Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Pandas
Definition
In computer programming, pandas is a software library written for the Python programming language for data manipulation and analysis. In particular, it offers data structures and operations for manipulating numerical tables and time series.
Why It Matters
Pandas is the fundamental tool for data wrangling and analysis in Python. Its core data structure, the DataFrame, provides a powerful and intuitive way to load, clean, transform, and analyze tabular data.
Contextual Example
A data scientist receives a dataset as a CSV file. They use pandas to load the CSV into a DataFrame, then use DataFrame functions to handle missing values, filter rows, and calculate summary statistics.
Common Misunderstandings
- Pandas is an essential part of the Python data science ecosystem, often used alongside libraries like NumPy, Matplotlib, and Scikit-learn.
- The name is derived from the term "panel data".