Code to Markdown. Markdown is a lightweight language for formatting text. This feature allows you to annotate your code, add headers, and write documentation to help explain the code. While we won’t cover Markdown in this lesson, there are many helpful online guides out there: - Markdown for Jupyter Cheatsheet (IBM) - Markdown Guide (Matt Cone)

screenshot of the Jupyter notebook dropdown to change a cell to Markdown
Changing a cell from Code to Markdown

You can also use “hotkeys”” to change Jupyter cells from Code to Markdown and back:

  • Click on the code cell that you want to convert to a Markdown cell.
  • Press the Esc key to enter command mode.
  • Press the M key to convert the cell to Markdown.
  • Press the y key to convert the cell back to Code.

Key Points

  • You can launch JupyterLab from the command line or from Anaconda Navigator.
  • You can use a JupyterLab notebook to edit and run Python.
  • Notebooks can include both code and markdown (text) cells.

Content from Variables and Types

Last updated on 2024-06-17 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 25 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I store data in Python?
  • What are some types of data that I can work with in Python?

Objectives

  • Write Python to assign values to variables.
  • Print outputs to a Jupyter notebook.
  • Use indexing to manipulate string elements.
  • View and convert the data types of Python objects.

Use variables to store values.

Variables are names given to certain values. In Python the = symbol assigns a value to a variable. Here, Python assigns the number 42 to the variable age and the name Ahmed in single quote to a variable name.

PYTHON 

age = 42
name = 'Ahmed'

Naming variables

Variable names:

  • cannot start with a digit
  • cannot contain spaces, quotation marks, or other punctuation
  • may contain an underscore (typically used to separate words in long variable names)
  • are case sensitive. name and Name would be different variables.

Use print() to display values.

You can print Python objects to the Jupyter notebook output using the built-in function, print(). Inside of the parentheses we can add the objects that we want print, which are known as the print() function’s arguments.

PYTHON 

print(name, age)

OUTPUT 

Ahmed 42

In Jupyter notebooks, you can leave out the print() function for objects – such as variables – that are on the last line of a cell. If the final line of Jupyter cell includes the name of a variable, its value will display in the notebook when you run the cell.

PYTHON 

name
age

OUTPUT 

42

Format output with f-strings

F-strings provide a concise and readable way to format strings by embedding Python expressions within them. You can format variables as text strings in your output using an f-string. To do so, start a string with f before the open single (or double) quote. Then add any replacement fields, such as variable names, between curly braces {}. (Note the f string syntax can only be used with Python 3.6 or higher.)

PYTHON 

f'{name} is {age} years old'

OUTPUT 

'Ahmed is 42 years old'

Variables must be created before they are used.

If a variable doesn’t exist yet, or if the name has been misspelled, Python reports an error called a NameError.

PYTHON 

print(eye_color)

ERROR 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-1-c1fbb4e96102> in <module>()
----> 1 print(eye_color)

NameError: name 'eye_color' is not defined

The last line of an error message is usually the most informative. In this case it tells us that the eye_color variable is not defined. NameErrors often refer to variables that haven’t been created or assigned yet.

Variables can be used in calculations.

We can use variables in calculations as if they were values. We assigned 42 to age a few lines ago, so we can reference that value within a new variable assignment.

PYTHON 

age = age + 3
f'Age equals: {age}'

OUTPUT 

Age equals: 45

Every Python object has a type.

Everything in Python is some type of object and every Python object will be of a specific type. Understanding an object’s type will help you know what you can and can’t do with that object.

You can use the built-in Python function type() to find out an object’s type.

PYTHON 

print(type(140.2), 
      type(age), 
      type(name), 
      type(print))

OUTPUT 

<class 'float'> <class 'int'> <class 'str'> <class 'builtin_function_or_method'>
  1. 140.2 is an example of a floating point number or float. These are fractional numbers.
  2. The value of the age variable is 45, which is a whole number, or integer (int).
  3. The name variable refers to the string (str) of ‘Ahmed’.
  4. The built-in Python function print() is also an object with a type, in this case it’s a builtin_function_or_method. Built-in functions refer to those that are included in the core Python library.

Types control what operations (or methods) can be performed on objects.

An object’s type determines what the program can do with it.

PYTHON 

5 - 3

OUTPUT 

2

We get an error if we try to subtract a letter from a string:

PYTHON 

'hello' - 'h'

ERROR 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-2-67f5626a1e07> in <module>()
----> 1 'hello' - 'h'

TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for -: 'str' and 'str'

Use an index to get a single character from a string.

We can reference the specific location of a character (individual letters, numbers, and so on) in a string by using its index position. In Python, each character in a string (first, second, etc.) is given a number, which is called an index. Indexes begin from 0 rather than 1. We can use an index in square brackets to refer to the character at that position.

PYTHON 

library = 'Alexandria'
library[0]

OUTPUT 

A

Use a slice to get multiple characters from a string.

A slice is a part of a string that we can reference using [start:stop], where start is the index of the first character we want and stop is the last character. Referencing a string slice does not change the contents of the original string. Instead, the slice returns a copy of the part of the original string we want.

PYTHON 

library[0:3]

OUTPUT 

Ale

Note that in the example above, library[0:3] begins with zero, which refers to the first element in the string, and ends with a 3. When working with slices the end point is interpreted as going up to, but not including the index number provided. In other words, the character in the index position of 3 in the string Alexandria is x, so the slice [0:3] will go up to but not include that character, and therefore give us Ale.

Use the built-in function len to find the length of a string.

The len()function will tell us the length of an item. In the case of a string, it will tell us how many characters are in the string.

PYTHON 

len('Babel')

OUTPUT 

5

Variables only change value when something is assigned to them.

Once a Python variable is assigned it will not change value unless the code is run again. The value of older_age below does not get updated when we change the value of age to 50, for example:

PYTHON 

age = 42
older_age = age + 3
age = 50
f'Older age is {older_age} and age is {age}'

OUTPUT 

Older age is 45 and age is 50

A variable in Python is analogous to a sticky note with a name written on it: assigning a value to a variable is like putting a sticky note on a particular value. When we assigned the variable older_age, it was like we put a sticky note with the name older_age on the value of 45. Remember, 45 was the result of age + 3 because age at that point in the code was equal to 42. The older_age sticky note (variable) was never attached to (assigned to) another value, so it doesn’t change when the age variable is updated to be 50.

F-string Syntax

Use an f-string to construct output in Python by filling in the blanks with variables and f-string syntax to tell Christina how old she will be in 10 years.

Tip: You can combine variables and mathematical expressions in an f-string in the same way you can in variable assignment. We’ll see more examples of dynamic f-string output as we go through the lesson.

PYTHON 

name = 'Christina'
age = 23

f'{____}, you will be ______ in 10 years.'

PYTHON 

f'{name}, you will be {age + 10} in 10 years.'

OUTPUT 

'Christina, you will be 33 in 10 years.'

Swapping Values

Draw a table showing the values of the variables in this program after each statement is executed. In simple terms, what do the last three lines of this program do?

PYTHON 

x = 1.0
y = 3.0
swap = x
x = y
y = swap
swap = x  #  x = 1.0 y = 3.0 swap = 1.0
x = y     #  x = 3.0 y = 3.0 swap = 1.0
y = swap  #  x = 3.0 y = 1.0 swap = 1.0

These three lines exchange the values in x and y using the swap variable for temporary storage. This is a fairly common programming idiom.

Predicting Values

What is the final value of position in the program below? (Try to predict the value without running the program, then check your prediction.)

PYTHON 

initial = "left"
position = initial
initial = "right"

PYTHON 

initial = "left"  # Initial is assigned the string "left"
position = initial  # Position is assigned the variable initial, currently "left"
initial = "right"  # Initial is assigned the string "right"
print(position)

OUTPUT 

left

The last assignment to position was “left”

Can you slice integers?

If you assign a = 123, what happens if you try to get the second digit of a?

Numbers are not stored in the written representation, so they can’t be treated like strings.

PYTHON 

a = 123
print(a[1])

ERROR 

TypeError: 'int' object is not subscriptable

Slicing

We know how to slice using an explicit start and end point:

PYTHON 

library_name = 'Library of Babel'
f'library_name[1:3] is: {library_name[1:3]}'

OUTPUT 

'library_name[1:3] is: ib'

But we can also use implicit and negative index values when we define a slice. Try the following (replacing low and high with index positions of your choosing) to figure out how these different forms of slicing work:

  1. What does library_name[low:] (without a value after the colon) do?
  2. What does library_name[:high] (without a value before the colon) do?
  3. What does library_name[:] (just a colon) do?
  4. What does library_name[number:negative-number] do?
  1. It will slice the string, starting at the low index and stopping at the end of the string.
  2. It will slice the string, starting at the beginning on the string, and ending an element before the high index.
  3. It will print the entire string.
  4. It will slice the string, starting the number index, and ending a distance of the absolute value of negative-number elements from the end of the string.

Fractions

What type of value is 3.4? How can you find out?

It is a floating-point number (often abbreviated “float”).

PYTHON 

print(type(3.4))

OUTPUT 

<class 'float'>

Automatic Type Conversion

What type of value is 3.25 + 4?

It is a float: integers are automatically converted to floats as necessary.

PYTHON 

result = 3.25 + 4
print(result, 'is', type(result))

OUTPUT 

7.25 is <class 'float'>

Key Points

  • Use variables to store values.
  • Use print to display values.
  • Format output with f-strings.
  • Variables persist between cells.
  • Variables must be created before they are used.
  • Variables can be used in calculations.
  • Use an index to get a single character from a string.
  • Use a slice to get a portion of a string.
  • Use the built-in function len to find the length of a string.
  • Python is case-sensitive.
  • Every object has a type.
  • Use the built-in function type to find the type of an object.
  • Types control what operations can be done on objects.
  • Variables only change value when something is assigned to them.

Content from Lists

Last updated on 2024-06-17 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 35 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I store multiple items in a Python variable?

Objectives

  • Create collections to work with in Python using lists.
  • Write Python code to index, slice, and modify lists through assignment and method calls.

A list stores many values in a single structure.

The most popular kind of data collection in Python is the list. Lists have two primary important characteristics:

  1. They are mutable, i.e., they can be changed after they are created.
  2. They are heterogeneous, i.e., they can store values of many different types.

To create a new list, you can just put some values in square brackets with commas in between. Let’s create a short list of some library metadata standards.

PYTHON 

metadata = ['marc', 'frbr', 'mets', 'mods']
metadata

OUTPUT 

['marc', 'frbr', 'mets', 'mods']

We can use len() to find out how many values are in a list.

PYTHON 

len(metadata)

OUTPUT 

4

Use an item’s index to fetch it from a list.

In the same way we used index numbers for strings, we can reference elements and slices in a list.

PYTHON 

print(f'First item: {metadata[0]}')
print(f'The first three items: {metadata[0:3]}')

OUTPUT 

First item: marc
The first three items: ['marc', 'frbr', 'mets']

Reassign list values with their index.

Use an index value along with your list variable to replace a value from the list.

PYTHON 

print(f'List was: {metadata}')
metadata[0] = 'bibframe'
print(f'List is now: {metadata}')

OUTPUT 

List was: ['marc', 'frbr', 'mets', 'mods']
List is now: ['bibframe', 'frbr', 'mets', 'mods']

Character strings are immutable.

Unlike lists, we cannot change the characters in a string using its index value. In other words strings are immutable (cannot be changed in-place after creation), while lists are mutable: they can be modified in place. Python considers the string to be a single value with parts, not a collection of values.

PYTHON 

librarian = 'Langanathan' # misspelled SR Ranganathan's name
librarian[0] = 'R'

ERROR 

TypeError: 'str' object does not support item assignment

Lists may contain values of different types.

A single list may contain numbers, strings, and anything else (including other lists!). If you’re dealing with a list within a list you can continue to use the square bracket notation to reference specific items.

PYTHON 

mixed_list = ['string', 3.2, [10, 20, 30]]
f'First item in sublist: {mixed_list[2][0]}'

OUTPUT 

First item in sublist: 10

Appending items to a list lengthens it.

Use list_name.append to add items to the end of a list. In Python, we would call .append() a method of the list object. You can use the syntax of object.method() to call methods.

PYTHON 

print(f'list was:{metadata}')
metadata.append('oai-pmh')
print(f'list is now: {metadata}')

OUTPUT 

list was: ['bibframe', 'frbr', 'mets', 'mods']
list is now: ['bibframe', 'frbr', 'mets', 'mods', 'oai-pmh']

Use del to remove items from a list entirely.

del list_name[index] removes an item from a list and shortens the list. Unlike .append(), del is not a method, but a “statement” in Python. In the example below, del performs an “in-place” operation on a list of prime numbers. This means that the primes variable will be reassigned when you use the del statement, without needing to use an assignment operator (e.g., primes = ...) .

PYTHON 

primes = [2, 3, 5, 7, 11]
print(f'primes before: {primes}')
del primes[4]
print(f'primes after: {primes}')

OUTPUT 

primes before: [2, 3, 5, 7, 11]
primes after: [2, 3, 5, 7]

Lists: Length and Indexing

  1. Create a list named colors containing the strings ‘red’, ‘blue’, and ‘green’.
  2. Print the length of the list.
  3. Print the first color using indexing.

PYTHON 

colors = ['red', 'blue', 'green']
print(len(colors))
print(colors[0])

List slicing

  1. Create a list of numbers defined as [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6].
  2. Print the first three items in the list using slicing.
  3. Print the last three items using slicing.

PYTHON 

numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
print(numbers[0:3])
print(numbers[3:6])

OUTPUT 

[1, 2, 3]
[4, 5, 6]

You can also leave the first and last elements in a slice blank to refer to the first and last elements in a list:

PYTHON 

print(numbers[:3])
print(numbers[3:])

OUTPUT 

[1, 2, 3]
[4, 5, 6]

Fill in the Blanks

Fill in the blanks so that the program below produces the output shown. In the first line we create a blank list by assigning values = [].

PYTHON 

values = []
values.____(1)
values.____(3)
values.____(5)
print(f'first time: {values})
values = values[____]
print(f'second time: {values})

OUTPUT 

first time: [1, 3, 5]
second time: [3, 5]

PYTHON 

values = []
values.append(1)
values.append(3)
values.append(5)
print(f'first time: {values})
values = values[1:3]
print(f'second time: {values})

OUTPUT 

first time [1, 3, 5]
second time [3, 5]

Working With the End

Run the following code on your own and answer the following questions.

PYTHON 

resources = ['books','DVDs','maps','databases']
print(resources[-1])
  1. How does Python interpret a negative index value?
  2. If resources is a list, what does del resources[-1] do?

OUTPUT 

databases
  1. A negative index begins at the final element.
  2. It removes the final element of the list.

Key Points

  • A list stores many values in a single structure.
  • Use an item’s index to fetch it from a list.
  • Lists’ values can be replaced by assigning to them.
  • Appending items to a list lengthens it.
  • Use del to remove items from a list entirely.
  • Lists may contain values of different types.
  • Character strings can be indexed like lists.
  • Character strings are immutable.
  • Indexing beyond the end of the collection is an error.

Content from Built-in Functions and Help

Last updated on 2024-06-17 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 25 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I use built-in functions?
  • How can I find out what they do?
  • What kind of errors can occur in programs?

Objectives

  • Explain the purpose of functions.
  • Correctly call built-in Python functions.
  • Correctly nest calls to built-in functions.
  • Use help to display documentation for built-in functions.
  • Correctly describe situations in which SyntaxError and NameError occur.

Use comments to add documentation to programs.

It’s helpful to add comments to our code so that our collaborators (and our future selves) will be able to understand what particular pieces of code are meant to accomplish or how they work

PYTHON 

# This sentence isn't executed by Python.
name = 'Library Carpentry'   # Neither is this comment
# Anything after '#' is ignored.

A function may take zero or more arguments.

We have seen some functions such as print() and len() already but let’s take a closer look at their structure.

An argument is a value passed into a function. Any arguments you want to pass into a function must go into the ().

PYTHON 

print("I am an argument and must go here.")
print()
print("Sometimes you don't need to pass an argument.")

OUTPUT 

I am an argument and must go here.

Sometimes you don't need to pass an argument.

You always need to use parentheses at the end of a function, because this tells Python you are calling a function. Leave the parentheses empty if you don’t want or need to pass any arguments.

Commonly-used built-in functions include max() and min().

  • Use max() to find the largest value of one or more values.
  • Use min() to find the smallest.

Both max() and min() work on character strings as well as numbers, so can be used for numerical and alphabetical comparisons. Note that numerical and alphabetical comparisons follow some specific rules about what is larger or smaller: numbers are smaller than letters and upper case letters are smaller than lower case letters, so the order of operations in Python is 0-9, A-Z, a-z when comparing numbers and letters.

PYTHON 

print(max(1, 2, 3)) # notice that functions are nestable
print(min('a', 'b', max('c', 'd'))) # nest with care since code gets less readable
print(min('a', 'A', '2')) # numbers and letters can be compared if they are the same data type

OUTPUT 

3
a
2

Functions may only work for certain (combinations of) arguments.

max() and min() must be given at least one argument and they must be given things that can meaningfully be compared.

PYTHON 

max(1, 'a')

ERROR 

TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[6], line 1
----> 1 max(1, 'a')

TypeError: '>' not supported between instances of 'str' and 'int'

Function argument default values, and round().

round() will round off a floating-point number. By default, it will round to zero decimal places, which is how it will operate if you don’t pass a second argument.

PYTHON 

round(3.712)

OUTPUT 

4

We can use a second argument (or parameter) to specify the number of decimal places we want though.

PYTHON 

round(3.712, 1)

OUTPUT 

3.7

Use the built-in function help to get help for a function.

Every built-in function has online documentation. You can always access the documentation using the built-in help() function. In the jupyter environment, you can access help by either adding a ? at the end of your function and running it or Hold down Shift, and press Tab when your insertion cursor is in or near the function name.

PYTHON 

help(round)

PYTHON 

round?

OUTPUT 

Help on built-in function round in module builtins:

round(...)
    round(number[, ndigits]) -> number

    Round a number to a given precision in decimal digits (default 0 digits).
    This returns an int when called with one argument, otherwise the
    same type as the number. ndigits may be negative.

Every function returns something.

Every function call produces some result and if the function doesn’t have a useful result to return, it usually returns the special value None. Each line of Python code is executed in order. In this case, the second line call to result returns ‘None’ since the print statement in the previous line didn’t return a value to the result variable.

PYTHON 

result = print('example')
print(f'result of print is {result}')

OUTPUT 

example
result of print is None

Spot the Difference

  1. Predict what each of the print statements in the program below will print.
  2. Does max(len(cataloger), assistant_librarian) run or produce an error message? If it runs, does its result make any sense?

PYTHON 

cataloger = "metadata_curation"
assistant_librarian = "archives"
print(max(cataloger, assistant_librarian))
print(max(len(cataloger), assistant_librarian))

OUTPUT 

metadata_curation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[2], line 4
      2 assistant_librarian = "archives"
      3 print(max(cataloger, assistant_librarian))
----> 4 print(max(len(cataloger), assistant_librarian))

TypeError: '>' not supported between instances of 'str' and 'int'

Why Not?

Why don’t max and min return None when they are given no arguments?

Both functions require an argument to execute

PYTHON 

print(max())

ERROR 

TypeError: max expected 1 arguments, got 0

Key Points

  • Use comments to add documentation to programs.
  • A function may take zero or more arguments.
  • Commonly-used built-in functions include max, min, and round.
  • Functions may only work for certain (combinations of) arguments.
  • Functions may have default values for some arguments.
  • Use the built-in function help to get help for a function.
  • Every function returns something.

Content from Libraries & Pandas

Last updated on 2024-11-05 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I extend the capabilities of Python?
  • How can I use Python code that other people have written?
  • How can I read tabular data?

Objectives

  • Explain what Python libraries and modules are.
  • Write Python code that imports and uses modules from Python’s standard library.
  • Find and read documentation for standard libraries.
  • Import the pandas library.
  • Use pandas to load a CSV file as a data set.
  • Get some basic information about a pandas DataFrame.

Python libraries are powerful collections of tools.

A Python library is a collection of files (called modules) that contains functions that you can use in your programs. Some libraries (also referred to as packages) contain standard data values or language resources that you can reference in your code. So far, we have used the Python standard library, which is an extensive suite of built-in modules. You can find additional libraries from PyPI (the Python Package Index), though you’ll often find references to useful libraries as you’re reading tutorials or trying to solve specific programming problems. Some popular libraries for working with data in library fields are:

  • Pandas - tabular data analysis tool.
  • Pymarc - for working with bibliographic data encoded in MARC21.
  • Matplotlib - data visualization tools.
  • BeautifulSoup - for parsing HTML and XML documents.
  • Requests - for making HTTP requests (e.g., for web scraping, using APIs)
  • Scikit-learn - machine learning tools for predictive data analysis.
  • NumPy - numerical computing tools such as mathematical functions and random number generators.

You must import a library or module before using it.

Use import to load a library into a program’s memory. Then you can refer to things from the library as library_name.function. Let’s import and use the string library to generate a list of lowercase ASCII letters and to change the case of a text string:

PYTHON 

import string

print(f'The lower ascii letters are {string.ascii_lowercase}')
print(string.capwords('capitalise this sentence please.'))

OUTPUT 

The lower ascii letters are abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Capitalise This Sentence Please.

Dot notation

We introduced Python dot notation when we looked at methods like list_name.append(). We can use the same syntax when we call functions of a specific Python library, such as string.capwords(). In fact, this dot notation is common in Python, and can refer to relationships between different types of Python objects. Remember that it is always the case that the object to the right of the dot is a part of the larger object to the left. If we expressed capitals of countries using this syntax, for example, we would say, Brazil.São_Paulo() or Japan.Tokyo().

Use help to learn about the contents of a library module.

The help() function can tell us more about a module in a library, including more information about its functions and/or variables.

PYTHON 

help(string)

OUTPUT 

Help on module string:

NAME
    string - A collection of string constants.

MODULE REFERENCE
    https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/string

    The following documentation is automatically generated from the Python
    source files.  It may be incomplete, incorrect or include features that
    are considered implementation detail and may vary between Python
    implementations.  When in doubt, consult the module reference at the
    location listed above.

DESCRIPTION
    Public module variables:

    whitespace -- a string containing all ASCII whitespace
    ascii_lowercase -- a string containing all ASCII lowercase letters
    ascii_uppercase -- a string containing all ASCII uppercase letters
    ascii_letters -- a string containing all ASCII letters
    digits -- a string containing all ASCII decimal digits
    hexdigits -- a string containing all ASCII hexadecimal digits
    octdigits -- a string containing all ASCII octal digits
    punctuation -- a string containing all ASCII punctuation characters
    printable -- a string containing all ASCII characters considered printable

CLASSES
    builtins.object
        Formatter
        Template
⋮ ⋮ ⋮

Import specific items

You can use from ... import ... to load specific items from a library module to save space. This also helps you write briefer code since you can refer to them directly without using the library name as a prefix everytime.

PYTHON 

from string import ascii_letters

print(f'The ASCII letters are {ascii_letters}')

OUTPUT 

The ASCII letters are abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Module not found error

Before you can import a Python library, you sometimes will need to download and install it on your machine. Anaconda comes with many of the most popular Python libraries for scientific computing applications built-in, so if you installed Anaconda for this workshop, you’ll be able to import many common libraries directly. Some less common tools, like the PyMarc library, however, would need to be installed first.

PYTHON 

import pymarc

ERROR 

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pymarc'

You can find out how to install the library by looking at the documentation. PyMarc, for example, recommends using a command line tool, pip, to install it. You can install with pip in a Jupyter notebook by starting the command with a percentage symbol, which allows you to run shell commands from Jupyter:

PYTHON 

%pip install pymarc
import pymarc

Use library aliases

You can use import ... as ... to give a library a short alias while importing it. This helps you refer to items more efficiently.

PYTHON 

import pandas as pd

Many popular libraries have common aliases. For example:

  • import pandas as pd
  • import numpy as np
  • import matplotlib as plt

Using these common aliases can make it easier to work with existing documentation and tutorials.

Pandas

Pandas is a widely-used Python library for statistics using tabular data. Essentially, it gives you access to 2-dimensional tables whose columns have names and can have different data types. We can start using pandas by reading a Comma Separated Values (CSV) data file with the function pd.read_csv(). The function .read_csv() expects as an argument the path to and name of the file to be read. This returns a dataframe that you can assign to a variable.

Find your CSV files

From the file browser in the left sidebar you can select the data folder to view the contents of the folder. If you downloaded and uncompressed the dataset correctly, you should see a series of CSV files from 2011 to 2022. If you double-click on the first file, 2011_circ.csv, you will see a preview of the CSV file in a new tab in the main panel of JupyterLab.

Let’s load that file into a pandas DataFrame, and save it to a new variable called df.

PYTHON 

df = pd.read_csv('data/2011_circ.csv')
print(df)

OUTPUT 

                       branch                  address     city  zip code  \
    0             Albany Park     5150 N. Kimball Ave.  Chicago   60625.0
    1                 Altgeld    13281 S. Corliss Ave.  Chicago   60827.0
    2          Archer Heights      5055 S. Archer Ave.  Chicago   60632.0
    3                  Austin        5615 W. Race Ave.  Chicago   60644.0
    4           Austin-Irving  6100 W. Irving Park Rd.  Chicago   60634.0
    ..                    ...                      ...      ...       ...
    75           West Pullman         830 W. 119th St.  Chicago   60643.0
    76              West Town     1625 W. Chicago Ave.  Chicago   60622.0
    77  Whitney M. Young, Jr.         7901 S. King Dr.  Chicago   60619.0
    78       Woodson Regional      9525 S. Halsted St.  Chicago   60628.0
    79     Wrightwood-Ashburn      8530 S. Kedzie Ave.  Chicago   60652.0

        january  february  march  april    may   june   july  august  september  \
    0      8427      7023   9702   9344   8865  11650  11778   11306      10466
    1      1258       708    854    804    816    870    713     480        702
    2      8104      6899   9329   9124   7472   8314   8116    9177       9033
    3      1755      1316   1942   2200   2133   2359   2080    2405       2417
    4     12593     11791  14807  14382  11754  14402  14605   15164      14306
    ..      ...       ...    ...    ...    ...    ...    ...     ...        ...
    75     3312      2713   3495   3550   3010   2968   3844    3811       3209
    76     9030      7727  10450  10607  10139  10410  10601   11311      11084
    77     2588      2033   3099   3087   3005   2911   3123    3644       3547
    78    10564      8874  10948   9299   9025  10020  10366   10892      10901
    79     3062      2780   3334   3279   3036   3801   4600    3953       3536

        october  november  december     ytd
    0     10997     10567      9934  120059
    1       927       787       692    9611
    2      9709      8809      7865  101951
    3      2571      2233      2116   25527
    4     15357     14069     12404  165634
    ..      ...       ...       ...     ...
    75     3923      3162      3147   40144
    76    10657     10797      9275  122088
    77     3848      3324      3190   37399
    78    13272     11421      9474  125056
    79     4093      3583      3200   42257

    [80 rows x 17 columns]

File Not Found

Our lessons store their data files in a data sub-directory, which is why the path to the file is data/2011_circ.csv. If you forget to include data/, or if you include it but your copy of the file is somewhere else in relation to your Jupyter Notebook, you will get an error that ends with a line like this:

ERROR 

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'data/2011_circ.csv'

df is a common variable name that you’ll encounter in pandas tutorials online, but in practice it’s often better to use more meaningful variable names. Since we have twelve different CSVs to work with, for example, we might want to add the year to the variable name to differentiate between the datasets.

Also, as seen above, the output when you print a dataframe in Jupyter isn’t very easy to read. We can use .head() to look at just the first few rows in our dataframe formatted in a more convenient way for our Notebook.

PYTHON 

df_2011 = pd.read_csv('data/2011_circ.csv')
df_2011.head()
branch address city zip code january february march april may june july august september october november december ytd
0 Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Ave. Chicago 60625.0 8427 7023 9702 9344 8865 11650 11778 11306 10466 10997 10567 9934 120059
1 Altgeld 13281 S. Corliss Ave. Chicago 60827.0 1258 708 854 804 816 870 713 480 702 927 787 692 9611
2 Archer Heights 5055 S. Archer Ave. Chicago 60632.0 8104 6899 9329 9124 7472 8314 8116 9177 9033 9709 8809 7865 101951
3 Austin 5615 W. Race Ave. Chicago 60644.0 1755 1316 1942 2200 2133 2359 2080 2405 2417 2571 2233 2116 25527
4 Austin-Irving 6100 W. Irving Park Rd. Chicago 60634.0 12593 11791 14807 14382 11754 14402 14605 15164 14306 15357 14069 12404 165634

Use the DataFrame.info() method to find out more about a dataframe.

PYTHON 

df_2011.info()

OUTPUT 

<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
RangeIndex: 80 entries, 0 to 79
Data columns (total 17 columns):
 #   Column     Non-Null Count  Dtype
---  ------     --------------  -----
 0   branch     80 non-null     object
 1   address    80 non-null     object
 2   city       80 non-null     object
 3   zip code   80 non-null     float64
 4   january    80 non-null     int64
 5   february   80 non-null     int64
 6   march      80 non-null     int64
 7   april      80 non-null     int64
 8   may        80 non-null     int64
 9   june       80 non-null     int64
 10  july       80 non-null     int64
 11  august     80 non-null     int64
 12  september  80 non-null     int64
 13  october    80 non-null     int64
 14  november   80 non-null     int64
 15  december   80 non-null     int64
 16  ytd        80 non-null     int64
dtypes: float64(1), int64(13), object(3)
memory usage: 10.8+ KB

The info() method tells us:

  • we have a RangeIndex of 80, which means we have 80 rows.
  • there are 17 columns, with datatypes of
    • objects (3 columns)
    • 64-bit floating point number (1 column)
    • 64-bit integers (13 columns).
  • the dataframe uses 10.8 kilobytes of memory.

The DataFrame.columns variable stores info about the dataframe’s columns.

Note that this is data, not a method, so do not use () to try to call it. It helpfully gives us a list of all of the column names.

PYTHON 

print(df_2011.columns)

OUTPUT 

Index(['branch', 'address', 'city', 'zip code', 'january', 'february', 'march',
       'april', 'may', 'june', 'july', 'august', 'september', 'october',
       'november', 'december', 'ytd'],
      dtype='object')

Use DataFrame.describe() to get summary statistics about data.

DataFrame.describe() gets the summary statistics of only the columns that have numerical data. All other columns are ignored, unless you use the argument include='all'.

PYTHON 

df_2011.describe()
zip code january february march april may june july august september october november december ytd
count 80.000000 80.000000 80.000000 80.00000 80.000000 80.000000 80.000000 80.000000 80.000000 80.000000 80.000000 80.000000 80.00000 80.000000
mean 60632.675000 7216.175000 6247.162500 8367.36250 8209.225000 7551.725000 8581.125000 8708.887500 8918.550000 8289.975000 9033.437500 8431.112500 7622.73750 97177.475000
std 28.001254 10334.622299 8815.945718 11667.93342 11241.223544 10532.352671 10862.742953 10794.030461 11301.149192 10576.005552 10826.494853 10491.875418 9194.44616 125678.282307
min 60605.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.00000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 2.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 0.00000 9218.000000
25% 60617.000000 2388.500000 1979.250000 2708.50000 2864.250000 2678.500000 2953.750000 3344.750000 3310.500000 3196.750000 3747.000000 3168.000000 3049.75000 37119.250000
50% 60629.000000 5814.500000 5200.000000 6468.50000 6286.000000 5733.000000 6764.500000 6194.000000 6938.500000 6599.500000 7219.500000 6766.000000 5797.00000 73529.000000
75% 60643.000000 9021.000000 8000.000000 10737.00000 10794.250000 9406.250000 10852.750000 11168.000000 11291.750000 10520.000000 11347.500000 10767.000000 9775.00000 124195.750000
max 60827.000000 79210.000000 67574.000000 89122.00000 88527.000000 82581.000000 82100.000000 80219.000000 85193.000000 81400.000000 82236.000000 79702.000000 68856.00000 966720.000000

This gives us, for example, the count, minimum, maximum, and mean values from each numeric column. In the case of the zip code column, this isn’t helpful, but for the usage data for each month, it’s a quick way to scan the range of data over the course of the year.

Importing With Aliases

  1. Fill in the blanks so that the program below prints 0123456789.
  2. Rewrite the program so that it uses import without as.
  3. Which form do you find easier to read?

PYTHON 

import string as s
numbers = ____.digits
print(____)

PYTHON 

import string as s
numbers = s.digits
print(numbers)

can be written as

PYTHON 

import string
numbers = string.digits
print(numbers)

Since you just wrote the code and are familiar with it, you might actually find the first version easier to read. But when trying to read a huge piece of code written by someone else, or when getting back to your own huge piece of code after several months, non-abbreviated names are often easier, expect where there are clear abbreviation conventions.

Locating the Right Module

Given the variables year, month and day, how would you generate a date in the standard iso format:

PYTHON 

year = 1971
month = 8
day = 26
  1. Which standard library module could help you?
  2. Which function would you select from that module?
  3. Try to write a program that uses the function.

The datetime module seems like it could help you.

You could use date(year, month, date).isoformat() to convert your date:

PYTHON 

import datetime

iso_date = datetime.date(year, month, day).isoformat()
print(iso_date)

or more compactly:

PYTHON 

import datetime

print(datetime.date(year, month, day).isoformat())

According to Washington County Cooperative Library Services: “1971, August 26 – Ohio University’s Alden Library takes computer cataloging online for the first time, building a system where libraries could electronically share catalog records over a network instead of by mailing printed cards or re-entering records in each catalog. That catalog eventually became the core of OCLC WorldCat – a shared online catalog used by libraries in 107 countries and containing 517,963,343 records.”

Key Points

  • Most of the power of a programming language is in its libraries.
  • A program must import a library module in order to use it.
  • Use help to learn about the contents of a library module.
  • Import specific items from a library to shorten programs.
  • Create an alias for a library when importing it to shorten programs.

Content from For Loops

Last updated on 2024-06-27 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 40 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I execute Python code iteratively across a collection of values?

Objectives

  • Explain what for loops are normally used for.
  • Trace the execution of an un-nested loop and correctly state the values of variables in each iteration.
  • Write for loops that use the accumulator pattern to aggregate values.

For loops

Let’s create a short list of numbers in Python, and then attempt to print out each value in the list.

PYTHON 

odds = [1, 3, 5, 7]

One way to print each number is to use a print statement with the index value for each item in the list:

PYTHON 

print(odds[0], odds[1], odds[2], odds[3])

OUTPUT 

1 3 5 7

This is a bad approach for three reasons:

  1. Not scalable. Imagine you need to print a list that has hundreds of elements.

  2. Difficult to maintain. If we want to add another change – multiplying each number by 5, for example – we would have to change the code for every item in the list, which isn’t sustainable

  3. Fragile. Hand-numbering index values for each item in a list is likely to cause errors if we make any mistakes.

PYTHON 

odds = [1, 3, 5]
print(odds[0], odds[1], odds[2], odds[3])

We get an IndexError when we try to refer to an item in a list that does not exist.

ERROR 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IndexError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-3-7974b6cdaf14> in <module>()
      3 print(odds[1])
      4 print(odds[2])
----> 5 print(odds[3])

IndexError: list index out of range

A for loop is a better solution:

PYTHON 

odds = [1, 3, 5, 7]
for num in odds:
    print(num)

OUTPUT 

1
3
5
7

A for loop repeats an operation – in this case, printing – once for each element it encounters in a collection. The general structure of a loop is:

PYTHON 

for variable in collection:
    # do things using variable, such as print

We can call the loop variable anything we like, there must be a colon at the end of the line starting the loop, and we must indent anything we want to run inside the loop. Unlike many other programming languages, there is no command to signify the end of the loop body; everything indented after the for statement belongs to the loop.

Loops are more robust ways to deal with containers like lists. Even if the values of the odds list changes, the loop will still work.

PYTHON 

odds.append(9)
odds.append(11)
print(odds)
for num in odds:
    print(num)

OUTPUT 

[1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11]
1
3
5
7
9
11

Using a shorter version of the odds example above, the loop might look like this:

Loop variable 'num' being assigned the value of each element in the list odds in turn and then being printed

Each number (num) variable in the odds list is looped through and printed one number after another.

Loop variables

Loop variables are created on demand when you define the loop and they will persist after the loop finishes. Like all variable names, it’s helpful to give for loop variables meaningful names that you’ll understand as the code in your loop grows. for num in odds is easier to understand than for kitten in odds, for example.

You can loop through other Python objects

You can use a for loop to iterate through each element in a string. for loops are not limited to operating on lists.

PYTHON 

for letter in 'library of babel':
  print(letter)

OUTPUT 

L
i
b
r
a
r
y

o
f

B
a
b
e
l

Use range to iterate over a sequence of numbers.

The built-in function range() produces a sequence of numbers. You can pass a single parameter to identify how many items in the sequence to range over (e.g. range(5)) or if you pass two arguments, the first corresponds to the starting point and the second to the end point. The end point works in the same way as Python index values (“up to, but not including”).

PYTHON 

for number in range(0,3):
    print(number)

OUTPUT 

0
1
2

Accumulators

A common loop pattern is to initialize an accumulator variable to zero, an empty string, or an empty list before the loop begins. Then the loop updates the accumulator variable with values from a collection.

We can use the += operator to add a value to total in the loop below, so that each time we iterate through the loop we’ll add the index value of the range() to total.

PYTHON 

# Sum the first 10 integers.
total = 0

# range(1,11) will give us the numbers 1 through 10
for num in range(1, 11):
    print(f'num is: {num} total is: {total}')
    total += num

print(f'Loop finished. num is: {num} total is: {total}')

OUTPUT 

num is: 1 total is: 0
num is: 2 total is: 1
num is: 3 total is: 3
num is: 4 total is: 6
num is: 5 total is: 10
num is: 6 total is: 15
num is: 7 total is: 21
num is: 8 total is: 28
num is: 9 total is: 36
num is: 10 total is: 45
Loop finished. Num is: 10 total is: 55
  • The first time through the loop, total is equal to 0, and num is 1 (the range starts at 1). After those values print out we add 1 to the value of total (0), to get 1.
  • The second time through the loop, total is equal to 1, and num is 2. After those print out we add 2 to the value of total (1), to get 3.
  • The third time through the loop, total is equal to 3, and num is 3. After those print out we add 3 to the value of total (3), to bring us to 6.
  • And so on.
  • After the loop is finished the values of total and num retain the values that were assigned the last time through the loop. So num is equal to 10 (the last index value of range()) and total is equal to 55 (45 + 10).

Loop through a list

Create a list of three vegetables, and then build a for loop to print out each vegetable from the list.

Bonus: Create an accumulator variable to print out the index value of each item in the list along with the vegetable name.

PYTHON 

vegetables = ['lettuce', 'carrots', 'celery']
for veg in vegetables:
    print(veg)

OUTPUT 

lettuce
carrots
celery

Bonus:

PYTHON 

idx = 0
vegetables = ['lettuce', 'carrots', 'celery']
for veg in vegetables:
    print(idx, veg)
    idx += 1

OUTPUT 

0 lettuce
1 carrots
2 celery

Use range() in a loop

Print out the numbers 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, using range() in a for loop.

PYTHON 


for num in range(10, 16):
    print(num)

OUTPUT 

10
11
12
13
14
15

Use a string index in a loop

How would you loop through a list with the values ‘red’, ‘green’, and ‘blue’ to create the acronym rgb, pulling from the first letters in each string? Print the acronym when the loop is finished.

Hint: Use the + operator to concatenate strings together. For example, lib = 'lib' + 'rary' will assign the value of ‘library’ to lib.

PYTHON 

acronym = ''
for color in ['red', 'green', 'blue']:
    acronym = acronym + color[0]
print(acronym)

OUTPUT 

rgb

You could also concatenate inside of the loop with acronym += color[0].

Subtract a list of values in a loop

  1. Create an accumulator variable called total that starts at 100.
  2. Create a list called numbers with the values of 10, 15, 20, 25, 30.
  3. Create a for loop to iterate through each item in the list.
  4. Each time through the list update the value of total to subtract the value of the current list item from total. Tip: -= works for subtraction in the same way that += works for addition.
  5. Print the value of total inside of the loop to keep track of its value throughout.

PYTHON 

total = 100
numbers = [10, 15, 20, 25, 30]
for num in numbers:
    total -= num
    print(total)

OUTPUT 

90
75
55
30
0

Key Points

  • A for loop executes commands once for each value in a collection.
  • The first line of the for loop must end with a colon, and the body must be indented.
  • Indentation is always meaningful in Python.
  • A for loop is made up of a collection, a loop variable, and a body.
  • Loop variables can be called anything (but it is strongly advised to have a meaningful name to the looping variable).
  • The body of a loop can contain many statements.
  • Use range to iterate over a sequence of numbers.
  • The Accumulator pattern turns many values into one.

Content from Looping Over Data Sets

Last updated on 2024-10-29 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 20 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I process many data sets with a single command?

Objectives

  • Be able to read and write globbing expressions that match sets of files.
  • Use glob to create lists of files.
  • Write for loops to perform operations on files given their names in a list.

Use a for loop to process files given a list of their names.

If you recall from episode 06, the pd.read_csv() method takes a text string referencing a filename as an argument. If we have a list of strings that point to our filenames, we can loop through the list to read in each CSV file as a DataFrame. Let’s print out the maximum values from the ‘ytd’ (year to date) column for each DataFrame.

PYTHON 

import pandas as pd
for filename in ['data/2011_circ.csv', 'data/2012_circ.csv']:
  data = pd.read_csv(filename)
  print(filename, data['ytd'].max())

OUTPUT 

data/2011_circ.csv 966720
data/2012_circ.csv 937649

Use glob to find sets of files whose names match a pattern.

Fortunately, we don’t have to manually type in a list of all of our filenames. We can use a Python library called glob, to work with paths and files in a convenient way. In Unix, the term “globbing” means “matching a set of files with a pattern”. Glob gives us some nice pattern matching options:

  • * will “match zero or more characters”
  • ? will “match exactly one character”

The glob library contains a function also called glob to match file patterns. For example, glob.glob('*.txt') would match all files in the current directory with names that end with .txt.

Let’s create a list of the usage data CSV files. Because the .glob() argument includes a filepath in single quotes, we’ll use double quotes around our f-string.

PYTHON 

import glob
print(f"all csv files in data directory: {glob.glob('data/*.csv')}")

OUTPUT 

all csv files in data directory: ['data/2011_circ.csv', 'data/2016_circ.csv', 'data/2017_circ.csv', 'data/2022_circ.csv', 'data/2018_circ.csv', 'data/2019_circ.csv', 'data/2012_circ.csv', 'data/2013_circ.csv', 'data/2021_circ.csv', 'data/2020_circ.csv', 'data/2015_circ.csv', 'data/2014_circ.csv']

Use glob and for to process batches of files.

Now we can use glob in a for loop to create DataFrames from all of the CSV files in the data directory. To use tools like glob it helps if files are named and stored consistently so that simple patterns will find the right data. You can learn more about how to name files to improve machine-readability from the Open Science Foundation article on file naming.

PYTHON 

for csv in glob.glob('data/*.csv'):
  data = pd.read_csv(csv)
  print(csv, data['ytd'].max())

OUTPUT 

data/2011_circ.csv 966720
data/2016_circ.csv 670077
data/2017_circ.csv 634570
data/2022_circ.csv 301340
data/2018_circ.csv 614313
data/2019_circ.csv 581151
data/2012_circ.csv 937649
data/2013_circ.csv 821749
data/2021_circ.csv 271811
data/2020_circ.csv 276878
data/2015_circ.csv 694528
data/2014_circ.csv 755189

The output of the files above may be different for you, depending on what operating system you use. The glob library doesn’t have its own internal system for determining how filenames are sorted, but instead relies on the operating system’s filesystem. Since operating systems can differ, it is helpful to use Python to manually sort the glob files so that everyone will see the same results, regardless of their operating system. You can do that by applying the Python method sorted() to the glob.glob list.

PYTHON 

for csv in sorted(glob.glob('data/*.csv')):
    data = pd.read_csv(csv)
    print(csv, data['ytd'].max())

OUTPUT 

data/2011_circ.csv 966720
data/2012_circ.csv 937649
data/2013_circ.csv 821749
data/2014_circ.csv 755189
data/2015_circ.csv 694528
data/2016_circ.csv 670077
data/2017_circ.csv 634570
data/2018_circ.csv 614313
data/2019_circ.csv 581151
data/2020_circ.csv 276878
data/2021_circ.csv 271811
data/2022_circ.csv 301340

Appending DataFrames to a list

In the example above, we can print out results from each DataFrame as we cycle through them, but it would be more convenient if we saved all of the yearly usage data in these CSV files into DataFrames that we could work with later on.

Convert Year in filenames to a column

Before we join the data from each CSV into a single DataFrame, we’ll want to make sure we keep track of which year each dataset comes from. To do that we can capture the year from each file name and save it to a new column for all of the rows in each CSV. Let’s see how this works by looping through each of our CSVs.

PYTHON 

for csv in sorted(glob.glob('data/*.csv')):
        year = csv[5:9] #the 5th to 9th characters in each file match the year
        print(f'filename: {csv} year: {year}')

OUTPUT 

filename: data/2011_circ.csv year: 2011
filename: data/2012_circ.csv year: 2012
filename: data/2013_circ.csv year: 2013
filename: data/2014_circ.csv year: 2014
filename: data/2015_circ.csv year: 2015
filename: data/2016_circ.csv year: 2016
filename: data/2017_circ.csv year: 2017
filename: data/2018_circ.csv year: 2018
filename: data/2019_circ.csv year: 2019
filename: data/2020_circ.csv year: 2020
filename: data/2021_circ.csv year: 2021
filename: data/2022_circ.csv year: 2022

Once we’ve saved the year variable from each file name, we can assign it to every row in a column for each CSV by assigning data['year'] = year inside of the loop.

To collect the data from each CSV we’ll use a list “accumulator” (as we covered in the last episode) and append each DataFrame to an empty list. You can create an empty list by assigning a variable to empty square brackets before the loop begins.

PYTHON 

dfs = [] # an empty list to hold all of our DataFrames
counter = 1

for csv in sorted(glob.glob('data/*.csv')):
  year = csv[5:9] 
  data = pd.read_csv(csv) 
  data['year'] = year 
  print(f'{counter} Saving {len(data)} rows from {csv}')
  dfs.append(data)
  counter += 1

print(f'Number of saved DataFrames: {len(dfs)}')

OUTPUT 

1 Saving 80 rows from data/2011_circ.csv
2 Saving 79 rows from data/2012_circ.csv
3 Saving 80 rows from data/2013_circ.csv
4 Saving 80 rows from data/2014_circ.csv
5 Saving 80 rows from data/2015_circ.csv
6 Saving 80 rows from data/2016_circ.csv
7 Saving 80 rows from data/2017_circ.csv
8 Saving 80 rows from data/2018_circ.csv
9 Saving 81 rows from data/2019_circ.csv
10 Saving 81 rows from data/2020_circ.csv
11 Saving 81 rows from data/2021_circ.csv
12 Saving 81 rows from data/2022_circ.csv
Number of saved DataFrames: 12

We can check to make sure the year was properly saved by looking at the first DataFrame in the dfs list. If you scroll to the right you should see the first two rows of the year column both have the value 2011.

PYTHON 

dfs[0].head(2) # we can add a number to head() to ask for a specific number of rows

OUTPUT 

|     | branch      | address               | city    | zip code | january | february | march | april | may  | june  | july  | august | september | october | november | december | ytd    | year |
|-----|-------------|-----------------------|---------|----------|---------|----------|-------|-------|------|-------|-------|--------|-----------|---------|----------|----------|--------|------|
| 0   | Albany Park | 5150 N. Kimball Ave.  | Chicago | 60625.0  | 8427    | 7023     | 9702  | 9344  | 8865 | 11650 | 11778 | 11306  | 10466     | 10997   | 10567    | 9934     | 120059 | 2011 |
| 1   | Altgeld     | 13281 S. Corliss Ave. | Chicago | 60827.0  | 1258    | 708      | 854   | 804   | 816  | 870   | 713   | 480    | 702       | 927     | 787      | 692      | 9611   | 2011 |

Concatenating DataFrames

There are many different ways to merge, join, and concatenate pandas DataFrames together. The pandas documentation has good examples of how to use the .merge(), .join(), and .concat() methods to accomplish different goals. Because all of our CSVs have the exact same columns, if we want to concatenate them vertically (adding all of the rows from each DataFrame together in order), we can do so using concat(), which takes a list of DataFrames as its first argument. Since we aren’t using a specific column as a pandas index, we’ll set the argument of ignore_index to be True.

PYTHON 

df = pd.concat(dfs, ignore_index=True)
f'Number of rows in df: {len(df)}'

OUTPUT 

'Number of rows in df: 963'

Determining Matches

Which of these files would be matched by the expression glob.glob('data/*circ.csv')?

  1. data/2011_circ.csv
  2. data/2012_circ_stats.csv
  3. circ/2013_circ.csv
  4. Both 1 and 3

Only item 1 is matched by the wildcard expression data/*circ.csv.

Minimum circulation per year

Modify the following code to print out the lowest value in the ytd column from each year/file.

PYTHON 

import pandas as pd
for csv in sorted(glob.glob('data/*.csv')):
    data = pd.read_csv(____)
    print(csv, data['____'].____())

PYTHON 

import pandas as pd
for csv in sorted(glob.glob('data/*.csv')):
    data = pd.read_csv(csv)
    print(csv, data['ytd'].min())

Compile CSVs into one DataFrame

Imagine you had a folder named outputs/ that included all kinds of different file types. Use glob and a for loop to iterate through all of the CSV files in the folder that have a file name that begins with data. Save them to a list called dfs, and then use pd.concat() to concatenate all of the DataFrames from the dfs list together into a new DataFrame called, new_df. You can assume that all of the data CSV files have the same columns so they will concatenate together cleanly using pd.concat().

PYTHON 

import pandas as pd

dfs = []

for csv in sorted(glob.glob('outputs/data*.csv')):
    data = pd.read_csv(csv)
    dfs.append(data)
    
new_df = pd.concat(dfs, ignore_index=True)

Key Points

  • Use a for loop to process files given a list of their names.
  • Use glob.glob to find sets of files whose names match a pattern.
  • Use glob and for to process batches of files.
  • Use a list “accumulator” to append a DataFrame to an empty list [].
  • The .merge(), .join(), and .concat() methods can combine pandas DataFrames.

Content from Using Pandas

Last updated on 2024-06-17 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I work with subsets of data in a pandas DataFrame?
  • How can I run summary statistics and sort columns of a DataFrame?
  • How can I save DataFrames to other file formats?

Objectives

  • Select specific columns and rows from pandas DataFrames.
  • Use pandas methods to calculate sums and means, and to display unique items.
  • Sort DataFrame columns (pandas series).
  • Save a DataFrame as a CSV or pickle file.

Pinpoint specific rows and columns in a DataFrame

If you don’t already have all of the CSV files loaded into a DataFrame, let’s do that now:

PYTHON 

import glob
import pandas as pd

dfs = [] 

for csv in sorted(glob.glob('data/*.csv')):
    year = csv[5:9] 
    data = pd.read_csv(csv) 
    data['year'] = year 
    dfs.append(data)

df = pd.concat(dfs, ignore_index=True)

df.head(3)
branch address city zip code january february march april may june july august september october november december ytd year
0 Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Ave. Chicago 60625.0 8427 7023 9702 9344 8865 11650 11778 11306 10466 10997 10567 9934 120059 2011
1 Altgeld 13281 S. Corliss Ave. Chicago 60827.0 1258 708 854 804 816 870 713 480 702 927 787 692 9611 2011
2 Archer Heights 5055 S. Archer Ave. Chicago 60632.0 8104 6899 9329 9124 7472 8314 8116 9177 9033 9709 8809 7865 101951 2011

Use tail() to look at the end of the DataFrame

We’ve seen how to look at the first rows in your DataFrame using .head(). You can use .tail() to look at the final rows.

PYTHON 

df.tail(3)
branch address city zip code january february march april may june july august september october november december ytd year
960 Brighton Park 4314 S. Archer Ave. Chicago 60632.0 1394 1321 1327 1705 1609 1578 1609 1512 1425 1603 1579 1278 17940 2022
961 South Chicago 9055 S. Houston Ave. Chicago 60617.0 496 528 739 775 587 804 720 883 681 697 799 615 8324 2022
962 Chicago Bee 3647 S. State St. Chicago 60609.0 799 543 709 803 707 931 778 770 714 835 718 788 9095 2022

Slicing a DataFrame

We can use the same slicing syntax that we used for strings and lists to look at a specific range of rows in a DataFrame.

PYTHON 

df[50:60] #look at rows 50 to 59
branch address city zip code january february march april may june july august september october november december ytd year
50 Near North 310 W. Division St. Chicago 60610.0 11032 10021 12911 12621 12437 13988 13955 14729 13989 13355 13006 12194 154238 2011
51 North Austin 5724 W. North Ave. Chicago 60639.0 2481 2045 2674 2832 2202 2694 3302 3225 3160 3074 2796 2272 32757 2011
52 North Pulaski 4300 W. North Ave. Chicago 60639.0 3848 3176 4111 5066 3885 5105 5916 5512 5349 6386 5952 5372 59678 2011
53 Northtown 6435 N. California Ave. Chicago 60645.0 10191 8314 11569 11577 10902 14202 15310 14152 11623 12266 12673 12227 145006 2011
54 Oriole Park 7454 W. Balmoral Ave. Chicago 60656.0 11999 11206 13675 12755 10364 12781 12219 12066 10856 11324 10503 9878 139626 2011
55 Portage-Cragin 5108 W. Belmont Ave. Chicago 60641.0 9185 7634 9760 10163 7995 9735 10617 11203 10188 11418 10718 9517 118133 2011
56 Pullman 11001 S. Indiana Ave. Chicago 60628.0 1916 1206 1975 2176 2019 2347 2092 2426 2476 2611 2530 2033 25807 2011
57 Roden 6083 N. Northwest Highway Chicago 60631.0 6336 5830 7513 6978 6180 8519 8985 7592 6628 7113 6999 6082 84755 2011
58 Rogers Park 6907 N. Clark St. Chicago 60626.0 10537 9683 13812 13745 13368 18314 20367 19773 18419 18972 17255 16597 190842 2011
59 Roosevelt 1101 W. Taylor St. Chicago 60607.0 6357 6171 8228 7683 7257 8545 8134 8289 7696 7598 7019 6665 89642 2011

Look at specific columns

To work specifically with one column of a DataFrame we can use a similar syntax, but refer to the name the column of interest.

PYTHON 

df['year'] #look at the year column

OUTPUT 

0      2011
1      2011
2      2011
3      2011
4      2011
       ...
958    2022
959    2022
960    2022
961    2022
962    2022
Name: year, Length: 963, dtype: object

We can add a second square bracket after a column name to refer to specific row indices, either on their own, or using slices to look at ranges.

PYTHON 

print(f"first row: {df['year'][0]}") #use double quotes around your fstring if it contains single quotes
print('rows 100 to 102:') #add a new print statement to create a new line
print(df['year'][100:103])

OUTPUT 

first row: 2011
rows 100 to 102:
100    2012
101    2012
102    2012
Name: year, dtype: object

Columns display differently in our notebook since a column is a different type of object than a full DataFrame.

PYTHON 

type(df['year'])

OUTPUT 

pandas.core.series.Series

Summary statistics on columns

A pandas Series is a one-dimensional array, like a column in a spreadsheet, while a pandas DataFrame is a two-dimensional tabular data structure with labeled axes, similar to a spreadsheet. One of the advantages of pandas is that we can use built-in functions like max(), min(), mean(), and sum() to provide summary statistics across Series such as columns. Since it can be difficult to get a sense of the range of data in a large DataFrame by looking over the whole thing manually, these functions can help us understand our dataset quickly and ask specific questions.

If we wanted to know the range of years covered in this data, for example, we can look at the maximum and minimum values in the year column.

PYTHON 

print(f"max year: {df['year'].max()}")
print(f"min year: {df['year'].min()}")

OUTPUT 

max year: 2022
min year: 2011

Summarize columns that hold string objects

We might also want to quickly understand the range of values in columns that contain strings, the branch column, for example. We can look at a range of values, but it’s hard to tell how many different branches are present in the dataset this way.

PYTHON 

df['branch']

OUTPUT 

0         Albany Park
1             Altgeld
2      Archer Heights
3              Austin
4       Austin-Irving
            ...
958         Chinatown
959          Brainerd
960     Brighton Park
961     South Chicago
962       Chicago Bee
Name: branch, Length: 963, dtype: object

We can use the .unique() function to output an array (like a list) of all of the unique values in the branch column, and the .nunique() function to tell us how many unique values are present.

PYTHON 

print(f"Number of unique branches: {df['branch'].nunique()}")
print(df['branch'].unique())

OUTPUT 

Number of unique branches: 82
['Albany Park' 'Altgeld' 'Archer Heights' 'Austin' 'Austin-Irving'
 'Avalon' 'Back of the Yards' 'Beverly' 'Bezazian' 'Blackstone' 'Brainerd'
 'Brighton Park' 'Bucktown-Wicker Park' 'Budlong Woods' 'Canaryville'
 'Chicago Bee' 'Chicago Lawn' 'Chinatown' 'Clearing' 'Coleman'
 'Daley, Richard J. - Bridgeport' 'Daley, Richard M. - W Humboldt'
 'Douglass' 'Dunning' 'Edgebrook' 'Edgewater' 'Gage Park'
 'Galewood-Mont Clare' 'Garfield Ridge' 'Greater Grand Crossing' 'Hall'
 'Harold Washington Library Center' 'Hegewisch' 'Humboldt Park'
 'Independence' 'Jefferson Park' 'Jeffery Manor' 'Kelly' 'King'
 'Legler Regional' 'Lincoln Belmont' 'Lincoln Park' 'Little Village'
 'Logan Square' 'Lozano' 'Manning' 'Mayfair' 'McKinley Park' 'Merlo'
 'Mount Greenwood' 'Near North' 'North Austin' 'North Pulaski' 'Northtown'
 'Oriole Park' 'Portage-Cragin' 'Pullman' 'Roden' 'Rogers Park'
 'Roosevelt' 'Scottsdale' 'Sherman Park' 'South Chicago' 'South Shore'
 'Sulzer Regional' 'Thurgood Marshall' 'Toman' 'Uptown' 'Vodak-East Side'
 'Walker' 'Water Works' 'West Belmont' 'West Chicago Avenue'
 'West Englewood' 'West Lawn' 'West Pullman' 'West Town'
 'Whitney M. Young, Jr.' 'Woodson Regional' 'Wrightwood-Ashburn'
 'Little Italy' 'West Loop']

Use .groupby() to analyze subsets of data

A reasonable question to ask of the library usage data might be to see which branch library has seen the most checkouts over this ten + year period. We can use .groupby() to create subsets of data based on the values in specific columns. For example, let’s group our data by branch name, and then look at the ytd column to see which branch has the highest usage. .groupby() takes a column name as its argument and then for each group we can sum the ytd columns using .sum().

PYTHON 

df.groupby('branch')['ytd'].sum()

OUTPUT 

branch
Albany Park              1024714
Altgeld                    68358
Archer Heights            803014
Austin                    200107
Austin-Irving            1359700
                          ...
West Pullman              295327
West Town                 922876
Whitney M. Young, Jr.     259680
Woodson Regional          823793
Wrightwood-Ashburn        302285
Name: ytd, Length: 82, dtype: int64

Sort pandas series using .sort_values()

The output for code above is another pandas series object. Let’s save the output to a new variable so we can then apply the .sort_values() method which allows us to view the branches with the most usage. The ascending parameter for .sort_values() takes True or False. We want to pass False so that we sort from the highest values down…

PYTHON 

circ_by_branch = df.groupby('branch')['ytd'].sum()
circ_by_branch.sort_values(ascending=False).head(10)

OUTPUT 

branch
Harold Washington Library Center    7498041
Sulzer Regional                     5089225
Lincoln Belmont                     1850964
Edgewater                           1668693
Logan Square                        1539816
Rogers Park                         1515964
Bucktown-Wicker Park                1456669
Lincoln Park                        1441173
Austin-Irving                       1359700
Bezazian                            1357922
Name: ytd, dtype: int64

Now we have a list of the branches with the highest number of uses across the whole dataset.

We can pass multiple columns to groupby() to subset the data even further and breakdown the highest usage per year and branch. To do that, we need to pass the column names as a list. We can also chain together many methods into a single line of code.

PYTHON 

circ_by_year_branch = df.groupby(['year', 'branch'])['ytd'].sum().sort_values(ascending=False)
circ_by_year_branch.head(5)

OUTPUT 

year  branch
2011  Harold Washington Library Center    966720
2012  Harold Washington Library Center    937649
2013  Harold Washington Library Center    821749
2014  Harold Washington Library Center    755189
2015  Harold Washington Library Center    694528
Name: ytd, dtype: int64

Use .iloc[] and .loc[] to select DataFrame locations.

You can point to specific locations in a DataFrame using two-dimensional numerical indexes with .iloc[].

PYTHON 

# print values in the 1st and 2nd to last columns in the first row
# '\n' prints a linebreak
print(f"Branch: {df.iloc[0,0]} \nYTD circ: {df.iloc[0,-2]}")

OUTPUT 

Branch: Albany Park
YTD circ: 120059

.loc[] uses the same structure but takes row (index) and column names instead of numerical indexes. Since our df rows don’t have index names we would still use the default numerical index.

PYTHON 

# print the same values as above, using the column names
print(f"Branch: {df.loc[0,'branch']} \nYTD circ: {df.loc[0, 'ytd']}")

OUTPUT 

Branch: Albany Park
YTD circ: 120059

Save DataFrames

You might want to export the series of usage by year and branch that we just created so that you can share it with colleagues. Pandas includes a variety of methods that begin with .to_... that allow us to convert and export data in different ways. First, let’s save our series as a DataFrame so we can view the output in a better format in our Jupyter notebook.

PYTHON 

circ_df = circ_by_year_branch.to_frame()
circ_df.head(5)
ytd
year branch
2011 Harold Washington Library Center 966720
2012 Harold Washington Library Center 937649
2013 Harold Washington Library Center 821749
2014 Harold Washington Library Center 755189
2015 Harold Washington Library Center 694528

Save to CSV

Next, let’s export the new DataFrame to a CSV file so we can share it with colleagues who love spreadsheets. The .to_csv() method expects a string that will be the name of the file as a parameter. Make sure to add the .csv filetype to your file name.

PYTHON 

circ_df.to_csv('high_usage.csv')

You should now see, in the JupyterLab file explorer to the left, the new CSV file. If you don’t see it, you can hit the refresh icon (it looks like a spinning arrow) above the files pane. You can double-click on the CSV to preview the full spreadsheet in a new Jupyter tab.

Save pickle files

Working with your data in CSVs (especially via tools like Microsoft Excel) can introduce reproducibility issues. For example, you’ll sometimes encounter character encoding problems, where certain characters in your dataset will no longer display properly after editing them in a spreadsheet software like Excel, and re-importing them to a pandas DataFrame.

One way to avoid issues like this is to save Python objects as pickles. Technically speaking, the Python pickle module serializes and de-serializes a Python object’s structure. In practical terms, pickling allows you to store Python objects (like DataFrames, lists, etc.) efficiently and without losing or corrupting your data.

You can save a DataFrame to pickle by using the to_pickle() method and using the filetype of pkl.

PYTHON 

circ_df.to_pickle('high_usage.pkl')

You can only “see” the data in a pickle file by reloading it into Python. This is a great way to save a DataFrame that you created in one JupyterLab session so that you can reload it later on, or share it with a colleague who’s familiar with Python.

PYTHON 

new_df = pd.read_pickle('high_usage.pkl')
new_df.head()

Finally, let’s save our full concatenated DataFrame to a pickle file that we can use later on in the lesson. We’ll save it in the data/ directory alongside our other data files.

PYTHON 

df.to_pickle('data/all_years.pkl')

Displaying rows and columns

How would you use slicing and column names to select the following subsets of rows and columns from the circulation DataFrame?

  1. The city column.
  2. Rows 10 to 20.
  3. Rows 20 to 30 from the zip code column.

PYTHON 

#1
df['city']

#2
df[10:21]

#3 
df['zip code'][20:31]

Using loc()

How would you use loc() to select rows 20 to 30 from the zip code column (the same rows as the last example in the challenge above)?

Tip: slices use “non-inclusive” indexing – so require you to ask for df[10:21] to see row 20, but loc() uses inclusive indexing.

PYTHON 

df.loc[20:30, 'zip code']

Unique items

How would you display:

  1. all of the unique zip codes in the dataset?
  2. the number of unique zip codes in the dataset?

PYTHON 


#1
df['zip code'].unique()

#2
df['zip code'].nunique()

Summary statistics and groupby()

We can apply mean() to pandas series’ in the same way we used sum(), min(), and max() above. How would you display the following?

  1. the mean number of ytd checkouts grouped by zip code?
  2. the mean number of ytd checkouts grouped by zip code, and sorted from smallest to largest?

PYTHON 

#1
df.groupby('zip code')['ytd'].mean()

#2
df.groupby('zip code')['ytd'].mean().sort_values()

Key Points

  • Use builtin methods .sum(), .mean(), unique(), and nunique() to explore summary statistics on the rows and colums in your DataFrame.
  • Use .groupby() to work with subsets of your dataset.
  • Sort pandas series with .sort_values().
  • Use .loc() and .iloc() to pinpoint specific locations in Pandas DataFrames.
  • Save DataFrames to CSV and pickle files using .to_csv() and .to_pickle().

Content from Conditionals

Last updated on 2024-06-17 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 25 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can programs do different things for different data?

Objectives

  • Correctly write programs that use if and else statements using Boolean expressions.
  • Trace the execution of conditionals inside of loops.

Use if statements to control whether or not a block of code is executed.

An if statement is a conditional statement that controls whether a block of code is executed or not. The syntax of an if statement is similar to a for statement:

  • The first line opens with if and ends with a colon.
  • The body is indented (usually by 4 spaces)

PYTHON 

checkouts = 11
if checkouts > 10.0:
    print(f'{checkouts} is over the limit.')

checkouts = 8
if checkouts > 10.0:
    print(f'{checkouts} is over the limit.')

OUTPUT 

11 is over the limit.

Conditionals are often used inside loops.

There is not much of a point using a conditional when we know the value (as above), but they’re useful when we have a collection to process.

PYTHON 

checkouts = [0, 3, 10, 12, 22]
for checkout in checkouts:
    if checkout > 10.0:
        print(f'{checkout} is over the limit.')

OUTPUT 

12 is over the limit.
22 is over the limit.

Use else to execute a block of code when an if condition is not true.

An else statement can be used following if to allow us to specify an alternative code block to execute when the if branch is not taken.

PYTHON 

for checkout in checkouts:
    if checkout > 10.0:
        print(f'{checkout} is over the limit.')
    else:
        print(f'{checkout} is under the limit.')

OUTPUT 

0 is under the limit.
3 is under the limit.
10 is under the limit.
12 is over the limit.
22 is over the limit.

Notice that our else statement led to a false output that says 10 is under the limit. We can address this by adding a different kind of else statement.

Use elif to specify additional tests.

You can use elif (short for “else if”) to provide several alternative choices, each with its own test. An elif statement should always be associated with an if statement, and must come before the else statement (which is the catch all).

PYTHON 

for checkout in checkouts:
    if checkout > 10.0:
        print(f'*Warning*: {checkout} is over the limit.')
    elif checkout == 10:
        print(f'{checkout} is at the exact limit.')
    else:
        print(f'{checkout} is under the limit.')

OUTPUT 

0 is under the limit.
3 is under the limit.
10 is at the exact limit.
*Warning*: 12 is over the limit.
*Warning*: 22 is over the limit.

Conditions are tested once, in order and are not re-evaluated if values change. Python steps through the branches of the conditional in order, testing each in turn, so the order of your statements matters.

PYTHON 

grade = 85
if grade >= 70:
    print('grade is C')
elif grade >= 80:
    print('grade is B')
elif grade >= 90:
    print('grade is A')

OUTPUT 

grade is C

Compound conditionals using and and or

Often, you want some combination of things to be true. You can combine relations within a conditional using and and or.

We can also check if something is less/greater than or equal to a value by using >= and <= operators.

PYTHON 

checkouts = [3, 50, 120]
users = ['fac', 'grad']

for user in users:
    for checkout in checkouts:
        #faculty checkout limit is 100
        if checkout >= 100 and user == 'fac':
            print(f"*Warning*: {checkout} is over the {user} limit.")
            
        #grad limit is 50
        elif checkout >= 50 and user == 'grad':
            print(f"{checkout} is over the {user} limit.")
        
        else:
            print(f"{checkout} is under the {user} limit.")
    
    # print an empty line between users
    print()

OUTPUT 

3 is under the fac limit.
50 is under the fac limit.
*Warning*: 120 is over the fac limit.

3 is under the grad limit.
*Warning*: 50 is over the grad limit.
*Warning*: 120 is over the grad limit.

Age conditionals

Write a Python program that checks the age of a user to determine if they will receive a youth or adult library card. The program should:

  1. Store age in a variable.
  2. Use an if statement to check if the age is 16 or older. If true, print “You are eligible for an adult library card.”
  3. Use an else statement to print “You are eligible for a youth library card” if the age is less than 16.

If you finish early, try this challenge:

  • In a new cell, adapt your program to loop through a list of age values, testing each age with the same output as above.

For parts 1 to 3:

PYTHON 

age = 25

if age >= 16:
  print('You are eligible for an adult library card.')
else:
  print('You are eligible for a youth library card.')

For the challenge:

PYTHON 

ages = [10, 16, 30, 65]

for age in ages:
  if age >= 16:
    print('You are eligible for an adult library card.')
  else:
    print('You are eligible for a youth library card.')

Conditional logic: Fill in the blanks

Fill in the blanks in the following program to check if both the name variable is present in the names list and the password variable is equal to ‘true’ before giving a user access to a library system.

If you have extra time after you solve the fill in the blanks, change the value of password and re-run the program to view the output.

PYTHON 

names = ['Wang', 'Garcia', 'Martin']
name = 'Martin'
password = 'true'

___ item in names:
    print(item)
    if name == item ___ password == _____:
        print('Login successful!')
    elif password __ 'true':
        print(f'Your password is incorrect. Try again.')
    ____ name __ item:
        print(f'- Name does not match. Testing the next item in the list for {name}...')

PYTHON 

names = ['Wang', 'Garcia', 'Martin']
name = 'Martin'
password = 'true'

for item in names:
    print(item)
    if name == item and password == 'true':
        print('Login successful!')
    elif password != 'true':
        print(f'Your password is incorrect. Try again.')
    elif name != item:
        print(f'- Name does not match. Testing the next item in the list for {name}...')

OUTPUT 

Wang
- Name does not match. Testing the next item in the list for Martin...
Garcia
- Name does not match. Testing the next item in the list for Martin...
Martin
Login successful!

Processing Files Based on Record Length

Modify this program so that it only processes files with fewer than 85 records.

PYTHON 

import glob
import pandas
for filename in glob.glob('data/*.csv'):
    contents = pandas.read_csv(filename)
    ____ ___(______) < ____:
        print(f'{filename} : {len(contents)}')

PYTHON 

import glob
import pandas
for filename in glob.glob('data/*.csv'):
   contents = pandas.read_csv(filename)
   if len(contents) < 85:
       print(f'{filename} : {len(contents)}')

Key Points

  • Use if statements to control whether or not a block of code is executed.
  • Conditionals are often used inside loops.
  • Use else to execute a block of code when an if condition is not true.
  • Use elif to specify additional tests.
  • Conditions are tested once, in order.
  • Use and and or to check against multiple value statements.

Content from Writing Functions

Last updated on 2024-11-05 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 25 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I create my own functions?
  • How do variables inside and outside of functions work?
  • How can I make my functions easier to understand?

Objectives

  • Explain and identify the difference between function definition and function call.
  • Write a function that takes a small, fixed number of arguments and produces a single result.
  • Identify local and global variables.

Use functions to make your code easier to understand.

Human beings can only keep a few items in working memory at a time. But we can work with larger and more complicated ideas by breaking content down into pieces. Functions serve a similar purpose in Python. We can create our own functions to encapsulate complexity and treat specific actions or ideas as a single “thing”. Functions also enable us to re-use code so we can write code one time, but use it many times.

Define a function using def with a name, parameters, and a block of code.

Begin each definition of a new function with the keyword def (for “define”), followed by the name of the function. Function names follow the same rules as variable names. Next, add your parameters in parentheses. You should still use empty parentheses if the function doesn’t take any inputs. Finally, like in conditionals and loops, you’ll add a colon and an indented block of code that will contain the body of your function.

PYTHON 

def print_greeting():
    print('Hello!')

Defining a function does not run it.

Note that we don’t have any output when we run code to define a function. This is similar to assigning a value to a variable. The function definition is sort of like a recipe in a cookbook - the recipe doesn’t create a meal until we use it. So we need to “call” a function to execute the code it contains. This means that Python won’t show you errors in your function until you call it. So when a definition of a function runs without error it doesn’t mean that there won’t be errors when it executes later.

PYTHON 

print_greeting()

OUTPUT 

Hello!

Arguments in call are matched to parameters in definition.

Functions are highly useful when they use parameters to pull in data. You can specify parameters when you define a function which become variables when the function is executed.

PYTHON 

def print_date(year, month, day):
    joined = f'{year}/{month}/{day}'
    print(joined)

print_date(1871, 3, 19)

OUTPUT 

1871/3/19

To expand on the recipe metaphor above, the arguments you add to the () contain the ingredients for the function, while the body contains the recipe.

Functions with defined parameters will result in an error if they are called without passing an argument:

PYTHON 

print_date()

ERROR 

TypeError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[15], line 1
----> 1 print_date()

TypeError: print_date() missing 3 required positional arguments: 'year', 'month', and 'day'

Use return to pass values back from a function.

In the date example above, we printed the results of the function code to output, but there are better way to handle data and objects created within a function. We can use the keyword return ... to send a value back to the “global” environment. (We’ll learn about local and global variables below). A return command can occur anywhere in the function, but is often placed at the very end of a function with the final result.

PYTHON 

def calc_fine(days_overdue):
    if days_overdue <= 10:
        fine = days_overdue * 0.25
    else:
        fine = days_overdue * 0.75
    return fine
    
fine = calc_fine(12)
f'Fine owed: ${fine}'

OUTPUT 

'Fine owed: $9.0'

Specify the number of float decimals to display

In the example above, the fine value is displayed as 9.0, though ideally it would print as $9.00. We can use the f-string format specifier of .2f to display two decimal points: {fine:.2f}. If you wanted to display a float with three decimal points you would change the format specifier to {fine:.3f}. Here’s a cheat sheet of other f-string number formats.

PYTHON 

fine = calc_fine(12)
f'Fine owed: ${fine:.2f}'

OUTPUT 

'Fine owed: $9.00'

A function that doesn’t explicitly return a value will automatically return None.

PYTHON 

result = print_date(1970, 6, 21)
print(f'result of call is: {result}')

OUTPUT 

1970/6/21
result of call is: None

Variable scope

When we define a variable inside of a function in Python, it’s known as a local variable, which means that it’s not visible to – or known by – the rest of the program. Variables that we define outside of functions are global and are therefore visible throughout the program, including from within other functions. The part of a program in which a variable is visible is called its scope.

This is helpful for people using or writing functions, because they don’t need to worry about repeating variable names that have been created elsewhere in the program.

PYTHON 

initial_fine = 0.25
late_fine = 0.50

def calc_fine(days_overdue):
    if days_overdue <= 10:
        days_overdue =  days_overdue * initial_fine
    else:
        days_overdue = (days_overdue * initial_fine) + (days_overdue * late_fine)
    return days_overdue
  • initial_fine and late_fine are global variables.
  • days_overdue is a local variable in calc_fine. Note that a function parameter is a variable that is automatically assigned a value when the function is called and so acts as a local variable.

PYTHON 

fine = calc_fine(12)
print(f'Fine owed: ${fine:.2f}')
print(f'Fine rates: ${initial_fine:.2f}, ${late_fine:.2f}')
print(f'Days overdue: {days_overdue}')

OUTPUT 

Fine owed: $9.00
Fine rates: $0.25, $0.50

ERROR 

NameError                                 Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[22], line 4
      2 print(f'Fine owed: ${fine:.2f}')
      3 print(f'Fine rates: ${initial_fine:.2f}, ${late_fine:.2f}')
----> 4 print(f'Days overdue: {days_overdue}')

NameError: name 'days_overdue' is not defined

Use docstrings to provide online help.

If the first thing in a function is a string that isn’t assigned to a variable, that string is attached to the function as its documentation. This kind of documentation at the beginning of a function is called a docstring.

PYTHON 

def fahr_to_celsius(temp):
    "Input a fahrenheit temperature and return the value in celsius"
    return ((temp - 32) * (5/9))

This is helpful because we can now ask Python’s built-in help system to show us the documentation for the function:

PYTHON 

help(fahr_to_celsius)

OUTPUT 

Help on function fahr_to_celsius in module __main__:

fahr_to_celsius(temp)
    Input a fahrenheit temperature and return the value in celsius

We don’t need to use triple quotes when we write a docstring, but if we do, we can break the string across multiple lines:

PYTHON 

def fahr_to_celsius(temp):
    """Convert fahrenheit values to celsius
    Input a value in fahrenheit
    Output a value in celsius"""
    return ((temp - 32) * (5/9))

Create a function

Write a function called addition that takes two parameters and returns their sum. After defining the function, call it with several arguments and print out the results.

PYTHON 

def addition(x, y):
    return x + y

addition(3, 6)

OUTPUT 

9

Conditional statements within functions

Create a function called grade_converter that takes a numerical score (0 - 100) as its parameter and returns a letter grade based on the score:

  • 90 and above returns ‘A’
  • 80 to 89 returns ‘B’
  • 70 to 79 returns ‘C’
  • 60 to 69 returns ‘D’
  • Below 60 returns ‘F’

After defining the function, test it with a variety of scores to test it out.

PYTHON 

def grade_converter(score):
    if score > 100 or score < 0:
        return 'Invalid score'
    elif score >= 90:
        return 'A'
    elif score >= 80:
        return 'B'
    elif score >= 70:
        return 'C'
    elif score >= 60:
        return 'D'
    elif score <= 59:
        return 'F'

grade_converter(88)

OUTPUT 

'B'

Local and global variables

List all of the global variables and all of the local variables in the following code.

PYTHON 

fine_rate = 0.25

def fine(days_overdue):
    if days_overdue <= 10:
        fine =  days_overdue * fine_rate
    else:
        fine = (days_overdue * fine_rate) + (days_overdue * (fine_rate*2))
    return fine
    
total_fine = calc_fine(20)
f'Fine owed: ${total_fine:.2f}'

OUTPUT 

'Fine owed: $15.00'

Global variables:

  • fine_rate
  • total_fine

Local variables:

  • days_overdue
  • fine

CSVs to Pandas function

In the Looping Data Sets episode, we learned to use glob to loop through a directory of CSV files and convert them to a Pandas DataFrame.

Write a function that converts a directory of CSV files into a single Pandas DataFrame. The function should accept one parameter: a string that includes the path and glob wildcard expression to point to a set of CSV files (e.g., 'data/*.csv'). We can assume, for these purposes, that all of the DataFrames have the same column names so that you can use pd.concat(dfs, ignore_index=True) at the end of the function to concatenate a list of DataFrames into a single DataFrame.

PYTHON 

import glob
import pandas as pd

def concat_csvs(path):
    
    dfs = [] 

    for csv in sorted(glob.glob(path)):
        data = pd.read_csv(csv)
        dfs.append(data)
    
    df = pd.concat(dfs, ignore_index=True)
    return df

df = concat_csvs('data/*.csv')

Key Points

  • Break programs down into functions to make them easier to understand.
  • Define a function using def with a name, parameters, and a block of code.
  • Defining a function does not run it.
  • Arguments in call are matched to parameters in definition.
  • Functions may return a result to their caller using return.

Content from Tidy Data with Pandas

Last updated on 2024-11-05 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 100 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • What are the benefits of transforming data into a tidy format for analysis?
  • How does the melt() function in pandas facilitate data tidying?
  • What are some practical challenges when working with real-world datasets in Python, and how can they be addressed?

Objectives

  • Identify the characteristics of tidy data and explain its benefits, listing the three principles and discussing how it facilitates data analysis during a review session.
  • Use pandas functions like concat(), melt(), and data filtering to manipulate and clean a complex dataset, successfully combining multiple files into a single DataFrame and reshaping it using melt()

Tidy Data in Pandas

Let’s import the pickle file that contains all of our Chicago public library circulation data in a single DataFrame. We can use the Pandas .read_pickle() method to do so.

PYTHON 

import pandas as pd

df = pd.read_pickle('data/all_years.pkl')
df.head()
branch address city zip code january february march april may june july august september october november december ytd year
0 Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Ave. Chicago 60625.0 8427 7023 9702 9344 8865 11650 11778 11306 10466 10997 10567 9934 120059 2011
1 Altgeld 13281 S. Corliss Ave. Chicago 60827.0 1258 708 854 804 816 870 713 480 702 927 787 692 9611 2011
2 Archer Heights 5055 S. Archer Ave. Chicago 60632.0 8104 6899 9329 9124 7472 8314 8116 9177 9033 9709 8809 7865 101951 2011
3 Austin 5615 W. Race Ave. Chicago 60644.0 1755 1316 1942 2200 2133 2359 2080 2405 2417 2571 2233 2116 25527 2011
4 Austin-Irving 6100 W. Irving Park Rd. Chicago 60634.0 12593 11791 14807 14382 11754 14402 14605 15164 14306 15357 14069 12404 165634 2011

PYTHON 

df.tail()
branch address city zip code january february march april may june july august september october november december ytd year
958 Chinatown 2100 S. Wentworth Ave. Chicago 60616.0 4795 4258 5316 5343 4791 5367 5477 5362 4991 4847 4035 3957 58539 2022
959 Brainerd 1350 W. 89th St. Chicago 60620.0 255 264 370 386 399 421 337 373 361 276 256 201 3899 2022
960 Brighton Park 4314 S. Archer Ave. Chicago 60632.0 1394 1321 1327 1705 1609 1578 1609 1512 1425 1603 1579 1278 17940 2022
961 South Chicago 9055 S. Houston Ave. Chicago 60617.0 496 528 739 775 587 804 720 883 681 697 799 615 8324 2022
962 Chicago Bee 3647 S. State St. Chicago 60609.0 799 543 709 803 707 931 778 770 714 835 718 788 9095 2022

Let’s take a moment to discuss the setup of our DataFrame. It is structured in what is known as a wide format. This format displays an extensive amount of data directly on the screen, with each month’s circulation counts spread across the columns in a pivoted manner. This layout makes it easier to read and manually manipulate the data in a spreadsheet and because of this, is often the default output for periodic reporting systems like integrated library systems.

However, this wide format can pose challenges when working with data analysis tools like Pandas. For instance, if we need to identify all the library branches where circulation exceeded 10,000 in any given month, we would have to individually check each column dedicated to a month, which can be quite cumbersome.

To address this we can reshape our data in a long format. This is sometimes called un-pivoting the data, and in our case the month columns will become a single variable in the dataset.

Tidy Data

Tidy data is a standard way of organizing data values within a dataset, making it easier to work with. Here are the key principles of tidy data: 1. Every column holds a single variable, like “month” or “temperature.” 2. Every row represents a single observation, like circulation counts by branch and month. 3. Every cell contains a single value.

The image below might help orient us to the concept of tidy data.

image showing variables in columns, observations in rows, and values in cellssan
Tidy Data

R for Data Science 12.1

Benefits of Tidy Data

Transforming our data into a tidy data format provides several advantages: - Python operations, such as visualization, filtering, and statistical analysis libraries, work better with data in a tidy format. - Tidy data makes transforming, summarizing, and visualizing information easier. For instance, comparing monthly trends or calculating annual averages becomes more straightforward. - As datasets grow, tidy data ensures that they remain manageable and analyses remain accurate.

Making Our Data Tidy

A good step towards tidying our data would be to consolidate the separate month columns into a column called month, and the circulation counts into another column called circulation_counts. This simplifies our data and aligns with the principles of tidy data.

To achieve this transformation, we can use a Pandas function called melt(). This function reshapes the data from wide to long format, where each row will represent one month’s circulation data for a branch. Let’s look at the help for melt first.

PYTHON 

help(pd.melt)

Now, let’s tidy our data. We’ll create a new dataframe called df_long and use melt to reshape. melt essentially melts down our columns into rows.

PYTHON 

df_long = df.melt(id_vars=['branch', 'address', 'city', 'zip code', 'ytd', 'year'],
                    value_vars=['january', 'february', 'march', 'april', 'may', 'june', 
                                'july', 'august', 'september', 'october', 'november', 'december'],
                    var_name='month', value_name='circulation')

In the above code we use id_vars to list the columns we do not want to melt. We then identify the columns we do want to melt into rows in the value_vars parameter. var_name is the variable name for the columns that will be transformed into rows. value_names is the measured variable, circulation in our case. Let’s now look at the new structure of our data.

PYTHON 

df_long
branch address city zip code ytd year month circulation
0 Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Ave. Chicago 60625.0 120059 2011 january 8427
1 Altgeld 13281 S. Corliss Ave. Chicago 60827.0 9611 2011 january 1258
2 Archer Heights 5055 S. Archer Ave. Chicago 60632.0 101951 2011 january 8104
3 Austin 5615 W. Race Ave. Chicago 60644.0 25527 2011 january 1755
4 Austin-Irving 6100 W. Irving Park Rd. Chicago 60634.0 165634 2011 january 12593
… … … … … … … … …
11551 Chinatown 2100 S. Wentworth Ave. Chicago 60616.0 58539 2022 december 3957
11552 Brainerd 1350 W. 89th St. Chicago 60620.0 3899 2022 december 201
11553 Brighton Park 4314 S. Archer Ave. Chicago 60632.0 17940 2022 december 1278
11554 South Chicago 9055 S. Houston Ave. Chicago 60617.0 8324 2022 december 615
11555 Chicago Bee 3647 S. State St. Chicago 60609.0 9095 2022 december 788

Ok, let’s look at the unique branches in our long DataFrame:

PYTHON 

df_long['branch'].unique()

OUTPUT 

array(['Albany Park', 'Altgeld', 'Archer Heights', 'Austin',
       'Austin-Irving', 'Avalon', 'Back of the Yards', 'Beverly',
       'Bezazian', 'Blackstone', 'Brainerd', 'Brighton Park',
       'Bucktown-Wicker Park', 'Budlong Woods', 'Canaryville',
       'Chicago Bee', 'Chicago Lawn', 'Chinatown', 'Clearing', 'Coleman',
       'Daley, Richard J. - Bridgeport', 'Daley, Richard M. - W Humboldt',
       'Douglass', 'Dunning', 'Edgebrook', 'Edgewater', 'Gage Park',
       'Galewood-Mont Clare', 'Garfield Ridge', 'Greater Grand Crossing',
       'Hall', 'Harold Washington Library Center', 'Hegewisch',
       'Humboldt Park', 'Independence', 'Jefferson Park', 'Jeffery Manor',
       'Kelly', 'King', 'Legler Regional', 'Lincoln Belmont',
       'Lincoln Park', 'Little Village', 'Logan Square', 'Lozano',
       'Manning', 'Mayfair', 'McKinley Park', 'Merlo', 'Mount Greenwood',
       'Near North', 'North Austin', 'North Pulaski', 'Northtown',
       'Oriole Park', 'Portage-Cragin', 'Pullman', 'Roden', 'Rogers Park',
       'Roosevelt', 'Scottsdale', 'Sherman Park', 'South Chicago',
       'South Shore', 'Sulzer Regional', 'Thurgood Marshall', 'Toman',
       'Uptown', 'Vodak-East Side', 'Walker', 'Water Works',
       'West Belmont', 'West Chicago Avenue', 'West Englewood',
       'West Lawn', 'West Pullman', 'West Town', 'Whitney M. Young, Jr.',
       'Woodson Regional', 'Wrightwood-Ashburn', 'Little Italy',
       'West Loop'], dtype=object)

Alright! Now that we have the data tidied what can we do with it? Let’s look at which branches circulated over 10,000 items in any given month. We can filter the df_long DataFrame to only show rows that have a number greater than 10,000 in the circulation column.

PYTHON 

df_long[df_long['circulation'] > 10000]
branch address city zip code ytd year month circulation
4 Austin-Irving 6100 W. Irving Park Rd. Chicago 60634.0 165634 2011 january 12593
12 Bucktown-Wicker Park 1701 N. Milwaukee Ave. Chicago 60647.0 173396 2011 january 13113
13 Budlong Woods 5630 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago 60659.0 160271 2011 january 12841
17 Chinatown 2353 S. Wentworth Ave. Chicago 60616.0 158449 2011 january 14027
24 Edgebrook 5331 W. Devon Ave. Chicago 60646.0 129288 2011 january 10231
… … … … … … … … …
11373 Harold Washington Library Center 400 S. State St. Chicago 60605.0 276878 2020 december 20990
11420 Sulzer Regional 4455 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago 60625.0 260163 2021 december 21671
11454 Harold Washington Library Center 400 S. State St. Chicago 60605.0 271811 2021 december 21046
11532 Harold Washington Library Center 400 S. State St. Chicago 60605.0 273406 2022 december 20480
11545 Sulzer Regional 4455 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago 60625.0 301340 2022 december 21258

1434 rows × 8 columns

We can look at specific columns:

PYTHON 

df_long[['branch', 'circulation']]
branch circulation
0 Albany Park 8427
1 Altgeld 1258
2 Archer Heights 8104
3 Austin 1755
4 Austin-Irving 12593
… … …
11551 Chinatown 3957
11552 Brainerd 201
11553 Brighton Park 1278
11554 South Chicago 615
11555 Chicago Bee 788

11556 rows × 2 columns

We can sort our table using .sort_values() to see the branches with the highest circulation per month:

PYTHON 

df_long.sort_values('circulation', ascending=False)
branch address city zip code ytd year month circulation
1957 Harold Washington Library Center 400 S. State St. Chicago 60605.0 966720 2011 march 89122
2920 Harold Washington Library Center 400 S. State St. Chicago 60605.0 966720 2011 april 88527
2999 Harold Washington Library Center 400 S. State St. Chicago 60605.0 937649 2012 april 87689
6772 Harold Washington Library Center 400 S. State St. Chicago 60605.0 966720 2011 august 85193
2036 Harold Washington Library Center 400 S. State St. Chicago 60605.0 937649 2012 march 84255
… … … … … … … … …
3623 Portage-Cragin 5108 W. Belmont Ave. Chicago 60641.0 36262 2020 april 0
3622 Manning 6 S. Hoyne Ave. Chicago 60612.0 3325 2020 april 0
3621 Daley, Richard J. - Bridgeport 3400 S. Halsted St. Chicago 60608.0 37045 2020 april 0
3620 Canaryville 642 W. 43rd St. Chicago 60609.0 4120 2020 april 0
3577 Merlo 644 W. Belmont Ave. Chicago 60657.0 14637 2019 april 0

11556 rows × 8 columns

What if we want to tally up the total circulation for each branch over all years and also see the mean circulation?

PYTHON 

df_long.groupby('branch')['circulation'].agg(total_circulation='sum', mean_circulation='mean')
total_circulation mean_circulation
branch
Albany Park 1024714 7116.069444
Altgeld 68358 474.708333
Archer Heights 803014 5576.486111
Austin 200107 1389.631944
Austin-Irving 1359700 9442.361111
… … …
West Pullman 295327 2050.881944
West Town 922876 6408.861111
Whitney M. Young, Jr. 259680 1803.333333
Woodson Regional 823793 5720.784722
Wrightwood-Ashburn 302285 2099.201389

82 rows × 2 columns

  1. df.groupby('branch'): This groups the data by the ‘branch’ column so that all entries in the DataFrame with the same library branch are grouped together. (This is similar to the SQL GROUP BY statement or the group_by function in dplyr in R.)
  2. ['circulation']: After grouping the data by branch, this specifies that subsequent operations should be performed on the ‘circulation’ column.
  3. .agg(...): The agg function is used to apply one or more aggregation operations to the grouped data. Inside the agg function:
    • total_circulation='sum': This creates a new column named ‘total_circulation’ where each entry is the sum of ‘circulation’ for that branch. It totals up all circulation figures within each branch.
    • mean_circulation='mean': This creates a new column named ‘mean_circulation’ where each entry is the average ‘circulation’ for that branch. It calculates the mean circulation figures for each branch.

If we want to group by more than one variable, we can list those column names in the .groupby() function.

PYTHON 

df_long.groupby(['branch', 'month'])['circulation'].agg(['sum', 'mean'])
sum mean
branch month
Albany Park april 79599 6633.250000
august 91416 7618.000000
december 77849 6487.416667
february 76747 6395.583333
january 85952 7162.666667
… … … …
Wrightwood-Ashburn march 25817 2151.416667
may 22049 1837.416667
november 24124 2010.333333
october 27345 2278.750000
september 25692 2141.000000

984 rows × 2 columns

Adding a Date Column

In order to plot this data over time in the data visualization we need to do three things to prepare it. First, we need to combine the year and month columns into its own column. Second, convert the new date column to a datetime objec using the Pandas to_datetime function. Third, we assign the date column as our index for the data. These steps will set up our data for plotting.

PYTHON 

df_long['date'] = df_long['year'] + '-' + df_long['month']

This will create a new column in our data frame by adding our year and month together separated by a -. This setup is not sufficient for us to use .to_datetime() to convert the column to something Python and Pandas knows is a date.

PYTHON 

df_long['date'] = pd.to_datetime(df_long['date'], format='%Y-%B')

pd.to_datetime() will do the conversion, but we need to tell it how we have our date formatted. In this case we have year and month name spelled out. To find more format codes, see https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-behavior.

If we take a look at the date column, we’ll see that datetime automatically adds a day (always 01) in the absence of any specific day input.

PYTHON 

df_long['date']

OUTPUT 

0       2011-01-01
1       2011-01-01
2       2011-01-01
3       2011-01-01
4       2011-01-01
           ...
11551   2022-12-01
11552   2022-12-01
11553   2022-12-01
11554   2022-12-01
11555   2022-12-01
Name: date, Length: 11556, dtype: datetime64[ns]

PYTHON 

df_long.info()

OUTPUT 

<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
RangeIndex: 11556 entries, 0 to 11555
Data columns (total 9 columns):
 #   Column       Non-Null Count  Dtype
---  ------       --------------  -----
 0   branch       11556 non-null  object
 1   address      7716 non-null   object
 2   city         7716 non-null   object
 3   zip code     7716 non-null   float64
 4   ytd          11556 non-null  int64
 5   year         11556 non-null  object
 6   month        11556 non-null  object
 7   circulation  11556 non-null  int64
 8   date         11556 non-null  datetime64[ns]
dtypes: datetime64[ns](1), float64(1), int64(2), object(5)
memory usage: 812.7+ KB

That worked! Now, we can make the datetime column the index of our DataFrame. In the Pandas episode we looked at Pandas default numerical index, but we can also use .set_index() to declare a specific column as the index of our DataFrame. Using a datetime index will make it easier for us to plot the DataFrame over time. The first parameter of .set_index() is the column name and the inplace=True parameter allows us to modify the DataFrame without assigning it to a new variable.

PYTHON 

df_long.set_index('date', inplace=True)

If we look at the data again, we will see our index will be set to date.

Let’s save df_long to use in the next episode.

PYTHON 

df_long.to_pickle('data/df_long.pkl')

Tidy Data Principles

How would you reorganize the following table about research data workshops to follow the three tidy data principles?

  1. Every column holds a single variable.
  2. Every row represents a single observation.
  3. Every cell contains a single value.
Date Length Content Instructor
2023-01-15 30 min RDM, DMP CH
2023-02-02 2 hours Python, RDM CH, TD
2023-02-03 90 min Python SP

You can use each content unit (e.g., RDM, DMP, Python) as an observation, and breakdown the length of time or instructor initials to match the content unit however you like.

Year Month Day Length (min) Content Instructor
2023 01 15 20 RDM CH
2023 01 15 10 DMP CH
2023 02 02 100 Python TD
2023 02 02 20 RDM CH
2023 02 03 100 Python SP

Subsetting df_long

Using df_long, create a new DataFrame, `low_circ’, that only includes branches with circulation numbers lower than 500 per month. When you create a subset DataFrame, show the following columns: branch, circulation, month, and year. Next, eliminate the rows when the circulation is equal to 0.

PYTHON 

low_circ = df_long[_________[_________] __ 500]
low_circ = _________[_________[_________] != __]
low_circ.sort_values(by='circulation', ascending=False)

PYTHON 

low_circ = df_long[df_long['circulation'] < 500]
low_circ = low_circ[low_circ['circulation'] != 0]
low_circ.sort_values(by='circulation', ascending=False)

Group and aggregate for circulation by year

How would you create a subset of df_long that sums up the circulation by year across all branches? In other words you want a view of the DataFrame that includes one row for each year, and columns for ‘year’ and ‘sum’, the latter of which shows the sum of circulation for all branches in each year.

PYTHON 

df_long.groupby(['year'])['circulation'].agg(['sum'])
year sum
2011 7774198
2012 7598080
2013 6894958
2014 6406512
2015 5953920
2016 5696456
2017 5305624
2018 4989239
2019 4785108
2020 2726156
2021 3184327
2022 3342472

Key Points

  • In tidy data each variable forms a column, each observation forms a row, and each type of observational unit forms a table.
  • Using pandas for data manipulation to reshape data is fundamental for preparing data for analysis.

Content from Data Visualisation

Last updated on 2024-11-05 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How can I use Python tools like Pandas and Plotly to visualize library circulation data?

Objectives

  • Generate plots using Python to interpret and present data on library circulation.
  • Apply data manipulation techniques with pandas to prepare and transform library circulation data into a suitable format for visualization.
  • Analyze and interpret time-series data by identifying key trends and outliers in library circulation data.

For this module, we will use the tidy (long) version of our circulation data, where each variable forms a column, each observation forms a row, and each type of observation unit forms a row. If your workshop included the Tidy Data episode, you should be set and have an object called df_long in your Jupyter environment. If not, we’ll read that dataset in now, as it was provided for this lesson.

PYTHON 

#import if it is already not
import pandas as pd
df_long = pd.read_pickle('data/df_long.pkl')

Let’s look at the data:

PYTHON 

df_long.head()
branch address city zip code ytd year month circulation
date
2011-01-01 Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Ave. Chicago 60625.0 120059 2011 january 8427
2011-01-01 Altgeld 13281 S. Corliss Ave. Chicago 60827.0 9611 2011 january 1258
2011-01-01 Archer Heights 5055 S. Archer Ave. Chicago 60632.0 101951 2011 january 8104
2011-01-01 Austin 5615 W. Race Ave. Chicago 60644.0 25527 2011 january 1755
2011-01-01 Austin-Irving 6100 W. Irving Park Rd. Chicago 60634.0 165634 2011 january 12593

Plotting with Pandas

Ok! We are now ready to plot our data. Since this data is monthly data, we can plot the circulation data over time.

At first, let’s focus on a specific branch. We can select the rows for the Albany Park branch and then use .sort_index() to be explicit that we want our data to be sorted in the order of the date index.

PYTHON 

albany = df_long[df_long['branch'] == 'Albany Park'].sort_index()

PYTHON 

albany.head()
branch address city zip code ytd year month circulation
date
2011-01-01 Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Ave. Chicago 60625.0 120059 2011 january 8427
2011-02-01 Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Ave. Chicago 60625.0 120059 2011 february 7023
2011-03-01 Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Ave. Chicago 60625.0 120059 2011 march 9702
2011-04-01 Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Ave. Chicago 60625.0 120059 2011 april 9344
2011-05-01 Albany Park 5150 N. Kimball Ave. Chicago 60625.0 120059 2011 may 8865

Now we can use the plot() function that is built in to pandas. Let’s try it:

PYTHON 

albany.plot()
Line plot of zip code, ytd, year, and circulation numbers over time from the albany DataFrame

That’s interesting, but by default .plot() will use a line plot for all numeric variables of the DataFrame. This isn’t exactly what we want, so let’s tell .plot() what variable to use by selecting the circulation column.

PYTHON 

albany['circulation'].plot()
Line plot of the Albany Park branch circulation showing a big drop from 2013 to 2014.

The significant drop in circulation in March 2020 is likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused widespread temporary closures of public spaces, including libraries.

The drop from 2012 through part of 2014 corresponds to the reconstruction period of the Albany Park Branch. The original building at 5150 N. Kimball Avenue was demolished in 2012, and a new, modern building was constructed at the same site. The new Albany Park Branch opened on September 13, 2014, at 3104 W. Foster Avenue in the North Park neighborhood of Chicago. More details about this renovation can be found on the Chicago Public Library webpage: Chicago Public Library - Albany Park.

Use Pandas for More Detailed Charts

What if we want to alter the axis labels and the title of the graph? Pandas’ built-in plotting functions, which are backended by Matplotlib, allow us to customize various aspects of a plot without needing to import Matplotlib directly.

  • We can pass parameters to Pandas’ .plot() function to add a plot title, specify a figure size, and change the color of the line.
  • Additionally, we can directly set the x and y axis labels within the .plot() function.

PYTHON 

albany['circulation'].plot(title='Circulation Count Over Time', 
                                figsize=(10, 5), 
                                color='blue', 
                                xlabel='Date',
                                ylabel='Circulation Count')
Line plot of the Albany Park branch circulation with matplotlib styles applied.

Changing plot types

What if we want to use a different plot type for this graphic? To do so, we can change the kind parameters in our .plot() function.

PYTHON 

albany['circulation'].plot(kind='area', 
                            title='Circulation Count Area Plot at Albany Park', alpha=0.5, 
                            xlabel='Date',
                            ylabel='Circulation Count')
Area plot of the Albany Park branch circulation.

We can also look at our circulation data as a histogram.

PYTHON 

albany['circulation'].plot(kind='hist', bins=20, 
                            title='Distribution of Circulation Counts at Albany Park',
                            xlabel='Circulation Count')
histogram of the Albany branch circulation.

Use Plotly for interactive plots

Let’s switch back to the full DataFrame in df_long and use another plotting package in Python called Plotly. First let’s install and then use the package.

PYTHON 

# uncomment below to install plotly if the import fails. 
# !pip install plotly

# if you didn't install Jupyter via Anaconda, you may also need to install ipywidgets.
# !pip install ipywidgets

import plotly.express as px

Now we can visualize how circulation counts have changed over time for selected branches. This can be especially useful for identifying trends, seasonality, or data anomalies. We willfirst create a subset of our data to look at branches starting with the letter ‘A’. Feel free to select different branches. After subsetting, we will sort our new DataFrame by date and then plot our data by date and circulation count.

PYTHON 

# Creating a line plot for a few selected branches to avoid clutter
selected_branches = df_long[df_long['branch'].isin(['Altgeld',
 'Archer Heights',
 'Austin',
 'Austin-Irving',
 'Avalon'])]
selected_branches = selected_branches.sort_values(by='date')

PYTHON 

fig = px.line(selected_branches, x=selected_branches.index, y='circulation', color='branch', title='Circulation Over Time for Selected Branches')
fig.show()

Here is a view of the interactive output of the Plotly line chart.

One advantage that Plotly provides over Matplotlib is that it has some interactive features out of the box. Hover your cursor over the lines in the output to find out more granular data about specific branches over time.

Bar plots with Plotly

Let’s use a barplot to compare the distribution of circulation counts among branches. We first need to group our data by branch and sum up the circulation counts. Then we can use the bar plot to show the distribution of total circulation over branches.

PYTHON 

# Aggregate circulation by branch
total_circulation_by_branch = df_long.groupby('branch')['circulation'].sum().reset_index()

# Create a bar plot
fig = px.bar(total_circulation_by_branch, x='branch', y='circulation', title='Total Circulation by Branch')
fig.show()

Here is a view of the interactive output of the Plotly bar chart.

Plotting with Pandas

  1. Load the dataset df_long.pkl using Pandas.
  2. Create a new DataFrame that only includes the data for the “Chinatown” branch. (Don’t forget to sort by the index)
  3. Use the Pandas plotting function to plot the “circulation” column over time.

PYTHON 

import pandas as pd
df_long = pd.read_pickle('data/df_long.pkl')
chinatown = df_long[df_long['branch'] == 'Chinatown'].sort_index()
chinatown['circulation'].plot()
image showing the circulation of the Chinatown branch over ten years
Chinatown plot

Modify a plot display

Add a line to the code below to plot the Uptown branch circulation including the following plot elements:

  • A title, “Uptown Circulation”
  • “Year” and “Circulation Count” labels for the x and y axes
  • A green plot line

PYTHON 

import pandas as pd
df_long = pd.read_pickle('data/df_long.pkl')
uptown = df_long[df_long['branch'] == 'Uptown'].sort_index()

PYTHON 

uptown['circulation'].plot(title='Uptown Circulation', 
                                color='green', 
                                xlabel='Year',
                                ylabel='Circulation Count')
image showing the circulation of the Uptown branch with labels
Uptown plot

Plot the top five branches

Modify the code below to only plot the five Chicago Public Library branches with the highest circulation.

PYTHON 

import plotly.express as px
import pandas as pd
df_long = pd.read_pickle('data/df_long.pkl')
total_circulation_by_branch = df_long.groupby('branch')['circulation'].sum().reset_index()

top_five = total_circulation_by_branch.___________________

# Create a bar plot
fig = px.bar(top_five._______, x='branch', y='circulation', width=600, height=600, title='Total Circulation by Branch')
fig.show()

PYTHON 

total_circulation_by_branch.sort_values(by='circulation', ascending=False)
df_long = pd.read_pickle('data/df_long.pkl')
total_circulation_by_branch = df_long.groupby('branch')['circulation'].sum().reset_index()

top_five = total_circulation_by_branch.sort_values(by='circulation', ascending=False)

# Create a bar plot
fig = px.bar(top_five.head(), x='branch', y='circulation', width=600, height=600, title='Total Circulation by Branch')
fig.show()
a bar plot of the top five branch circulation figures
Top five circulation branches

Key Points

  • Explored the use of pandas for basic data manipulation, ensuring correct indexing with DatetimeIndex to enable time-series operations like resampling.
  • Used pandas’ built-in plot() for initial visualizations and faced issues with overplotting, leading to adjustments like data filtering and resampling to simplify plots.
  • Introduced Plotly for advanced interactive visualizations, enhancing user engagement through dynamic plots such as line graphs, area charts, and bar plots with capabilities like dropdown selections.

Content from Wrap-Up

Last updated on 2024-06-17 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 10 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • What have we learned?
  • What else is out there and where do I find it?
  • How can I make my programs more readable?

Objectives

  • Name and locate scientific Python community sites for further learning.
  • Use Python community coding standards (PEP-8).
  • Reflect on what you learned.

Python Resources

There are tons of Python resources out there, and Google is generally a good place to start when it comes to troubleshooting Python errors or finding tutorials. A few resources that we recommend:

  • PEP8 is a style guide for Python that discusses topics such as how you should name variables, how you should use indentation in your code, how you should structure your import statements, etc. Following PEP8 guidelines makes it easier for other Python developers (and for your future self) to read and understand your code.
  • The Python 3 documentation covers the core language and the standard library.
  • Pandas is the home of the Pandas data library.
  • Stack Overflow is a helpful site collecting community questions and answers related to programming challenges. Most of the issues you’re likely to run into as a Python novice have probably been answered there.

Generative AI and Python

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Genesis, and Claude can often generate helpful code templates and suggestions for Python problems. These tools work best:

  1. when you structure your questions using pseudocode, by breaking down the programming task you hope to accomplish using natural language.
  2. when you have enough experience in Python that you can troubleshoot errors and read over the code to ensure it’s doing what you think it is. The Python code that ChatGPT suggests can be flawed in small (and sometimes large) ways. You’ll have more success using generative AI for programming help as you gain more experience writing and editing Python.

Reflection

Take a few minutes to think about what you learned during the workshop. Consider the following:

  1. Are there ways for you to implement Python in your work moving forward?
  2. Do you have any questions or confusion about how you might implement Python in a particular workflow?

With the time remaining, discuss these topics with your instructors, helpers, and co-learners.

Key Points

  • Python supports a large community within and outwith research.
  • Follow standard Python style (using PEP8) in your code.