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Panda is one of the more powerful libraries in the Python language for data manipulation and analysis. Pandas provides a long list of functions important to data professionals for mastering and extracting insight, cleaning data, and laying the ground for analysis.
If you are a beginner or an expert data analyst, these functions will help you save much time in your work and improve the accuracy of your analyses. From aggregating and transforming data to handling missing values and merging datasets, these Pandas functions make every operation look easy.
We will go through the major Pandas functions with which every data analyst should focus to attain proficiency and efficiency in performing their tasks related to data analysis.
One of the most famous Python libraries for simplifying tasks on data manipulation or analysis is pandas. Inherent in it are easily applied structures of data, such as Series and DataFrame, which are perfect for arranging and analyzing data in a tabular form.
Importing Data: The first step in any data analysis is the importation of data. How to read data stored in CSV files into a DataFrame is done through the `read_csv()` function of the Pandas library. It is an all-purpose, useful widget that loads data from external sources in various file formats.
```python
import pandas as pd
# Reading data from a CSV file
df = pd.read_csv('data.csv')
```
The `head()` function lets you preview the first few rows of your data frame. This is often quite useful for simply taking a look at the structure and contents of your data. It defaults to showing the first five rows, which gives a snapshot of your dataset.
```python
# Show the first few rows of the DataFrame
df.head()
```
The `describe()` function gives a summary of your numerical data. It computes a statistical summary, including the mean, standard deviations, and quartiles for numerical columns in your DataFrame. This function helps to understand the series distribution and range of your data.
```python
# Generate summary statistics for numerical columns
df.describe()
```
The `info()` function gives you a concise summary of your DataFrame. This includes the data types of the columns, the number of not-empty values (e.g., NaN, None) within them, and the memory use. Such information may serve in early discovery of potential problems with your data, like missing values or incorrect data types.
```python
# Print out info about the DataFrame
df.info()
```
Pandas has efficient indexing techniques through `loc[]` and `iloc[]`. In most cases, `loc[]` allows label-based indexing. That means you will have to select rows and columns by labels. Meanwhile, `iloc[]` allows you to do integer-based indexing, which means the selection will be based on a numerical position.
```python
# By label
df.loc[0:5, ['column1', 'column2']]
# By integer position
df.iloc[0:5, [0, 1]]
```
