python - Remove pandas rows with duplicate indices

333
votes

How to remove rows with duplicate index values?

In the weather DataFrame below, sometimes a scientist goes back and corrects observations -- not by editing the erroneous rows, but by appending a duplicate row to the end of a file.

I'm reading some automated weather data from the web (observations occur every 5 minutes, and compiled into monthly files for each weather station.) After parsing a file, the DataFrame looks like:

                      Sta  Precip1hr  Precip5min  Temp  DewPnt  WindSpd  WindDir  AtmPress
Date                                                                                      
2001-01-01 00:00:00  KPDX          0           0     4       3        0        0     30.31
2001-01-01 00:05:00  KPDX          0           0     4       3        0        0     30.30
2001-01-01 00:10:00  KPDX          0           0     4       3        4       80     30.30
2001-01-01 00:15:00  KPDX          0           0     3       2        5       90     30.30
2001-01-01 00:20:00  KPDX          0           0     3       2       10      110     30.28

Example of a duplicate case:

import pandas 
import datetime

startdate = datetime.datetime(2001, 1, 1, 0, 0)
enddate = datetime.datetime(2001, 1, 1, 5, 0)
index = pandas.DatetimeIndex(start=startdate, end=enddate, freq='H')
data1 = {'A' : range(6), 'B' : range(6)}
data2 = {'A' : [20, -30, 40], 'B' : [-50, 60, -70]}
df1 = pandas.DataFrame(data=data1, index=index)
df2 = pandas.DataFrame(data=data2, index=index[:3])
df3 = df2.append(df1)

df3
                       A   B
2001-01-01 00:00:00   20 -50
2001-01-01 01:00:00  -30  60
2001-01-01 02:00:00   40 -70
2001-01-01 03:00:00    3   3
2001-01-01 04:00:00    4   4
2001-01-01 05:00:00    5   5
2001-01-01 00:00:00    0   0
2001-01-01 01:00:00    1   1
2001-01-01 02:00:00    2   2

And so I need df3 to eventually become:

                       A   B
2001-01-01 00:00:00    0   0
2001-01-01 01:00:00    1   1
2001-01-01 02:00:00    2   2
2001-01-01 03:00:00    3   3
2001-01-01 04:00:00    4   4
2001-01-01 05:00:00    5   5

I thought that adding a column of row numbers (df3['rownum'] = range(df3.shape[0])) would help me select the bottom-most row for any value of the DatetimeIndex, but I am stuck on figuring out the group_by or pivot (or ???) statements to make that work.

6
pythonpandasdataframeduplicates
Another way of getting duplicates is hourly data in the night when clocks are set back for daylight saving time: 1 AM, 2, 3, 2, 3 again, 4 ... – denis
When you say "remove duplicates", your context here implicitly is "keep the first". i.e. drop_duplicates(keep='first'). (That's not always the case, sometimes it's harder to figure out from the other fields which row should be kept, or merge multiples, filling NAs from various rows). – smci

6 Answers

605
votes

I would suggest using the duplicated method on the Pandas Index itself:

df3 = df3[~df3.index.duplicated(keep='first')]

While all the other methods work, .drop_duplicates is by far the least performant for the provided example. Furthermore, while the groupby method is only slightly less performant, I find the duplicated method to be more readable.

Using the sample data provided:

>>> %timeit df3.reset_index().drop_duplicates(subset='index', keep='first').set_index('index')
1000 loops, best of 3: 1.54 ms per loop

>>> %timeit df3.groupby(df3.index).first()
1000 loops, best of 3: 580 µs per loop

>>> %timeit df3[~df3.index.duplicated(keep='first')]
1000 loops, best of 3: 307 µs per loop

Note that you can keep the last element by changing the keep argument to 'last'.

It should also be noted that this method works with MultiIndex as well (using df1 as specified in Paul's example):

>>> %timeit df1.groupby(level=df1.index.names).last()
1000 loops, best of 3: 771 µs per loop

>>> %timeit df1[~df1.index.duplicated(keep='last')]
1000 loops, best of 3: 365 µs per loop
131
votes

This adds the index as a DataFrame column, drops duplicates on that, then removes the new column:

df = (df.reset_index()
        .drop_duplicates(subset='index', keep='last')
        .set_index('index').sort_index())

Note that the use of .sort_index() above at the end is as needed and is optional.

78
votes

Oh my. This is actually so simple!

grouped = df3.groupby(level=0)
df4 = grouped.last()
df4
                      A   B  rownum

2001-01-01 00:00:00   0   0       6
2001-01-01 01:00:00   1   1       7
2001-01-01 02:00:00   2   2       8
2001-01-01 03:00:00   3   3       3
2001-01-01 04:00:00   4   4       4
2001-01-01 05:00:00   5   5       5

Follow up edit 2013-10-29 In the case where I have a fairly complex MultiIndex, I think I prefer the groupby approach. Here's simple example for posterity:

import numpy as np
import pandas

# fake index
idx = pandas.MultiIndex.from_tuples([('a', letter) for letter in list('abcde')])

# random data + naming the index levels
df1 = pandas.DataFrame(np.random.normal(size=(5,2)), index=idx, columns=['colA', 'colB'])
df1.index.names = ['iA', 'iB']

# artificially append some duplicate data
df1 = df1.append(df1.select(lambda idx: idx[1] in ['c', 'e']))
df1
#           colA      colB
#iA iB                    
#a  a  -1.297535  0.691787
#   b  -1.688411  0.404430
#   c   0.275806 -0.078871
#   d  -0.509815 -0.220326
#   e  -0.066680  0.607233
#   c   0.275806 -0.078871  # <--- dup 1
#   e  -0.066680  0.607233  # <--- dup 2

and here's the important part

# group the data, using df1.index.names tells pandas to look at the entire index
groups = df1.groupby(level=df1.index.names)  
groups.last() # or .first()
#           colA      colB
#iA iB                    
#a  a  -1.297535  0.691787
#   b  -1.688411  0.404430
#   c   0.275806 -0.078871
#   d  -0.509815 -0.220326
#   e  -0.066680  0.607233
4
votes

Unfortunately, I don't think Pandas allows one to drop dups off the indices. I would suggest the following:

df3 = df3.reset_index() # makes date column part of your data
df3.columns = ['timestamp','A','B','rownum'] # set names
df3 = df3.drop_duplicates('timestamp',take_last=True).set_index('timestamp') #done!
3
votes

Remove duplicates (Keeping First)

idx = np.unique( df.index.values, return_index = True )[1]
df = df.iloc[idx]

Remove duplicates (Keeping Last)

df = df[::-1]
df = df.iloc[ np.unique( df.index.values, return_index = True )[1] ]

Tests: 10k loops using OP's data

numpy method - 3.03 seconds
df.loc[~df.index.duplicated(keep='first')] - 4.43 seconds
df.groupby(df.index).first() - 21 seconds
reset_index() method - 29 seconds
2
votes

If anyone like me likes chainable data manipulation using the pandas dot notation (like piping), then the following may be useful: 

df3 = df3.query('~index.duplicated()')

This enables chaining statements like this:

df3.assign(C=2).query('~index.duplicated()').mean()