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  • Post last modified:March 27, 2024
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You are currently viewing Pandas Get the Number of Rows

You can get the number of rows in Pandas DataFrame using len(df.index) and df.shape[0] properties. Pandas allow us to get the shape of the DataFrame by counting the number of rows in the DataFrame.

DataFrame.shape property returns the rows and columns, for rows get it from the first index which is zero; like df.shape[0] and for columns count, you can get it from df.shape[1]. Alternatively, to find the number of rows that exist in a DataFrame, you can use DataFrame.count() method, but this is not recommended approach due to performance issues.

source: stackoverflow.com

In this article, I will explain how to count or find the DataFrame rows count with examples.

1. Quick Examples of Get the Number of Rows in DataFrame

If you are in hurry, below are some quick examples of how to get the number of rows (row count) in Pandas DataFrame.


# Quick examples of get the number of rows

# Example 1: Get the row count 
# Using len(df.index)
rows_count = len(df.index)

# Example 2: Get count of rows 
# Using len(df.axes[])
rows_count = len(df.axes[0])

# Example 3:Get count of rows 
# Using df.shape[0]
rows_count = df.shape[0]

# Example 4: Get count of rows
# Using count()
rows_count = df.count()[0]

If you are a Pandas learner, read through the article as I have explained these examples with the sample data to understand better.

Let’s create a Pandas DataFrame with a dictionary of lists, pandas DataFrame columns names Courses, Fee, Duration, Discount.


import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
technologies= {
    'Courses':["Spark","PySpark","Hadoop","Python","Pandas"],
    'Courses Fee' :[22000,25000,23000,24000,26000],
    'Duration':['30days','50days','30days', None,np.nan],
    'Discount':[1000,2300,1000,1200,2500]
          }
df = pd.DataFrame(technologies)
print("Create DataFrame:\n", df)

Yields below output.

Pandas get number rows

2. Get Number of Rows in DataFrame

You can use len(df.index) to find the number of rows in pandas DataFrame, df.index returns RangeIndex(start=0, stop=8, step=1) and use it on len() to get the count. You can also use len(df) but this performs slower when compared with len(df.index) since it has one less function call. Both these are faster than df.shape[0] to get the count.

If performance is not a constraint better use len(df) as this is neat and easy to read.


# Get the row count using len(df.index)
print(df.index)

# Outputs: 
# RangeIndex(start=0, stop=5, step=1)

print('Row count is:', len(df.index))
print('Row count is:', len(df))

# Outputs:
# Row count is:5

3. Get Row Count in DataFrame Using .len(DataFrame.axes[0]) Method

Pandas also provide Dataframe.axes property that returns a tuple of your DataFrame axes for rows and columns. Access the axes[0] and call len(df.axes[0]) to return the number of rows. For columns count, use df.axes[1]. For example: len(df.axes[1]).

Here, DataFrame.axes[0] returns the row axis (index), and len() is then used to get the length of that axis, which corresponds to the number of rows in the DataFrame.


# Get the row count using len(df.axes[0])
print(df.axes)

# Output:
# [RangeIndex(start=0, stop=5, step=1), Index(['Courses', 'Courses Fee', 'Duration', 'Discount'], dtype='object')]

print(df.axes[0])

# Output:
# RangeIndex(start=0, stop=5, step=1)

print('Row count is:', len(df.axes[0]))

# Outputs:
# Row count is:5

4. Using df.shape[0] to Get Rows Count

Pandas DataFrame.shape returns the count of rows and columns, df.shape[0] is used to get the number of rows. Use df.shape[1] to get the column count.

In the below example, df.shape returns a tuple containing the number of rows and columns in the DataFrame, and df.shape[0] specifically extracts the number of rows. This approach is concise and widely used for obtaining the row count in Pandas DataFrames.


# Get row count using df.shape[0]
df = pd.DataFrame(technologies)
row_count = df.shape[0]  # Returns number of rows
col_count = df.shape[1]  # Returns number of columns
print(row_count)

# Outputs:
# Number of rows: 5

5. Using df.count() Method

This is not recommended approach due to its performance but, still I need to cover this as this is also one of the approaches to get the row count of a DataFrame. Note that this ignores the values from columns that have None or Nan while calculating the count. As you see, my DataFrame contains 2 None/nan values in column Duration hence it returned 3 instead of 5 on the below example.


# Get count of each column
print(df.count())

# Outputs: 
# Courses        5
# Courses Fee    5
# Duration       3
# Discount       5
# dtype: int64

Now let’s see how to get the row count.


# Get count of rows using count()
rows_count = df.count()[0]
rows_count = = df[df.columns[0]].count()
print('Number of Rows count is:', rows_count )

# Outputs:
# Number of Rows count is: 5

Frequently Asked Questions on Pandas Get the Number of Rows

How do I get the number of rows in a Pandas DataFrame?

You can use the shape attribute of the DataFrame, which returns a tuple representing the number of rows and columns. The first element of the tuple is the number of rows.

How can I get the number of rows in a Pandas DataFrame?

You can get the number of rows in a Pandas DataFrame using the shape attribute or the len() function.

Is there an alternative method to get the number of rows?

There is an alternative method to get the number of rows in a Pandas DataFrame. You can use the len() function on the DataFrame directly.

Can I use the info() method to get the number of rows?

While the info() method provides a summary of the DataFrame, it doesn’t explicitly give you the number of rows. However, it does display the non-null counts for each column, which indirectly gives you an idea about the number of rows.

Is there any difference in performance between using shape and len() to get the number of rows?

In most cases, the performance difference between using shape and len() to get the number of rows is negligible. However, shape might be slightly faster because it directly accesses the precomputed shape attribute of the DataFrame, whereas len() needs to calculate the length of the DataFrame by iterating over its rows.

Can I use the count() method to get the number of rows?

The count() method is used to count non-null values in each column. While it won’t directly give you the number of rows, you can use it on any column to check for non-null values.

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned how to find/get the number of rows (simply row count) in DataFrame by using DataFrame.shape of the DataFrame also, you learned to get it from len(DataFrame.index) and len(DataFrame.axes[0]), DataFrame.count() and others.

Happy Learning !!

Reference

Naveen Nelamali

Naveen Nelamali (NNK) is a Data Engineer with 20+ years of experience in transforming data into actionable insights. Over the years, He has honed his expertise in designing, implementing, and maintaining data pipelines with frameworks like Apache Spark, PySpark, Pandas, R, Hive and Machine Learning. Naveen journey in the field of data engineering has been a continuous learning, innovation, and a strong commitment to data integrity. In this blog, he shares his experiences with the data as he come across. Follow Naveen @ LinkedIn and Medium