Getting list of lists into pandas DataFrame

Question:

I am reading contents of a spreadsheet into pandas. DataNitro has a method that returns a rectangular selection of cells as a list of lists. So

table = Cell("A1").table

gives

table = [['Heading1', 'Heading2'], [1 , 2], [3, 4]]

headers = table.pop(0) # gives the headers as list and leaves data

I am busy writing code to translate this, but my guess is that it is such a simple use that there must be method to do this. Cant seem to find it in documentation. Any pointers to the method that would simplify this?

Asked By: Joop

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Answers:

Call the pd.DataFrame constructor directly:

df = pd.DataFrame(table, columns=headers)
df

   Heading1  Heading2
0         1         2
1         3         4
Answered By: EdChum

With approach explained by EdChum above, the values in the list are shown as rows. To show the values of lists as columns in DataFrame instead, simply use transpose() as following:

table = [[1 , 2], [3, 4]]
df = pd.DataFrame(table)
df = df.transpose()
df.columns = ['Heading1', 'Heading2']

The output then is:

      Heading1  Heading2
0         1        3
1         2        4
Answered By: Shoresh

Even without pop the list we can do with set_index

pd.DataFrame(table).T.set_index(0).T
Out[11]: 
0 Heading1 Heading2
1        1        2
2        3        4

Update from_records

table = [['Heading1', 'Heading2'], [1 , 2], [3, 4]]

pd.DataFrame.from_records(table[1:],columns=table[0])
Out[58]: 
   Heading1  Heading2
0         1         2
1         3         4
Answered By: BENY

From the table example, call DataFrame constructor as follow:

table = [['Heading1', 'Heading2'], [1 , 2], [3, 4]]

df = pd.DataFrame(table[1:], columns=table[0])
Answered By: Timothy C. Quinn
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