How to Change the Order of Columns in Pandas DataFrame

In this short guide, you’ll see how to change the order of columns in Pandas DataFrame.

Here are the steps:

Steps to Change the Order of Columns in Pandas DataFrame

Step 1: Prepare the Data for the DataFrame

To begin, prepare the data for your DataFrame.

For example:

Step 2: Create the DataFrame

Now create the actual DataFrame based on the above dataset:

import pandas as pd

data = {'Name': ['Jack', 'Maria', 'Emma', 'Rick', 'Sophia'],
        'Age': [22, 31, 43, 25, 52],
        'Profession': ['Accountant', 'Engineer', 'Doctor', 'Lawyer', 'Banker'],
        'Country': ['Italy', 'Spain', 'Brazil', 'Mexico', 'France']
        }

df = pd.DataFrame(data)

print(df)

Run the code in Python, and you’ll get the following DataFrame:

     Name  Age  Profession Country
0    Jack   22  Accountant   Italy
1   Maria   31    Engineer   Spain
2    Emma   43      Doctor  Brazil
3    Rick   25      Lawyer  Mexico
4  Sophia   52      Banker  France

As you can see, the order of the columns is:

Name, Age, Profession, Country

Step 3: Change the Order of the Columns in the DataFrame

Let’s say that you want to change the order of the columns to:

Name, Country, Age, Profession

In that case, you’ll need to add the following syntax to the code:

df = df[['Name', 'Country', 'Age', 'Profession']]

So this is the complete code to reorder the columns in the DataFrame:

import pandas as pd

data = {'Name': ['Jack', 'Maria', 'Emma', 'Rick', 'Sophia'],
        'Age': [22, 31, 43, 25, 52],
        'Profession': ['Accountant', 'Engineer', 'Doctor', 'Lawyer', 'Banker'],
        'Country': ['Italy', 'Spain', 'Brazil', 'Mexico', 'France']
        }

df = pd.DataFrame(data)

df = df[['Name', 'Country', 'Age', 'Profession']]

print(df)

Once you run the code, you’ll get the following DataFrame with the ordered columns:

     Name Country  Age  Profession
0    Jack   Italy   22  Accountant
1   Maria   Spain   31    Engineer
2    Emma  Brazil   43      Doctor
3    Rick  Mexico   25      Lawyer
4  Sophia  France   52      Banker

You may also wish to check the following page for additional Python tutorials.