Skip to main content
`Ctrl`+`K`

# pandas.Categorical

class pandas.Categorical(values, categories=None, ordered=None, dtype=None, fastpath=<no_default>, copy=True)

  Represent a categorical variable in classic R / S-plus fashion.

  Categoricals can only take on a limited, and usually fixed, number of possible values (categories). In contrast to statistical categorical variables, a Categorical might have an order, but numerical operations (additions, divisions, …) are not possible.

  All values of the Categorical are either in categories or np.nan. Assigning values outside of categories will raise a ValueError. Order is defined by the order of the categories, not lexical order of the values.

  Parameters:
    valueslist-like

      The values of the categorical. If categories are given, values not in categories will be replaced with NaN.

    categoriesIndex-like (unique), optional

      The unique categories for this categorical. If not given, the categories are assumed to be the unique values of values (sorted, if possible, otherwise in the order in which they appear).

    orderedbool, default False

      Whether or not this categorical is treated as a ordered categorical. If True, the resulting categorical will be ordered. An ordered categorical respects, when sorted, the order of its categories attribute (which in turn is the categories argument, if provided).

    dtypeCategoricalDtype

      An instance of `CategoricalDtype` to use for this categorical.

  Attributes

  `categories` | The categories of this categorical.
  `codes` | The category codes of this categorical index.
  `ordered` | Whether the categories have an ordered relationship.
  `dtype` | The `CategoricalDtype` for this instance.

  Methods

  `from_codes`(codes[, categories, ordered, ...]) | Make a Categorical type from codes and categories or dtype.
  `__array__`([dtype, copy]) | The numpy array interface.

  Raises:
    ValueError

      If the categories do not validate.

    TypeError

      If an explicit `ordered=True` is given but no categories and the values are not sortable.

  See also

  `CategoricalDtype`

    Type for categorical data.

  `CategoricalIndex`

    An Index with an underlying `Categorical`.

  Notes

  See the user guide for more.

  Examples

      >>> pd.Categorical([1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3])
      [1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]
      Categories (3, int64): [1, 2, 3]

      >>> pd.Categorical(['a', 'b', 'c', 'a', 'b', 'c'])
      ['a', 'b', 'c', 'a', 'b', 'c']
      Categories (3, object): ['a', 'b', 'c']

  Missing values are not included as a category.

      >>> c = pd.Categorical([1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, np.nan])
      >>> c
      [1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, NaN]
      Categories (3, int64): [1, 2, 3]

  However, their presence is indicated in the codes attribute by code -1.

      >>> c.codes
      array([ 0,  1,  2,  0,  1,  2, -1], dtype=int8)

  Ordered Categoricals can be sorted according to the custom order of the categories and can have a min and max value.

      >>> c = pd.Categorical(['a', 'b', 'c', 'a', 'b', 'c'], ordered=True,
      ...                    categories=['c', 'b', 'a'])
      >>> c
      ['a', 'b', 'c', 'a', 'b', 'c']
      Categories (3, object): ['c' < 'b' < 'a']
      >>> c.min()
      'c'