Set Column Names when Reading CSV as pandas DataFrame in Python (Example)

In this article you’ll learn how to change the column names of a pandas DataFrame when importing a CSV file in the Python programming language.

The tutorial contains one example for the modification of the column names of a pandas DataFrame when importing a CSV file. More precisely, the tutorial contains the following:

Let’s dive right into the example:

Example Data & Software Libraries

In order to use the functions of the pandas library, we first have to import pandas to Python:

import pandas as pd                           # Import pandas library

Let’s also create some example data in Python:

data = pd.DataFrame({'x1':range(121, 127),    # Create pandas DataFrame
                     'x2':['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'],
                     'x3':range(41, 47),
                     'x4':[5, 5, 2, 9, 4, 7]})
print(data)                                   # Print pandas DataFrame

As you can see based on Table 1, our example data is a DataFrame containing six rows and four variables.

Let’s write these data to a new CSV file:

data.to_csv('data.csv', index = False)        # Export pandas DataFrame to CSV

After we’ve executed the previous Python code, a new CSV file should appear in our current working directory. We’ll use this CSV file a a basement for the following example.

Example: Set New Column Names when Importing CSV File

The following code illustrates how to adjust the header of a pandas DataFrame that has been loaded from a CSV file.

For this task, we have to set the skiprows argument to 1, and we have to assign a list of new column names to the names argument.

Consider the Python syntax below:

data_import = pd.read_csv('data.csv',         # Read pandas DataFrame from CSV
                          skiprows = 1,
                          names = ['col1', 'col2', 'col3', 'col4'])
print(data_import)                            # Print imported pandas DataFrame

As shown in Table 2, we have managed to create a new pandas DataFrame using the previous Python syntax. This DataFrame has new variables names, i.e. col1-col4 instead of x1-x4.

Video, Further Resources & Summary

I have recently released a video on my YouTube channel, which illustrates the Python syntax of this tutorial. You can find the video below:

The YouTube video will be added soon.

In addition, you might have a look at the other tutorials on my homepage. I have published numerous tutorials on similar topics such as lists and indices:

• pandas Library Tutorial in Python
• Load CSV File as pandas DataFrame in Python
• Read CSV File without Unnamed Index Column
• Read Only Certain Columns of CSV File as pandas DataFrame
• Skip First Row when Reading pandas DataFrame from CSV File
• Drop pandas DataFrame Column by Index in Python
• Get Index of Column in pandas DataFrame in Python
• Get pandas DataFrame Column as List in Python
• Get Column Names of pandas DataFrame as List in Python
• All Python Programming Examples

In summary: This tutorial has illustrated how to set the column names of a pandas DataFrame when importing a CSV file in the Python programming language. Let me know in the comments section below, if you have additional questions.