How to Rename Columns With List in Pandas

I will explain how to rename columns with a list of values in Pandas DataFrame but remember with a list, you should rename all columns. Even if any column you don’t want to rename, still you need to pass the actual column names with the list.

1. Quick Examples of Rename Columns With List

Below are some quick examples of how to rename columns with the list.

# Below are some quick examples

import pandas as pd
technologies = [ ["Spark",20000, "30days"], 
                 ["Pandas",25000, "40days"], 
               ]
column_names=["Courses","Fee",'Duration']
df=pd.DataFrame(technologies, columns=column_names)
print(df.columns)

# Example 1: Rename all columns with list
cols = ['Courses','Courses_Fee','Courses_Duration']
df.columns = cols
print(df.columns)

# Example 2: Rename columns with list
cols = ['Courses','Fee','Duration']
df.set_axis(cols, axis=1,inplace=True)
print(df.columns)

Let’s create a simple DataFrame and execute these examples and validate the results.

# Create DataFrame 
import pandas as pd
technologies = [ ["Spark",20000, "30days"], 
                 ["Pandas",25000, "40days"], 
               ]
column_names=["Courses","Fee",'Duration']
df=pd.DataFrame(technologies, columns=column_names)
print(df.columns)

Yields below column names.

# Output:
Index(['Courses', 'Fee', 'Duration'], dtype='object')

2. Rename Columns With List

If you have all the columns you wanted to rename with a list in pandas DataFrame, you can just assign the list to DataFrame.columns to rename all columns.

# Rename all columns with list
cols = ['Courses','Courses_Fee','Courses_Duration']
df.columns = cols
print(df.columns)

Yields below output. This changes columns from Fee to Courses_Fee and from Duration to Courses_Duration.

# Output:
Index(['Courses', 'Courses_Fee', 'Courses_Duration'], dtype='object')

3. Rename Columns with List using set_axis()

Alternatively, you can use DataFrame.set_axis() method to rename columns with the list. use the inplace=True param to rename columns on the existing DataFrame object. In case you do not want to change the existing DataFrame do not use this param, where it returns a new DataFrame after rename.

# Rename columns with list
cols = ['Courses','Fee','Duration']
df.set_axis(cols, axis=1,inplace=True)
print(df.columns)

Yields below output. This changes column from Courses_Fee to Fee and from Courses_Duration to Duration.

# Output:
Index(['Courses', 'Fee', 'Duration'], dtype='object')

4. Complete Example of Rename Columns With List

import pandas as pd
technologies = [ ["Spark",20000, "30days"], 
                 ["Pandas",25000, "40days"], 
               ]
column_names=["Courses","Fee",'Duration']
df=pd.DataFrame(technologies, columns=column_names)
print(df.columns)

# Rename all columns with list
cols = ['Courses','Courses_Fee','Courses_Duration']
df.columns = cols
print(df.columns)

# Rename columns with list
cols = ['Courses','Fee','Duration']
df.set_axis(cols, axis=1,inplace=True)
print(df.columns)

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned how to rename columns with a list using two different ways. When using the set_axis() method, use inplace=True as the param to rename columns on the existing DataFrame. In case you do not want to change the existing DataFrame do not use this param, where it returns a new DataFrame after rename.

Related Articles

• Pandas Rename Column with Examples
• How to Rename Multiple Columns in Pandas
• How to Rename Specific Columns in Pandas
• How to Rename Column by Index in Pandas
• Pandas Rename Index Values of DataFrame
• Pandas Rename Index of DataFrame
• Pandas Rename Column with Examples
• How to Rename a Pandas Series?

References

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