Inspecting DataFrames

Viewing Data

head() - First Rows

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import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({
    'Name': ['John', 'Sarah', 'Mike', 'Emma', 'David'],
    'Age': [25, 30, 28, 32, 27],
    'City': ['NYC', 'LA', 'Chicago', 'Miami', 'Boston']
})

print(df.head())

Shows first 5 rows by default.

Custom number:

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print(df.head(3))

tail() - Last Rows

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print(df.tail())
print(df.tail(2))

Shows last 5 rows by default.

DataFrame Shape

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import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({
    'A': [1, 2, 3],
    'B': [4, 5, 6]
})

print("Shape:", df.shape)
print("Rows:", df.shape[0])
print("Columns:", df.shape[1])

Output:

Shape: (3, 2)
Rows: 3
Columns: 2

Column Information

columns

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print("Column names:", df.columns.tolist())

dtypes - Data Types

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print(df.dtypes)

Common types:

int64: Integers
float64: Decimals
object: Strings
bool: True/False
datetime64: Dates

info() - Overview

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df.info()

Shows:

Number of rows
Column names
Data types
Non-null counts
Memory usage

Example output:

<class 'pandas.core.frame.DataFrame'>
RangeIndex: 5 entries, 0 to 4
Data columns (total 3 columns):
 #   Column  Non-Null Count  Dtype
---  ------  --------------  -----
 0   Name    5 non-null      object
 1   Age     5 non-null      int64
 2   City    5 non-null      object
dtypes: int64(1), object(2)
memory usage: 248.0+ bytes

describe() - Statistics

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print(df.describe())

For numeric columns:

count: Number of values
mean: Average
std: Standard deviation
min: Minimum
25%: First quartile
50%: Median
75%: Third quartile
max: Maximum

Include all columns:

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print(df.describe(include='all'))

Index Information

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print("Index:", df.index)
print("Index start:", df.index[0])
print("Index end:", df.index[-1])

Unique Values

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print("Unique cities:", df['City'].unique())
print("Count unique:", df['City'].nunique())

Value Counts

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print(df['City'].value_counts())

Shows: How many times each value appears.

Null Values

isnull()

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print(df.isnull())

Returns True/False for each cell.

Count nulls

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print("Null per column:")
print(df.isnull().sum())

print("Total nulls:", df.isnull().sum().sum())

Any nulls?

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print("Has nulls:", df.isnull().values.any())

Memory Usage

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print("Memory:", df.memory_usage())
print("Total:", df.memory_usage(deep=True).sum(), "bytes")

Sample Rows

Get random rows.

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print(df.sample(3))

Useful for: Quick preview of large datasets.

Practice Example

The scenario: Inspect sales dataset.

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import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

sales = pd.DataFrame({
    'Date': pd.date_range('2024-01-01', periods=100),
    'Product': np.random.choice(['Laptop', 'Phone', 'Tablet'], 100),
    'Quantity': np.random.randint(1, 10, 100),
    'Price': np.random.choice([999, 599, 399], 100)
})

print("=== BASIC INFO ===")
print("Shape:", sales.shape)
print("Columns:", sales.columns.tolist())
print()

print("=== FIRST ROWS ===")
print(sales.head(3))
print()

print("=== DATA TYPES ===")
print(sales.dtypes)
print()

print("=== DETAILED INFO ===")
sales.info()
print()

print("=== STATISTICS ===")
print(sales.describe())
print()

print("=== UNIQUE VALUES ===")
print("Products:", sales['Product'].unique())
print("Product counts:")
print(sales['Product'].value_counts())
print()

print("=== NULL CHECK ===")
print("Any nulls:", sales.isnull().values.any())
print("Nulls per column:")
print(sales.isnull().sum())
print()

print("=== RANDOM SAMPLE ===")
print(sales.sample(5))

Getting Specific Values

At position

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value = df.iloc[0, 0]
print("First cell:", value)

By label

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value = df.at[0, 'Name']
print("Value:", value)

Column Statistics

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print("Max age:", df['Age'].max())
print("Min age:", df['Age'].min())
print("Mean age:", df['Age'].mean())
print("Sum ages:", df['Age'].sum())

Checking Duplicates

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print("Duplicates:", df.duplicated().sum())
print("Duplicate rows:")
print(df[df.duplicated()])

Correlation

For numeric columns.

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print(df.corr())

Shows: How columns relate to each other (-1 to 1).

Quick Functions

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print("Min:", df.min())
print("Max:", df.max())
print("Sum:", df.sum())
print("Mean:", df.mean())
print("Median:", df.median())
print("Mode:", df.mode())

Key Points to Remember

head() shows first rows, tail() shows last rows. Use these to preview data.

info() gives complete overview: types, nulls, memory. Always run this first.

describe() shows statistics for numeric columns. Great for understanding data range.

shape gives (rows, columns). dtypes shows data type of each column.

isnull().sum() counts missing values per column. Critical for data quality check.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Not checking data after loading

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df = pd.read_csv('data.csv')
# Start analyzing without looking!

Always do:

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print(df.head())
df.info()

Mistake 2: Assuming no nulls

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df['Age'].mean()  # May give wrong result if nulls exist

Check first:

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print(df.isnull().sum())

Mistake 3: Wrong shape access

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rows = df.shape  # This is tuple (3, 2)
rows = df.shape[0]  # Correct way to get rows

Mistake 4: Ignoring data types

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df['Price'].mean()  # Error if Price is string!
print(df.dtypes)  # Check first

What's Next?

You now know how to inspect DataFrames. Next, you'll learn about selecting columns - how to choose and work with specific columns from your DataFrame.