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How to Rename Columns in Pandas Dataframe – Definitive Guide

Published on: | Last updated on: November 25, 2022

Pandas DataFrame is a two-dimensional data structure used to store the data in rows and column format and each column will have a header.

You can rename the column in Pandas dataframe using the df.rename( columns={“Old Column Name”:”New Column Name” } ,inplace=True) statement.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn various methods available to rename columns in Pandas DataFrame.

If you’re in Hurry

Use the rename() method and pass a dictionary to rename columns. 

df.rename(
    columns={"Old_Column_Name_1":"New_Column_Name_1",
                "Old_Column_Name_2":"New_Column_Name_2"}
          ,inplace=True)

Where Columns is a dictionary containing a list of columns to be changed or renamed.

  • Key – the old column name
  • Value – new column name
  • inplace=True – denotes to make changes in the current DataFrame directly rather than creating a new Dataframe after renaming the columns

If You Want to Understand Details, Read on…

There are different methods to rename columns in pandas dataframe. Let us learn these methods by using the below sample dataframe df.

Sample DataFrame

import pandas as pd

data = {
    "Lang":["Java","Python","Cobol","Javascript"],        
    "Difficulty":["Medium","Easy","Hard","Medium"],
    "Type":["Statically Typed","Dynamically Typed","NA","Dynamically typed"]
}

df = pd.DataFrame(data)

print(df)

DataFrame Will Look Like

         Lang Difficulty               Type
0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed

Now, let’s discuss all the methods available to rename columns in pandas.

Using rename() Method

rename() method is used to rename the columns or indexes/rows in the Pandas DataFrame.

Syntax

df.rename(columns={"Old_Column_Name_1":"New_Column_Name_1",                 "Old_Column_Name_2":"New_Column_Name_2"} ,inplace=True)

Where Columns is a dictionary containing a list of columns to be changed or renamed.

  • Key – the old column name
  • Value – new column name
  • inplace=True – denotes to make changes in the current DataFrame directly rather than creating a new Dataframe after renaming the columns

Using Columns Attribute

You can change the dataframe column names by directly assigning the column names to the DataFrame using columns attributes as below.

Syntax

df.columns = ['New_Column_1', 'New_Column_2']

This will directly assign the new column names to your dataframe.

Ensure that the list has the same number of values as the number of columns in the dataframe.

Example

#Print the dataframe before renaming
print("Dataframe before Renaming\n\n")

print(df)

#Renaming the dataframe Column Index 0
df.columns = ['Language','Complexity','Typ']

print("\n\nDataframe after Renaming using Columns Attribute\n\n")

print(df)

Output

Dataframe before Renaming
*************************


         Lang Difficulty               Type
0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed


Dataframe after Renaming using Columns Attribute
***********************************************


     Language Difficulty               Typ
0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed

Using set_axis() Method

set_axis() method can be used to set the axis or rename columns of the dataframe.

You can set the index name when creating a dataframe using this set_axis() method.

A pandas DataFrame has two axes. where

  • A column axis can be mentioned as axis='columns' or axis=1
  • A row axis can be mentioned as axis='index' or axis=0

To rename column axes using the set_Axis(), use axis =1 or axis = columns as a parameter.

Syntax

df.set_axis(['New_Column_1', 'New_Column_2'],axis=1,inplace=True)

Where

  • ['New_Column_1', 'New_Column_2'] – list of columns names to be assigned.
  • axis=1 – denotes columns to be renamed.
  • inplace=True – denotes the actual DataFrame needs to be renamed rather than creating a new DataFrame object.

Example

print("Dataframe before Renaming\n\n")

print(df)

df.set_axis(["Language","Complexity","Typ"],axis=1,inplace=True)

print("\n\nDataframe after Renaming using Columns Attribute\n\n")

print(df)

Output

 Dataframe before Renaming


             Lang Difficulty               Type
    0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
    1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
    2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
    3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed


   Dataframe after Renaming using Columns Attribute


         Language Complexity               Typ
    0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
    1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
    2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
    3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed

This is how you can set the column axis using the set_axis() method in the pandas dataframe.

Rename all Columns

In this section, you’ll learn how to use rename() method to change all column names in the DataFrame.

  • To rename all columns in pandas DataFrame, pass a dictionary of columns to the rename method.

Syntax

df.rename(
    columns={"Old_Column_Name_1":"New_Column_Name_1",
                "Old_Column_Name_2":"New_Column_Name_2",
                   "Old_Column_Name_3":"New_Column_Name_3"}
          ,inplace=True)

Where Columns is a dictionary containing a list of columns to be changed or renamed.

  • Key should be a old column name
  • Value should be a new column name
  • inplace=True – Used to denote to make changes in the current DataFrame directory rather creating a new Dataframe for change

Example

print("Dataframe before Renaming\n\n")

print(df)


df.rename(columns={"Lang":"Language","Difficulty":"Complexity","Typ":"Type"},inplace=True)

print("\n\nDataframe after Renaming\n\n")

print(df)

Output

Dataframe before Renaming


         Lang Difficulty               Type
0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed


Dataframe after Renaming


     Language Complexity                Typ
0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed

Rename Specific Columns

In this section, you’ll learn how to rename a specific column in pandas DataFrame using the rename() method.

Syntax

df.rename(
    columns={"Old_Column_Name_1":"New_Column_Name_1"}
          ,inplace=True)

Where Columns is a dictionary containing a list of columns to be changed or renamed.

  • Key should be a old column name
  • Value should be a new column name
  • inplace=True – Used to denote to make changes in the current DataFrame directory rather creating a new Dataframe for change

Example

print("Dataframe before Renaming\n\n")

print(df)

df.rename(columns={"Lang":"Language"},inplace=True)

print("\n\nDataframe after Renaming the Language Column\n\n")

print(df)

Output

Dataframe before Renaming


         Lang Difficulty               Type
0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed


Dataframe after Renaming


     Language Difficulty                Type
0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed

Rename DataFame Column by index

You can rename a column using the column index. This is also known as renaming the pandas column using number or position.

The index is 0 based. Use 0, if you want to rename the first column.

  • Use the column name in the dictionary key by fetching the existing column name using its index as df.columns[0].

Syntax

df.rename(columns={df.columns[0]: 'New_Column_name'})

Example

print("Dataframe before Renaming")

print(df)


df.rename(columns={df.columns[0]: 'Language'},inplace=True)

print("\n\nDataframe after Renaming using column Index 0. Lang is renamed as Language\n\n")

print(df)

Output

Dataframe before Renaming



         Lang Difficulty               Type
0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed


Dataframe after Renaming using column Index 0. Lang is renamed as Language



     Language Difficulty                Type
0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed

Handling Errors while using rename function

When you use rename() method, it’ll raise a KeyError error when the specified Key is not available in the DataFrame.

You can specify what needs to be done in case of such errors.

  • Use errors='raise' to raise the error.
  • Use errors='ignore' to ignore the error and perform rename
    operation for valid columns. This is the default behaviour.

Syntax to Raise error

df.rename(
    {"Old_Column_Name_1":"New_Column_Name_2","Unavailable_Column":"New_Column_Name_2"},
        axis='columns', inplace=True, 
            errors='raise')

Example

print("Dataframe before Renaming")

print(df)

df.rename({"Langguage":"Language"},axis=1, inplace=True,
          errors='raise')

print("\n\nDataframe after Renaming using Axis Keyword\n\n")

print(df)

Output

Dataframe before Renaming
*************************


         Lang Difficulty               Type
0        Java     Medium   Statically Typed
1      Python       Easy  Dynamically Typed
2       Cobol       Hard                 NA
3  Javascript     Medium  Dynamically typed

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
KeyError                                  Traceback (most recent call last)

KeyError: "['Langguage'] not found in axis"

Now, when you try to rename the non-existing column Langguage, the Pandas rename() method raises an error.

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