Renaming columns in Pandas - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Renaming columns

📖 Scenario: You have a small table of sales data with column names that are not very clear. You want to rename the columns to make them easier to understand.

🎯 Goal: Rename the columns of a pandas DataFrame to more descriptive names.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a pandas DataFrame with specific columns and data

Create a dictionary to map old column names to new column names

Use the pandas rename method with the dictionary to rename columns

Print the resulting DataFrame

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Renaming columns is common when working with data from different sources that use unclear or inconsistent column names.

💼 Career

Data scientists and analysts often rename columns to make data easier to understand and to prepare it for analysis or reporting.

1

Create the initial DataFrame

Create a pandas DataFrame called df with these columns and data: 'prd' with values [101, 102, 103], 'qty' with values [5, 10, 15], and 'amt' with values [100, 200, 300].

Pandas

import pandas as pd
# Create the DataFrame df with columns 'prd', 'qty', 'amt' and the given values
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use pd.DataFrame with a dictionary where keys are column names and values are lists of data.

2

Create the renaming dictionary

Create a dictionary called rename_dict that maps the old column names to new names: 'prd' to 'ProductID', 'qty' to 'Quantity', and 'amt' to 'Amount'.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({
    'prd': [101, 102, 103],
    'qty': [5, 10, 15],
    'amt': [100, 200, 300]
})
# Create the dictionary rename_dict to map old column names to new names
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Create a dictionary with old column names as keys and new column names as values.

3

Rename the columns using the dictionary

Use the pandas rename method on df with the columns=rename_dict argument and inplace=True to rename the columns.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({
    'prd': [101, 102, 103],
    'qty': [5, 10, 15],
    'amt': [100, 200, 300]
})

rename_dict = {'prd': 'ProductID', 'qty': 'Quantity', 'amt': 'Amount'}
# Rename the columns of df using rename_dict with inplace=True
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use df.rename(columns=rename_dict, inplace=True) to rename columns directly in the DataFrame.

4

Print the renamed DataFrame

Print the DataFrame df to see the new column names.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({
    'prd': [101, 102, 103],
    'qty': [5, 10, 15],
    'amt': [100, 200, 300]
})

rename_dict = {'prd': 'ProductID', 'qty': 'Quantity', 'amt': 'Amount'}

df.rename(columns=rename_dict, inplace=True)
# Print the DataFrame df
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print(df) to display the DataFrame with renamed columns.