Pandas : Convert Dataframe index into column using dataframe.reset_index() in python

In this article, we will discuss how to convert indexes of a dataframe or a multi-index dataframe into its columns.

Pandas Dataframe class provides a function to reset the indexes of the dataframe i.e.

Dataframe.reset_index()

DataFrame.reset_index(self, level=None, drop=False, inplace=False, col_level=0, col_fill='')

It resets the indexes of the dataframe and returns a dataframe with a new index.
Important arguments are as follows,

  • level : int, str or list of str
    • By default, reset_index() resets all the indexes of the dataframe. In case of a multi-index dataframe, if we want to reset some specific indexes, then we can specify it as int, str, or list of str, i.e., index names.
  • drop: bool, by default False
    • If False, then converts the index to a column else removes the index from the dataframe.
  • inplace: bool, default False
    • If True, then modifies the dataframe in place.

Returns:

  • If inplace argument is True then returns None and modifies the existing dataframe. Whereas, if inplace is False, then returns a copy of existing dataframe object with modifications, i.e. doesn’t alter calling dataframe object.

We will use this function to convert the indexes of a dataframe to columns.

First of all, create a dataframe and set its index, i.e.

# List of Tuples
empoyees = [(11, 'jack', 34, 'Sydney', 70000) ,
          (12, 'Riti', 31, 'Delhi' , 77000) ,
          (13, 'Aadi', 16, 'Mumbai', 81000) ,
          (14, 'Mohit', 31,'Delhi' , 90000) ,
          (15, 'Veena', 12, 'Delhi' , 91000) ,
          (16, 'Shaunak', 35, 'Mumbai', 75000 ),
          (17, 'Shaun', 35, 'Colombo', 63000)
           ]

# Create a DataFrame object
empDfObj = pd.DataFrame(empoyees, columns=['ID' , 'Name', 'Age', 'City', 'Salary'])

# Set 'ID' as the index of the dataframe
empDfObj.set_index('ID', inplace=True)

print(empDfObj)

Contents of the created dataframe object empDfObj are,

       Name  Age     City  Salary
ID                               
11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000

Now let’s experiment with this dataframe,

Convert index of a Dataframe into a column of dataframe

To convert the index ‘ID‘ of the dataframe empDfObj into a column, call the reset_index() function on that dataframe,

# Reset the index of dataframe
modified = empDfObj.reset_index()

print("Modified Dataframe : ")
print(modified)

Output:

   ID     Name  Age     City  Salary
0  11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
1  12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
2  13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
3  14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
4  15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
5  16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
6  17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000

As we didn’t provided inplace argument, so by default it returned a modified copy of the dataframe. In which index ‘ID’ gets converted into the column ‘ID’ in the dataframe, and a new default index gets assigned to it. Now, if you want to make changes in the existing dataframe then either assign it back to empDFObj like,

empDfObj = empDfObj.reset_index()

or pass implace argument as True, i.e.

empDfObj.reset_index(inplace=True)

print(empDfObj)

Output:

   ID     Name  Age     City  Salary
0  11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
1  12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
2  13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
3  14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
4  15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
5  16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
6  17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000

It modified the dataframe object empDfObj in place.

Let’s set the column ‘ID’ as index of the dataframe for more examples,

# Set 'ID' as the index of the dataframe
empDfObj.set_index('ID', inplace=True)

Contents of the Dataframe object empDfObj are now,

       Name  Age     City  Salary
ID                               
11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000

Remove index  of dataframe instead of converting into column

In previous example, we converted the dataframe index in to the column but what if we just want to remove the index of the dataframe instead of moving it as column. We can do that by passing drop argument as True in the reset_index() function,

# Remove index ID instead of converting into a column
modified = empDfObj.reset_index(drop=True)

print("Modified Dataframe : ")
print(modified)

Output

      Name  Age     City  Salary
0     jack   34   Sydney   70000
1     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
2     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
3    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
4    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
5  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
6    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000

It removed the index of the dataframe and assigned a default index to the dataframe.

Resetting indexes of a Multi-Index Dataframe

Let’s convert the dataframe object empDfObj  into a multi-index dataframe with two indexes i.e. ID & Name,

# Create a DataFrame object
empDfObj = pd.DataFrame(empoyees, columns=['ID', 'Name', 'Age', 'City', 'Salary'])
# set multiple columns as the index of the the dataframe to
# make it multi-index dataframe.
empDfObj.set_index(['ID', 'Name'], inplace=True)

print(empDfObj)

Contents of the multi-index dataframe empDfObj are,

            Age     City  Salary
ID Name                         
11 jack      34   Sydney   70000
12 Riti      31    Delhi   77000
13 Aadi      16   Mumbai   81000
14 Mohit     31    Delhi   90000
15 Veena     12    Delhi   91000
16 Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
17 Shaun     35  Colombo   63000

Convert all the indexes of Multi-index Dataframe to the columns of Dataframe

To convert all the indexes of a multi-index dataframe to columns with same, just call the reset_index() on the dataframe object i.e.

# Reset all indexes of a multi-index dataframe
modified = empDfObj.reset_index()

print(modified)

Output:

   ID     Name  Age     City  Salary
0  11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
1  12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
2  13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
3  14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
4  15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
5  16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
6  17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000

It converted the indexes ‘ID’ & ‘Name’ to the columns with same name in the dataframe.

What if we want to convert the only one index of the multi-index dataframe in to the column. We can do that by passing the index name in the level argument i.e.

modified = empDfObj.reset_index(level='ID')

print("Modified Dataframe: ")
print(modified)

Output

Modified Dataframe: 
         ID  Age     City  Salary
Name                             
jack     11   34   Sydney   70000
Riti     12   31    Delhi   77000
Aadi     13   16   Mumbai   81000
Mohit    14   31    Delhi   90000
Veena    15   12    Delhi   91000
Shaunak  16   35   Mumbai   75000
Shaun    17   35  Colombo   63000

It converted the index ‘ID’ into the column ‘ID’ in the dataframe. Whereas, index ‘Name’ remains as it is.
Let’s look at an another example,

modified = empDfObj.reset_index(level='Name')

print("Modified Dataframe: ")
print(modified)

Output

Modified Dataframe: 
       Name  Age     City  Salary
ID                               
11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000

It converted the index ‘Name’ into the column ‘Name’ in the dataframe. Whereas, index ‘ID’ remains as it is.

We can pass the multiple column names in the level argument as a list i.e.

modified = empDfObj.reset_index(level=['ID', 'Name'])

print("Modified Dataframe: ")
print(modified)

Output:

Modified Dataframe: 
   ID     Name  Age     City  Salary
0  11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
1  12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
2  13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
3  14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
4  15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
5  16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
6  17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000

It converted both the indexes ‘ID’ & ‘Name’ into the columns of the dataframe.

The complete example is as follows,

import pandas as pd

def main():

   # List of Tuples
   empoyees = [(11, 'jack', 34, 'Sydney', 70000) ,
             (12, 'Riti', 31, 'Delhi' , 77000) ,
             (13, 'Aadi', 16, 'Mumbai', 81000) ,
             (14, 'Mohit', 31,'Delhi' , 90000) ,
             (15, 'Veena', 12, 'Delhi' , 91000) ,
             (16, 'Shaunak', 35, 'Mumbai', 75000 ),
             (17, 'Shaun', 35, 'Colombo', 63000)
              ]

   # Create a DataFrame object
   empDfObj = pd.DataFrame(empoyees, columns=['ID' , 'Name', 'Age', 'City', 'Salary'])

   # Set 'ID' as the index of the dataframe
   empDfObj.set_index('ID', inplace=True)

   print("Contents of the Dataframe : ")
   print(empDfObj)

   print('Convert the index of Dataframe to the column')

   # Reset the index of dataframe
   modified = empDfObj.reset_index()

   print("Modified Dataframe : ")
   print(modified)

   print('Convert the index of Dataframe to the column - in place ')

   empDfObj.reset_index(inplace=True)

   print("Contents of the Dataframe : ")
   print(empDfObj)

   # Set 'ID' as the index of the dataframe
   empDfObj.set_index('ID', inplace=True)

   print('Remove the index of Dataframe to the column')

   # Remove index ID instead of converting into a column
   modified = empDfObj.reset_index(drop=True)

   print("Modified Dataframe : ")
   print(modified)



   print('Reseting indexes of a Multi-Index Dataframe')

   # Create a DataFrame object
   empDfObj = pd.DataFrame(empoyees, columns=['ID', 'Name', 'Age', 'City', 'Salary'])
   # set multiple columns as the index of the the dataframe to
   # make it multi-index dataframe.
   empDfObj.set_index(['ID', 'Name'], inplace=True)

   print("Contents of the Multi-Index Dataframe : ")
   print(empDfObj)

   print('Convert all the indexes of Multi-index Dataframe to the columns of Dataframe')

   # Reset all indexes of a multi-index dataframe
   modified = empDfObj.reset_index()

   print("Modified Mult-Index Dataframe : ")
   print(modified)

   print("Contents of the original Multi-Index Dataframe : ")
   print(empDfObj)

   modified = empDfObj.reset_index(level='ID')

   print("Modified Dataframe: ")
   print(modified)

   modified = empDfObj.reset_index(level='Name')

   print("Modified Dataframe: ")
   print(modified)

   modified = empDfObj.reset_index(level=['ID', 'Name'])

   print("Modified Dataframe: ")
   print(modified)


if __name__ == '__main__':
  main()

Output:

Contents of the Dataframe : 
       Name  Age     City  Salary
ID                               
11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000
Convert the index of Dataframe to the column
Modified Dataframe : 
   ID     Name  Age     City  Salary
0  11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
1  12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
2  13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
3  14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
4  15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
5  16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
6  17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000
Convert the index of Dataframe to the column - in place 
Contents of the Dataframe : 
   ID     Name  Age     City  Salary
0  11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
1  12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
2  13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
3  14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
4  15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
5  16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
6  17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000
Remove the index of Dataframe to the column
Modified Dataframe : 
      Name  Age     City  Salary
0     jack   34   Sydney   70000
1     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
2     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
3    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
4    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
5  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
6    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000
Reseting indexes of a Multi-Index Dataframe
Contents of the Multi-Index Dataframe : 
            Age     City  Salary
ID Name                         
11 jack      34   Sydney   70000
12 Riti      31    Delhi   77000
13 Aadi      16   Mumbai   81000
14 Mohit     31    Delhi   90000
15 Veena     12    Delhi   91000
16 Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
17 Shaun     35  Colombo   63000
Convert all the indexes of Multi-index Dataframe to the columns of Dataframe
Modified Mult-Index Dataframe : 
   ID     Name  Age     City  Salary
0  11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
1  12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
2  13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
3  14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
4  15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
5  16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
6  17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000
Contents of the original Multi-Index Dataframe : 
            Age     City  Salary
ID Name                         
11 jack      34   Sydney   70000
12 Riti      31    Delhi   77000
13 Aadi      16   Mumbai   81000
14 Mohit     31    Delhi   90000
15 Veena     12    Delhi   91000
16 Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
17 Shaun     35  Colombo   63000
Modified Dataframe: 
         ID  Age     City  Salary
Name                             
jack     11   34   Sydney   70000
Riti     12   31    Delhi   77000
Aadi     13   16   Mumbai   81000
Mohit    14   31    Delhi   90000
Veena    15   12    Delhi   91000
Shaunak  16   35   Mumbai   75000
Shaun    17   35  Colombo   63000
Modified Dataframe: 
       Name  Age     City  Salary
ID                               
11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000
Modified Dataframe: 
   ID     Name  Age     City  Salary
0  11     jack   34   Sydney   70000
1  12     Riti   31    Delhi   77000
2  13     Aadi   16   Mumbai   81000
3  14    Mohit   31    Delhi   90000
4  15    Veena   12    Delhi   91000
5  16  Shaunak   35   Mumbai   75000
6  17    Shaun   35  Colombo   63000

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