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# pandas.Series.describe

Series.describe(percentiles=None, include=None, exclude=None)

  Generate descriptive statistics.

  Descriptive statistics include those that summarize the central tendency, dispersion and shape of a dataset’s distribution, excluding `NaN` values.

  Analyzes both numeric and object series, as well as `DataFrame` column sets of mixed data types. The output will vary depending on what is provided. Refer to the notes below for more detail.

  Parameters:
    percentiles list-like of numbers, optional

      The percentiles to include in the output. All should fall between 0 and 1. The default, `None`, will automatically return the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles.

    include‘all’, list-like of dtypes or None (default), optional

      A white list of data types to include in the result. Ignored for `Series`. Here are the options:

      - ‘all’ : All columns of the input will be included in the output.

      - A list-like of dtypes : Limits the results to the provided data types. To limit the result to numeric types submit `numpy.number`. To limit it instead to object columns submit the `numpy.object` data type. Strings can also be used in the style of `select_dtypes` (e.g. `df.describe(include=['O'])`). To select pandas categorical columns, use `'category'`

      - None (default) : The result will include all numeric columns.

    exclude list-like of dtypes or None (default), optional,

      A black list of data types to omit from the result. Ignored for `Series`. Here are the options:

      - A list-like of dtypes : Excludes the provided data types from the result. To exclude numeric types submit `numpy.number`. To exclude object columns submit the data type `numpy.object`. Strings can also be used in the style of `select_dtypes` (e.g. `df.describe(exclude=['O'])`). To exclude pandas categorical columns, use `'category'`

      - None (default) : The result will exclude nothing.

  Returns:
    Series or DataFrame

      Summary statistics of the Series or Dataframe provided.

  See also

  `DataFrame.count`

    Count number of non-NA/null observations.

  `DataFrame.max`

    Maximum of the values in the object.

  `DataFrame.min`

    Minimum of the values in the object.

  `DataFrame.mean`

    Mean of the values.

  `DataFrame.std`

    Standard deviation of the observations.

  `DataFrame.select_dtypes`

    Subset of a DataFrame including/excluding columns based on their dtype.

  Notes

  For numeric data, the result’s index will include `count`, `mean`, `std`, `min`, `max` as well as lower, `50` and upper percentiles. By default the lower percentile is `25` and the upper percentile is `75`. The `50` percentile is the same as the median.

  For object data (e.g. strings), the result’s index will include `count`, `unique`, `top`, and `freq`. The `top` is the most common value. The `freq` is the most common value’s frequency.

  If multiple object values have the highest count, then the `count` and `top` results will be arbitrarily chosen from among those with the highest count.

  For mixed data types provided via a `DataFrame`, the default is to return only an analysis of numeric columns. If the DataFrame consists only of object and categorical data without any numeric columns, the default is to return an analysis of both the object and categorical columns. If `include='all'` is provided as an option, the result will include a union of attributes of each type.

  The include and exclude parameters can be used to limit which columns in a `DataFrame` are analyzed for the output. The parameters are ignored when analyzing a `Series`.

  Examples

  Describing a numeric `Series`.

      >>> s = pd.Series([1, 2, 3])
      >>> s.describe()
      count    3.0
      mean     2.0
      std      1.0
      min      1.0
      25%      1.5
      50%      2.0
      75%      2.5
      max      3.0
      dtype: float64

  Describing a categorical `Series`.

      >>> s = pd.Series(["a", "a", "b", "c"])
      >>> s.describe()
      count     4
      unique    3
      top       a
      freq      2
      dtype: object

  Describing a timestamp `Series`.

      >>> s = pd.Series(
      ...     [
      ...         np.datetime64("2000-01-01"),
      ...         np.datetime64("2010-01-01"),
      ...         np.datetime64("2010-01-01"),
      ...     ]
      ... )
      >>> s.describe()
      count                      3
      mean     2006-09-01 08:00:00
      min      2000-01-01 00:00:00
      25%      2004-12-31 12:00:00
      50%      2010-01-01 00:00:00
      75%      2010-01-01 00:00:00
      max      2010-01-01 00:00:00
      dtype: object

  Describing a `DataFrame`. By default only numeric fields are returned.

      >>> df = pd.DataFrame(
      ...     {
      ...         "categorical": pd.Categorical(["d", "e", "f"]),
      ...         "numeric": [1, 2, 3],
      ...         "object": ["a", "b", "c"],
      ...     }
      ... )
      >>> df.describe()
             numeric
      count      3.0
      mean       2.0
      std        1.0
      min        1.0
      25%        1.5
      50%        2.0
      75%        2.5
      max        3.0

  Describing all columns of a `DataFrame` regardless of data type.

      >>> df.describe(include="all")
             categorical  numeric object
      count            3      3.0      3
      unique           3      NaN      3
      top              f      NaN      a
      freq             1      NaN      1
      mean           NaN      2.0    NaN
      std            NaN      1.0    NaN
      min            NaN      1.0    NaN
      25%            NaN      1.5    NaN
      50%            NaN      2.0    NaN
      75%            NaN      2.5    NaN
      max            NaN      3.0    NaN

  Describing a column from a `DataFrame` by accessing it as an attribute.

      >>> df.numeric.describe()
      count    3.0
      mean     2.0
      std      1.0
      min      1.0
      25%      1.5
      50%      2.0
      75%      2.5
      max      3.0
      Name: numeric, dtype: float64

  Including only numeric columns in a `DataFrame` description.

      >>> df.describe(include=[np.number])
             numeric
      count      3.0
      mean       2.0
      std        1.0
      min        1.0
      25%        1.5
      50%        2.0
      75%        2.5
      max        3.0

  Including only string columns in a `DataFrame` description.

      >>> df.describe(include=[object])
             object
      count       3
      unique      3
      top         a
      freq        1

  Including only categorical columns from a `DataFrame` description.

      >>> df.describe(include=["category"])
             categorical
      count            3
      unique           3
      top              d
      freq             1

  Excluding numeric columns from a `DataFrame` description.

      >>> df.describe(exclude=[np.number])
             categorical object
      count            3      3
      unique           3      3
      top              f      a
      freq             1      1

  Excluding object columns from a `DataFrame` description.

      >>> df.describe(exclude=[object])
             categorical  numeric
      count            3      3.0
      unique           3      NaN
      top              f      NaN
      freq             1      NaN
      mean           NaN      2.0
      std            NaN      1.0
      min            NaN      1.0
      25%            NaN      1.5
      50%            NaN      2.0
      75%            NaN      2.5
      max            NaN      3.0