pandas.DataFrame.drop

DataFrame.drop(labels=None, *, axis=0, index=None, columns=None, level=None, inplace=False, errors='raise')

Drop specified labels from rows or columns.

Remove rows or columns by specifying label names and corresponding axis, or by directly specifying index or column names. When using a multi-index, labels on different levels can be removed by specifying the level. See the user guide for more information about the now unused levels.

Parameters:

labelssingle label or list-like

Index or column labels to drop. A tuple will be used as a single label and not treated as a list-like.

axis{0 or ‘index’, 1 or ‘columns’}, default 0

Whether to drop labels from the index (0 or ‘index’) or columns (1 or ‘columns’).

indexsingle label or list-like

Alternative to specifying axis (labels, axis=0 is equivalent to index=labels).

columnssingle label or list-like

Alternative to specifying axis (labels, axis=1 is equivalent to columns=labels).

levelint or level name, optional

For MultiIndex, level from which the labels will be removed.

inplacebool, default False

If False, return a copy. Otherwise, do operation in place and return None.

errors{‘ignore’, ‘raise’}, default ‘raise’

If ‘ignore’, suppress error and only existing labels are dropped.

Returns:

DataFrame or None

Returns DataFrame or None DataFrame with the specified index or column labels removed or None if inplace=True.

Raises:

KeyError

If any of the labels is not found in the selected axis.

See also

DataFrame.loc

Label-location based indexer for selection by label.

DataFrame.dropna

Return DataFrame with labels on given axis omitted where (all or any) data are missing.

DataFrame.drop_duplicates

Return DataFrame with duplicate rows removed, optionally only considering certain columns.

Series.drop

Return Series with specified index labels removed.

Examples

>>> df = pd.DataFrame(np.arange(12).reshape(3, 4), columns=["A", "B", "C", "D"])
>>> df
   A  B   C   D
0  0  1   2   3
1  4  5   6   7
2  8  9  10  11

Drop columns

>>> df.drop(["B", "C"], axis=1)
   A   D
0  0   3
1  4   7
2  8  11

>>> df.drop(columns=["B", "C"])
   A   D
0  0   3
1  4   7
2  8  11

Drop a row by index

>>> df.drop([0, 1])
   A  B   C   D
2  8  9  10  11

Drop columns and/or rows of MultiIndex DataFrame

>>> midx = pd.MultiIndex(
...     levels=[["llama", "cow", "falcon"], ["speed", "weight", "length"]],
...     codes=[[0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2], [0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2]],
... )
>>> df = pd.DataFrame(
...     index=midx,
...     columns=["big", "small"],
...     data=[
...         [45, 30],
...         [200, 100],
...         [1.5, 1],
...         [30, 20],
...         [250, 150],
...         [1.5, 0.8],
...         [320, 250],
...         [1, 0.8],
...         [0.3, 0.2],
...     ],
... )
>>> df
                big     small
llama   speed   45.0    30.0
        weight  200.0   100.0
        length  1.5     1.0
cow     speed   30.0    20.0
        weight  250.0   150.0
        length  1.5     0.8
falcon  speed   320.0   250.0
        weight  1.0     0.8
        length  0.3     0.2

Drop a specific index combination from the MultiIndex DataFrame, i.e., drop the combination 'falcon' and 'weight', which deletes only the corresponding row

>>> df.drop(index=("falcon", "weight"))
                big     small
llama   speed   45.0    30.0
        weight  200.0   100.0
        length  1.5     1.0
cow     speed   30.0    20.0
        weight  250.0   150.0
        length  1.5     0.8
falcon  speed   320.0   250.0
        length  0.3     0.2

>>> df.drop(index="cow", columns="small")
                big
llama   speed   45.0
        weight  200.0
        length  1.5
falcon  speed   320.0
        weight  1.0
        length  0.3

>>> df.drop(index="length", level=1)
                big     small
llama   speed   45.0    30.0
        weight  200.0   100.0
cow     speed   30.0    20.0
        weight  250.0   150.0
falcon  speed   320.0   250.0
        weight  1.0     0.8