pandas.Index.set_names

Index.set_names(names, level=None, inplace=False)

Set Index or MultiIndex name.

Able to set new names partially and by level.

Parameters:

names : label or list of label

Name(s) to set.

level : int, label or list of int or label, optional

If the index is a MultiIndex, level(s) to set (None for all levels). Otherwise level must be None.

inplace : bool, default False

Modifies the object directly, instead of creating a new Index or MultiIndex.

Returns:

Index

The same type as the caller or None if inplace is True.

See also

Index.rename

Able to set new names without level.

Examples

>>> idx = pd.Index([1, 2, 3, 4])
>>> idx
Int64Index([1, 2, 3, 4], dtype='int64')
>>> idx.set_names('quarter')
Int64Index([1, 2, 3, 4], dtype='int64', name='quarter')

>>> idx = pd.MultiIndex.from_product([['python', 'cobra'],
...                                   [2018, 2019]])
>>> idx
MultiIndex(levels=[['cobra', 'python'], [2018, 2019]],
           labels=[[1, 1, 0, 0], [0, 1, 0, 1]])
>>> idx.set_names(['kind', 'year'], inplace=True)
>>> idx
MultiIndex(levels=[['cobra', 'python'], [2018, 2019]],
           labels=[[1, 1, 0, 0], [0, 1, 0, 1]],
           names=['kind', 'year'])
>>> idx.set_names('species', level=0)
MultiIndex(levels=[['cobra', 'python'], [2018, 2019]],
           labels=[[1, 1, 0, 0], [0, 1, 0, 1]],
           names=['species', 'year'])