Difference between loc and iloc in Pandas
In Pandas, the loc and iloc attributes are used to select rows and columns from a DataFrame. These attributes are particularly useful when working with large and complex datasets, as they allow you to select specific rows and columns based on their labels or integer-based positions.
In Pandas, the loc
and iloc
attributes are used to select rows and columns from a DataFrame. These attributes are particularly useful when working with large and complex datasets, as they allow you to select specific rows and columns based on their labels or integer-based positions.
Here is a brief overview of the main differences between loc
and iloc
:
-
loc
is used to select rows and columns based on their labels. This means that you can use row and column names to select specific elements from a DataFrame. For example, you might usedf.loc[:, 'column_name']
to select all rows for a specific column. -
iloc
is used to select rows and columns based on their integer-based positions. This means that you can use integer indices to select specific elements from a DataFrame. For example, you might usedf.iloc[:, 0]
to select all rows for the first column.
One key difference between loc
and iloc
is that loc
includes both the start and end indices in the selection, while iloc
excludes the end index. For example, if you use df.loc[0:2]
, the resulting selection will include the rows at indices 0, 1, and 2. If you use df.iloc[0:2]
, the resulting selection will only include the rows at indices 0 and 1.
Another important difference is that loc
can accept a boolean array for indexing, while iloc
cannot. This means that you can use loc
to select rows that meet a specific condition, such as df.loc[df['column_name'] > 0]
, which would select all rows where the values in the 'column_name' column are greater than 0.
In summary, loc
and iloc
are useful attributes for selecting specific rows and columns from a Pandas DataFrame. While they have some similarities, they have some key differences that you should be aware of when working with your data.