How to Convert Multiple Lists into a Pandas Dataframe – Definitive Guide

Python lists allow you to store multiple items in a single object.

You can convert multiple lists into pandas dataframe using the zip() method.

There are different methods available to convert multiple lists into a Pandas Dataframe.

If You’re in Hurry…

To convert multiple lists into pandas dataframe,

• Create multiple lists
• Create a list of tuples with one value from each list
• Use the pd.DataFrame() and pass the list of tuples to create a dataframe out of the lists

Code

designation = ['Data Scientist', 'Developer', 'Sr. Developer', 'Product Manager']

avg_salary = [200000, 175000, 190000, 250000]

salary_lists  = list(zip(designation, avg_salary))

df = pd.DataFrame(salary_lists, columns = ['designation', 'avg_salary'])

df.head()

The list values will be converted into a DataFrame.

DataFrame Will Look Like

	designation	avg_salary
0	Data Scientist	200000
1	Developer	175000
2	Sr. Developer	190000
3	Product Manager	250000

If You Want to Understand Details, Read on…

Different methods are available to convert multiple lists into Pandas Dataframe. Let us learn each method in detail and see when it is appropriate to use them.

Creating Multiple Lists

Create multiple lists of the same size. To calculate the size of a list, read How to count the number of elements in the list.

You can use these lists to create a dataframe out of them.

designation = ['Data Scientist', 'Developer', 'Sr. Developer', 'Product Manager']

avg_salary = [200000, 175000, 190000, 250000]

Convert Lists to Dataframe Using a Zip

In this section, you’ll use the zip() method to create a list of tuples. Each tuple will contain one item from each list.

Use this method when you want to create a dataframe from more than two lists or you have a list of different sizes.

When lists are of different sizes, the least size list will decide the number of tuples created. Other items will be ignored.

Code

The code below demonstrates the usage of the zip() method to create tuples based on values from multiple lists.

• The resultant zip object is passed to the list() constructor to create a list of tuples
• Use the list with the pd.DataFrame() to create a pandas dataframe out of the tuples list
• Add a header to the dataframe using the columns attribute

salary_lists  = list(zip(designation, avg_salary))

df = pd.DataFrame(salary_lists, columns = ['designation', 'avg_salary'])

df.head()

When you print the dataframe using the df.head(), you’ll see the list of values available in the dataframe.

DataFrame Will Look Like

	designation	avg_salary
0	Data Scientist	200000
1	Developer	175000
2	Sr. Developer	190000
3	Product Manager	250000

This is how you can convert multiple lists into a pandas dataframe using the zip() method.

Convert Lists to Dataframe Using a Dictionary

This section teaches you how to convert multiple lists to a pandas dataframe using a dictionary and from_dict() method.

Use this method when you have two lists to create a dataframe because you can use one list as a key and another list as a value while creating a dictionary.

Once you have the dictionary with keys and values, you can convert the dictionary to a pandas dataframe using the from_dict() method.

Code

The code below demonstrates how to convert two lists into a pandas dataframe using a dictionary and the from_dict() method.

import pandas as pd

designation = ['Data Scientist', 'Developer', 'Sr. Developer', 'Product Manager']

avg_salary = [200000, 175000, 190000, 250000]

salary_dict = dict(designation=designation, avg_salary =avg_salary)

df = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(salary_dict)

df.head()

DataFrame Will Look Like

	designation	avg_salary
0	Data Scientist	200000
1	Developer	175000
2	Sr. Developer	190000
3	Product Manager	250000

This is how you can use a dictionary to convert two lists to a pandas dataframe.

Create Dataframe from Lists of Different Length

When having multiple lists, there are chances that the lists are of different sizes.

When you directly use those lists, you’ll see the ValueError saying that all the arrays must be of the same length.

ValueError: All arrays must be of the same length

There are two possibilities to create a dataframe with lists of different sizes.

1. Use the Zip method explained above. This will create a dataframe with the size of the minimum size list.
2. Use the dictionary and the from_dict() method, and create a dataframe with the orient=index parameter. It’ll create a dataframe with the lists as rows. Then you can use the transpose() method. It’ll transpose rows as columns.

Code

The code below demonstrates how to create a dataframe with lists of different lengths using the orient=index parameter.

designation = ['Data Scientist', 'Developer', 'Sr. Developer', 'Product Manager', 'Project Manager']

avg_salary = [200000, 175000, 190000, 250000]

salary_dict = dict(designation=designation, avg_salary =avg_salary)

df = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(salary_dict, orient='index').transpose()

df

The missing values will be denoted with None Values.

DataFrame Will Look Like

	A	B
0	Data Scientist	200000
1	Developer	175000
2	Sr. Developer	190000
3	Product Manager	250000
4	Project Manager	None

This is how you can create a dataframe from lists of different lengths.

Create Dataframe From Lists as Columns

This section teaches you how to create a dataframe from lists as columns instead of rows.

You can create a dataframe from lists as columns using the orient=‘index’ parameter while creating the dataframe.

Code

The code below demonstrates how to use the orient=‘index’ parameter in the from_dict() method.

designation = ['Data Scientist', 'Developer', 'Sr. Developer', 'Product Manager']

avg_salary = [200000, 175000, 190000, 250000]

salary_dict = dict(designation=designation, avg_salary =avg_salary)

df = pd.DataFrame.from_dict(salary_dict, orient='index')

df

DataFrame Will Look Like

	0	1	2	3
designation	Data Scientist	Developer	Sr. Developer	Product Manager
avg_salary	200000	175000	190000	250000

Conclusion

You’ve learned how to convert multiple lists into a dataframe using the zip() method and a dictionary.

You can use the zip() method when you have more than two lists to create a dataframe or when you have lists of different sizes.

You can use the dictionary method when you have two lists to create a dataframe.

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