Pandas Drop Last Column From DataFrame

To drop the last column from a DataFrame in Pandas, you can use the iloc[] method to select all rows and all columns except the last one. Additionally, you have several other options such as the drop(), pop(), and del functions. This article will explain the method of dropping the last column from a Pandas DataFrame.

Quick Examples of Drop Last Column

Below are some quick examples of how to drop the last column from DataFrame.


# Quick examples of drop last column from dataframe

# Example 1: Drop last column of dataframe 
# Using iloc[]
df2 = df.iloc[: , :-1]

# Example 2: By using iloc[] 
# To select all columns
# Except the last column
df2 = df[df.columns[:-1]]

# Example 3: Drop last column of dataframe using drop()
df.drop(columns=df.columns[-1],  axis=1,  inplace=True)

# Example 4: Using drop() function to delete last column
df.drop(df.columns[len(df.columns)-1], axis=1, inplace=True)

# Example 5: Using DataFrame.drop() function 
# To drop last column
df2 = df.drop(df.columns[-1],axis=1)

# Example 6: Drop last column of dataframe 
# Using pop()
df.pop(df.columns[-1])

# Example 7: Use del keywords
del df[df.columns[-1]]

To run some examples of dropping the last column from DataFrame. Now, Let’s create a Pandas DataFrame using data from a dictionary.


# Create DataFrame
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
technologies= ({
    'Courses':["Spark","PySpark","Hadoop","Pandas"],
    'Fee': [22000,25000,30000,35000],
    'Duration':['30days','50days','40days','35days'],
    'Discount':[1000,2000,2500,1500]
              })
index_labels=['r1','r2','r3','r4']
df = pd.DataFrame(technologies,index=index_labels)
print("Create DataFrame:\n",df)

Yields below output.

Pandas Drop Last Column using iloc[]

To drop the last column of a Pandas DataFrame, utilize iloc[] by specifying all rows (:) and all columns except the last one.


# Drop last column of dataframe 
# Using iloc[]
df2 = df.iloc[:, :-1]
print("Dropping last column:\n", df2)

# By using iloc[] to select all columns
# Except the last column
df2 = df[df.columns[:-1]]
print("Dropping last column:\n", df2)

In the above example, In the iloc[:, :-1] part, : selects all rows, and :-1 selects all columns up to (but not including) the last one. This effectively drops the last column from the DataFrame.

Using drop() To Drop the Last Column

Alternatively, remove the last column from a DataFrame with the drop() method, specify the label of the last column along with axis=1.


# Using DataFrame.drop() function 
# To drop last column
df2 = df.drop(df.columns[-1],axis=1)
print("Dropping last column:\n", df)

# Drop last column of dataframe using drop()
df.drop(columns=df.columns[-1],  axis=1,  inplace=True)
print("Dropping last column:\n", df)

# Using drop() function to delete last column
df.drop(df.columns[len(df.columns)-1], axis=1, inplace=True)
print("Dropping last column:\n", df)

In the above example, df.columns[-1] gets the label of the last column, and axis=1 specifies that we want to drop a column. The resulting DataFrame (df) will have the last column removed. df.columns[-1] returns Duration which is the last column from our DataFrame.

Drop Last Column using pop()

Utilize the pop() function to remove the last column of the DataFrame and return the deleted column as a Series. To specifically select the last column of a DataFrame, you can use df.columns[-1], which selects all columns except the last one.


# Drop last column of dataframe 
# Using pop()
df.pop(df.columns[-1])
print("Dropping last column:\n", df)

In the above example, df.columns[-1] gets the label of the last column, and df.pop() removes and returns that column. The resulting DataFrame (df) will no longer contain the last column.

Use del Keyword to Drop Last Column of Pandas DataFrame

Similarly, you can use the del keyword to remove the last column from a Pandas DataFrame.


# Use del keywords
del df[df.columns[-1]] 
print(df)

In the above examples, df.columns[-1] gets the label of the last column, and del df[df.columns[-1]] removes that column from the DataFrame. The resulting DataFrame (df) will no longer contain the last column. Note that this modifies the original DataFrame in place.

Complete Example For


import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
technologies= ({
    'Courses':["Spark","PySpark","Hadoop","Pandas"],
    'Fee': [22000,25000,30000,35000],
    'Duration':['30days','50days','40days','35days'],
    'Discount':[1000,2000,2500,1500]
              })
index_labels=['r1','r2','r3','r4']
df = pd.DataFrame(technologies,index=index_labels)
print(df)

# Drop last column of dataframe using iloc[]
df2 = df.iloc[: , :-1]
print(df2)

# By using iloc[] to select all columns
# Except the last column
df2 = df[df.columns[:-1]]
print(df2)

# Drop last column of dataframe using drop()
df.drop(columns=df.columns[-1],  axis=1,  inplace=True)
print(df)

# Using drop() function to delete last column
df.drop(df.columns[len(df.columns)-1], axis=1, inplace=True)
print(df)

# Using DataFrame.drop() function to drop last column
df2 = df.drop(df.columns[-1],axis=1)
print(df2)

# Drop last column of dataframe using pop()
df.pop(df.columns[-1])
print(df)

# Use del keywords
del df[df.columns[-1]] 
print(df)

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned how to drop the last column from Pandas DataFrame by using iloc[], drop(), pop(), and del Keyword with examples.

Happy Learning !!

References

https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/reference/api/pandas.DataFrame.iloc.html