sort_values() by single column in Pandas - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Sorting Data with pandas sort_values() by Single Column

📖 Scenario: You work in a small bookstore. You have a list of books with their prices. You want to see the books sorted by price to find the cheapest and most expensive ones easily.

🎯 Goal: Build a small program that creates a DataFrame of books and prices, then sorts the books by their price using pandas sort_values() method.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a pandas DataFrame with book titles and prices

Create a variable to hold the column name to sort by

Use sort_values() to sort the DataFrame by the price column

Print the sorted DataFrame

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Sorting data by a specific column is a common task in data analysis to organize and understand data better.

💼 Career

Data scientists and analysts often sort data to prepare reports, find trends, or clean data before deeper analysis.

1

Create the books DataFrame

Create a pandas DataFrame called books with two columns: 'Title' and 'Price'. Use these exact entries: 'The Alchemist' priced at 10.99, '1984' priced at 8.99, 'Python 101' priced at 15.50, 'Data Science' priced at 12.75.

Pandas

import pandas as pd
# Create the DataFrame 'books' with the given titles and prices
# Your code here

Need a hint?

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

2

Set the column to sort by

Create a variable called sort_column and set it to the string 'Price' to specify the column to sort the DataFrame by.

Pandas

import pandas as pd
books = pd.DataFrame({
    'Title': ['The Alchemist', '1984', 'Python 101', 'Data Science'],
    'Price': [10.99, 8.99, 15.50, 12.75]
})
# Create variable 'sort_column' with value 'Price'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just assign the string 'Price' to the variable sort_column.

3

Sort the DataFrame by the price column

Create a new DataFrame called sorted_books by sorting the books DataFrame using the sort_values() method with the column name stored in sort_column.

Pandas

import pandas as pd
books = pd.DataFrame({
    'Title': ['The Alchemist', '1984', 'Python 101', 'Data Science'],
    'Price': [10.99, 8.99, 15.50, 12.75]
})
sort_column = 'Price'
# Sort 'books' by 'sort_column' and save to 'sorted_books'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use books.sort_values(by=sort_column) to sort by the column stored in sort_column.

4

Print the sorted DataFrame

Print the sorted_books DataFrame to see the books sorted by price.

Pandas

import pandas as pd
books = pd.DataFrame({
    'Title': ['The Alchemist', '1984', 'Python 101', 'Data Science'],
    'Price': [10.99, 8.99, 15.50, 12.75]
})
sort_column = 'Price'
sorted_books = books.sort_values(by=sort_column)
# Print the sorted_books DataFrame
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use print(sorted_books) to display the sorted DataFrame.