Pandas Pivot Table Explained with Examples

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  • Post last modified:December 9, 2024
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What is a pivot table and how to create it in Pandas? Pandas pivot_table() function is used to make a spreadsheet-style pivot table from a given DataFrame. Using a pivot table we can analyze the data very quickly and it can give more flexibility to make an excel sheet form of a given DataFrame. It can be aggregated in a numeric column as a cross-tabulation against two categorical columns.

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In this article, I will explain how to create pivot tables in pandas and understand their syntax and parameters with examples. Creating a pivot table is a process of grouping, summarising, aggregating, and calculating statistics about the specified data in a DataFrame.

Key Points –

  • Pivot tables are used to summarize and reorganize data in a DataFrame by aggregating values based on specified columns.
  • The index parameter defines rows for the pivot table, allowing grouping based on one or multiple columns.
  • The columns parameter adds a horizontal dimension to the pivot table, creating subcategories.
  • The values parameter specifies the data columns to be aggregated and displayed in the table.
  • The aggfunc parameter defines how data is aggregated, with options like mean, sum, min, max, or custom functions.
  • You can apply multiple aggregation functions to the same column by passing a dictionary to aggfunc.
  • Use the fill_value parameter to replace NaN values in the pivot table with a specified value.

Quick Examples of Pivot Table

Below are quick examples of Pandas pivot table.


# Quick examples of pandas pivot table

# Example 1 : Create a pivot table using index
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index=['Gender']) 

# Example 2 : Create a pivot table using multiple index
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index=['Gender', 'Category']) 

# Example 3 : Create pivot table using multiple aggfunc
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index=['Gender'], aggfunc= {'Fee': 'mean', 'Discount': 'sum'})

# Example 4 : Create table using value parameter
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index = ['Gender'], values = ['Discount'], aggfunc = 'mean' )

# Example 5 : Create table using column parameter
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index= ['Gender'], columns = ['Fee'], values=['Discount'], aggfunc = 'mean' )

# Example 6 : Fill the NaN value using fill_value
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index= ['Gender'], columns = ['Fee'], values=['Discount'], aggfunc = 'mean', fill_value = 0 )

Pandas.pivot_table() Introduction

Following is the syntax of the Pandas.pivot_table().


# Syntax of Pandas pivot table
pandas.pivot_table(data, values=None, index=None, columns=None, aggfunc=’mean’, fill_value=None, margins=False, dropna=True, margins_name=’All’, observed=False)

# Another Syntax
DataFrame.pivot(index=None, columns=None, values=None)

Parameters

  • Data – DataFrame, whose dataset is turned into pivot table.
  • values – This is an optional parm. Column to aggregate.
  • index – column, Grouper, array, or list of the previous. Index is the feature that provides you to group the data. The index feature appears as an index in the resultant table.
  • columns – column, Grouper, array, or list of the previous. Column, it is used for aggregating the values according to specific features.
  • observed bool, (default False) –  This parameter is only applicable for categorical features. If it is set to ‘True’ then the table will show values only for categorical groups.
  • aggfunc – It is an aggregation function and we can set this param with a list of functions, dict, default is numpy.mean. If it is set to a list of functions, the resulting pivot table forms a hierarchical column and this list of functions will be a top-level column. If it is set to dictionary the key is a column to aggregate and the value is a function or list of functions.
  • fill_value – It is scalar or None. Value to replace missing values with (in the resulting pivot table, after aggregation).
  • dropna – Do not include columns whose entries are all NaN.

Return Value

It returns a DataFrame as an Excel-style pivot table.

To run some examples of pandas pivot table, let’s create DataFrame from Python dictionary in which keys are Courses, Fee, and Discount, and values are taken as a list of corresponding key values.


import pandas as pd
# Create a DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({'Student Names' : ['Jenny', 'Singh', 'Charles', 'Richard', 'Veena'],
                   'Category' : ['Online', 'Offline', 'Offline', 'Offline', 'Online'],
                   'Gender' : ['Female', 'Male', 'Male', 'Male', 'Female'],
                  'Courses': ['Java', 'Spark', 'PySpark','Hadoop','C'],
                   'Fee': [15000, 17000, 27000, 29000, 12000],
                   'Discount': [1100, 800, 1000, 1600, 600]})
print("Create DataFrame:\n",df)

Yields below output.

pandas pivot table

Create Pandas Pivot Table

Group the Data into Pivot Table using Index Param

To group the data into a pivot table using the index parameter, you specify the column(s) you want to use as the index in the resulting pivot table. For instance, the pd.pivot_table() function creates the pivot table. By specifying index=Gender, we instruct Pandas to use the Gender column as the index for grouping the data. The resulting pivot table p_table will have rows grouped by gender, and statistics will be computed for other numerical columns.


# Create a pivot table using index
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index=['Gender']) 
print(p_table)

# Output:
#  Output:
#           Discount           Fee
# Gender                           
# Female   850.000000  13500.000000
# Male    1133.333333  24333.333333

Note that by default pivot_table() groups on specified columns and performs the aggregation on all numeric columns. In our example DataFrame, we have Discount and Fee are numeric columns. Here, we have made a basic pivot table in pandas.

Create Pivot Table Using Multiple Index

Using the list of features as an index to group the data. This will give more comfort to finding data in the resultant table.


# Create a pivot table using multiple index
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index=['Gender', 'Category'])                     
print(p_table)

# Output:
#                    Discount           Fee
# Gender Category                           
# Female Online     850.000000  13500.000000
# Male   Offline   1133.333333  24333.333333

Create Pivot Table Using Multiple aggfunc

The aggfunc parameter in the pd.pivot_table() function allows you to specify the aggregation functions to be applied when summarizing the data. By default, if you don’t specify any aggregation function, Pandas will use the numpy.mean() function for numerical columns.

To use multiple aggregation functions in a pivot table, you can specify a dictionary where the keys are the columns to aggregate, and the values are lists of aggregation functions.


# Create pivot table using multiple aggfunc
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index=['Gender'], aggfunc= {'Fee': 'mean', 'Discount': 'sum'})
print(p_table)

# Output:
#          Discount          Fee
# Gender                        
# Female      1700  13500.000000
# Male        3400  24333.333333

Create Table with Values Parameter

The value parameter is used to specify an aggregated column. When not specify this parameter, the function will aggregate all the numerical columns of the dataset (as shown above). The below example selects the columns you wanted on the result.


# Create table using value parameter
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index = ['Gender'], values = ['Discount'], aggfunc = 'mean' )
print(p_table)

# Output:
#           Discount
# Gender             
# Female   850.000000
# Male    1133.333333

Create Pandas Pivot Table Using Column Param

As we can see from the above we have used multiple features as indexes, but using features as the column is given a better understanding of the resultant table than using features as an index.


# Create table using column parameter
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index= ['Gender'], columns = ['Fee'], values=['Discount'], aggfunc = 'mean' )
print(p_table)

# Output:
#           Discount                               
# Fee       12000   15000  17000   27000   29000
# Gender                                        
# Female    600.0  1100.0    NaN     NaN     NaN
# Male        NaN     NaN  800.0  1000.0  1600.0

Fill the Missing Data in Pandas Pivot Table

Using the fill_value parameter we can fill the Nan values with the specific value provided by the user in a pivot table. It defines scalar or None.


# Fill the NaN value using fill_value
p_table = pd.pivot_table(df, index= ['Gender'], columns = ['Fee'], values=['Discount'], aggfunc = 'mean', fill_value = 0 )
print(p_table)

# Output:
#        Discount                        
# Fee       12000 15000 17000 27000 29000
# Gender                                 
# Female      600  1100     0     0     0
# Male          0     0   800  1000  1600

FAQ on Pivot Table

What is a Pivot Table in Pandas?

A Pivot Table in Pandas is a powerful data manipulation tool that allows you to reorganize and summarize tabular data. It allows you to reshape and aggregate data based on one or more key columns.

How can I create a Pivot Table with subtotals and grand totals?

To create a Pivot Table with subtotals and grand totals, you can use the margins parameter in the pivot_table function. Setting margins to True will add row and column subtotals as well as grand totals.

Can I apply custom aggregation functions in a Pivot Table?

You can apply custom aggregation functions in a Pivot Table by defining your custom function and passing it to the aggfunc parameter in the pivot_table function.

How can I filter data before creating a Pivot Table?

You can filter data before creating a Pivot Table by using boolean indexing to select the relevant rows based on your filtering criteria.

Can I customize the names of the subtotal and grand total columns/rows?

You can customize the names of the subtotal and grand total columns or rows in a Pandas Pivot Table by using the margins_name parameter. The margins_name parameter allows you to specify the name for the subtotal and grand total rows or columns.

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned Pandas pivot_table() function and using this how to create a pivot table in the form of Excel sheets with well-explained examples.

References