Btukfyl

When there is an DataFrame like the following:

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame([1, 1, 1, 1, 1], index=[100, 29, 234, 1, 150], columns=['A'])

How can I sort this dataframe by index with each combination of index and column value intact?

Dataframes have a sort_index method which returns a copy by default. Pass inplace=True to operate in place.

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], index=[100, 29, 234, 1, 150], columns=['A'])

df.sort_index(inplace=True)

print(df.to_string())

Gives me:

     A

1    4

29   2

100  1

150  5

234  3

Slightly more compact:

df = pd.DataFrame([1, 2, 3, 4, 5], index=[100, 29, 234, 1, 150], columns=['A'])

df = df.sort()

print(df)

Note:

• the standard sort will do the same thing as sort_index if a sort column isn't specified.


• preferable not to use inplace as it is usually harder to read and prevents chaining. See the answer here:
  Pandas: peculiar performance drop for inplace rename after dropna
  

Edit sort has now been deprecated leaving sort_index as the replacement for this scenario.