head() and tail() for previewing in Pandas - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Previewing Data with head() and tail() in pandas

📖 Scenario: You have a small dataset of daily temperatures recorded in a city for one week. You want to quickly look at the first few and last few days to understand the data.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to use head() and tail() methods in pandas to preview the first and last rows of a dataset.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a pandas DataFrame with exact temperature data

Use a variable to set the number of rows to preview

Use head() to get the first rows

Use tail() to get the last rows

Print the previewed data

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Previewing data quickly helps data scientists understand the structure and spot any obvious issues before deep analysis.

💼 Career

Knowing how to use head() and tail() is a basic skill for data analysts and scientists to inspect datasets efficiently.

1

Create the temperature DataFrame

Create a pandas DataFrame called temps with these exact data: dates as strings in 'Date' column: '2024-06-01', '2024-06-02', '2024-06-03', '2024-06-04', '2024-06-05', '2024-06-06', '2024-06-07'. Temperatures in Celsius in 'Temp' column: 22, 24, 19, 23, 25, 20, 21.

Pandas

import pandas as pd
# Create the DataFrame temps with exact dates and temperatures
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use pd.DataFrame with a dictionary containing 'Date' and 'Temp' keys and lists of values.

2

Set the number of rows to preview

Create a variable called preview_rows and set it to 3. This will control how many rows to preview from the start and end of the DataFrame.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

temps = pd.DataFrame({
    'Date': ['2024-06-01', '2024-06-02', '2024-06-03', '2024-06-04', '2024-06-05', '2024-06-06', '2024-06-07'],
    'Temp': [22, 24, 19, 23, 25, 20, 21]
})

# Create preview_rows variable and set it to 3
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just create a variable preview_rows and assign the number 3.

3

Use head() and tail() to preview data

Create two variables: first_rows to store the first preview_rows rows of temps using head(), and last_rows to store the last preview_rows rows of temps using tail().

Pandas

import pandas as pd

temps = pd.DataFrame({
    'Date': ['2024-06-01', '2024-06-02', '2024-06-03', '2024-06-04', '2024-06-05', '2024-06-06', '2024-06-07'],
    'Temp': [22, 24, 19, 23, 25, 20, 21]
})

preview_rows = 3

# Use head() and tail() to get first_rows and last_rows
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use temps.head(preview_rows) and temps.tail(preview_rows) to get the first and last rows.

4

Print the previewed rows

Print the variables first_rows and last_rows to display the first and last 3 rows of the temperature data.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

temps = pd.DataFrame({
    'Date': ['2024-06-01', '2024-06-02', '2024-06-03', '2024-06-04', '2024-06-05', '2024-06-06', '2024-06-07'],
    'Temp': [22, 24, 19, 23, 25, 20, 21]
})

preview_rows = 3

first_rows = temps.head(preview_rows)
last_rows = temps.tail(preview_rows)

# Print first_rows and last_rows
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print(first_rows) and print(last_rows) to show the previews.