Counting duplicates in Pandas

Introduction

Counting duplicates helps you find repeated data in your table. This is useful to check data quality or understand patterns.

You want to see if a list of customer emails has repeats.

You need to find duplicate product IDs in your sales data.

You want to count how many times each word appears in a text dataset.

You want to check if survey responses have repeated answers.

Syntax

Pandas

DataFrame.duplicated(subset=None, keep='first')

DataFrame.drop_duplicates(subset=None, keep='first')

Series.value_counts()

duplicated() marks rows that are duplicates.

value_counts() counts how many times each unique value appears.

Examples

Returns a boolean series marking duplicate rows as True except for the first occurrence.

Pandas

df.duplicated()

Counts how many times each unique value appears in a column.

Pandas

df['column'].value_counts()

Marks all duplicates in specified columns as True, including the first occurrences.

Pandas

df.duplicated(subset=['col1', 'col2'], keep=False)

Sample Program

This code creates a small table with names and ages. It marks duplicate rows and counts how many times each name appears.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

data = {'Name': ['Anna', 'Bob', 'Anna', 'Mike', 'Bob', 'Anna'],
        'Age': [25, 30, 25, 22, 30, 25]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)

# Find duplicate rows
duplicates = df.duplicated()
print('Duplicate rows marked as True:')
print(duplicates)

# Count how many times each name appears
name_counts = df['Name'].value_counts()
print('\nCount of each name:')
print(name_counts)

Important Notes

Use keep=False in duplicated() to mark all duplicates as True, not just later ones.

value_counts() works on Series (one column) and on DataFrames to count unique row combinations (pandas 1.1+).

Summary

Counting duplicates helps find repeated data in tables.

duplicated() marks duplicate rows as True or False.

value_counts() counts how often each value appears in a column.

Practice

1.

What does the duplicated() function in pandas do?

easy

A. It counts how many times each value appears in a column.

B. It removes all duplicate rows from the DataFrame.

C. It marks duplicate rows as True and unique rows as False.

D. It sorts the DataFrame by duplicate values.

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand the purpose of duplicated()

   The duplicated() function checks each row and marks it True if it is a duplicate of a previous row, otherwise False.

2. Step 2: Compare with other functions

   Unlike drop_duplicates() which removes duplicates, duplicated() only marks them. value_counts() counts values, not duplicates.

3. Final Answer:

   It marks duplicate rows as True and unique rows as False. -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   duplicated() = True/False mask [OK]

Hint: duplicated() flags duplicates, does not remove them [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Thinking duplicated() removes duplicates
• Confusing duplicated() with value_counts()
• Assuming duplicated() sorts data

2.

Which of the following is the correct syntax to count duplicate rows in a pandas DataFrame df?

?

easy

A. df.duplicated().sum()

B. df.duplicate().count()

C. df.value_counts().duplicated()

D. df.count_duplicates()

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify correct function names

   The correct function to find duplicates is duplicated(). There is no duplicate() or count_duplicates() in pandas.

2. Step 2: Count duplicates using sum()

   duplicated() returns a boolean Series. Using sum() counts how many True values (duplicates) exist.

3. Final Answer:

   df.duplicated().sum() -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   duplicated() + sum() = count duplicates [OK]

Hint: Use duplicated() then sum() to count duplicates [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using wrong function names like duplicate()
• Trying to count duplicates with value_counts() directly
• Using count() instead of sum() on boolean Series

3.

Given the DataFrame df below, what is the output of df.duplicated().sum()?

import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({'A': [1, 2, 2, 3, 1], 'B': ['x', 'y', 'y', 'z', 'x']})
print(df.duplicated().sum())

medium

A. 3

B. 2

C. 1

D. 0

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify duplicate rows

   Rows 0 and 4 are identical (A=1, B='x'), and rows 1 and 2 are identical (A=2, B='y'). The first occurrence is not counted as duplicate.

2. Step 2: Count duplicates marked True

   Row 2 and row 4 are duplicates (second occurrences), so duplicated() marks these two rows True. Summing gives 2.

3. Final Answer:

   2 -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   Two duplicate rows found = 2 [OK]

Hint: duplicated() counts second+ occurrences only [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Counting all duplicates including first occurrence
• Confusing duplicated() with value_counts()
• Ignoring that duplicated() marks only later duplicates

4.

What is wrong with this code to count duplicates in DataFrame df?

duplicates = df.duplicated.count()

medium

A. duplicated is a method and needs parentheses before count()

B. count() cannot be used on duplicated() output

C. duplicated() does not exist in pandas

D. sum() should be used instead of count()

Solution

1. Step 1: Check method call syntax

   duplicated is a method and must be called with parentheses: duplicated().

2. Step 2: Understand method chaining

   Without parentheses, df.duplicated.count() tries to access count attribute of the method itself, causing error. Correct is df.duplicated().count(), but this counts all rows, not duplicates.

3. Final Answer:

   duplicated is a method and needs parentheses before count() -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Call duplicated() with () before count() [OK]

Hint: Always use parentheses to call duplicated() method [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Forgetting parentheses on duplicated()
• Using count() instead of sum() to count duplicates
• Assuming duplicated is a property, not a method

5.

You have a DataFrame df with a column 'Category'. You want to find which categories appear more than once and how many times. Which code snippet correctly does this?

?

hard

A. df['Category'].count_duplicates()

B. df.duplicated('Category').sum()

C. df['Category'].duplicated().count()

D. df['Category'].value_counts()[df['Category'].value_counts() > 1]

Solution

1. Step 1: Use value_counts() to count category occurrences

   value_counts() counts how many times each category appears.

2. Step 2: Filter categories with counts greater than 1

   Using boolean indexing [value_counts() > 1] selects only categories appearing more than once.

3. Final Answer:

   df['Category'].value_counts()[df['Category'].value_counts() > 1] -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   value_counts() + filter > 1 = repeated categories [OK]

Hint: Use value_counts() then filter counts > 1 [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using duplicated() on a column returns booleans, not counts
• Trying to call non-existent count_duplicates()
• Using count() on duplicated() output incorrectly