How to access columns in a dataframe having name with special character

Question

I have a dataframe with column names which contains special characters like

Date    
('Date','') 
('Max_Bid_Price', 'ALBAN')

The problem is when i am trying to drop ('Date','') columns it is throwing error.

I tried

df["('Date','')"]   # not able to find the label
df["\(\'Date\'\,\'\'\)"] # not able to find the label

but when i tried

data.columns[1] # i got the column value as output
data.drop(data.columns[1],axis=0) # but it still throws an error: "labels [('Date', '')] not contained in axis"

Can anyone help me how to access those columns with name(since i have to do operations on it) and also drop those columns:

Please provide a [mcve]. Why do the names end up like that in the first place? According to what you wrote, that first attempt should work. The second snippet fails because of the incorrect axis parameter, you should read the docs. — AMC, Mar 14 '20 at 02:04

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 13 '20 at 20:21

0

If you try to drop a column, the axis should be 1

data.drop(data.columns[1],axis=1)

answered Mar 13 '20 at 20:21

tianlinhe

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score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 13 '20 at 21:24

0

You can use raw string literals:

df.drop(r"('Date','')", axis=1)

answered Mar 13 '20 at 21:24

AmyChodorowski

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How is it different than ```df.drop("('Date','')", axis=1)```? It's literally the same outcome... – Grzegorz Skibinski Mar 13 '20 at 23:16
You are right, in this situation the `r` is not adding anything, as it works on 'backslash'. – AmyChodorowski Mar 15 '20 at 10:11

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 13 '20 at 21:55

0

Drop is not in place I'm afraid:

df=df.drop("('Date','')", axis=1)

Alternatively:

df=df.drop(columns="('Date','')")

answered Mar 13 '20 at 21:55

Grzegorz Skibinski

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How to access columns in a dataframe having name with special character

3 Answers3