How to Get the Head of a Pandas Dataframe Object in Python

In this article, we show how to get the head of a pandas dataframe object in Python.

The head of a dataframe object is the first few entries (or rows) of the dataframe object.

The head is obtained many times to get a view of the columns of a dataframe object, as well as a few entries of the dataframe.

And we can get the head of the dataframe simply by using the head() function.

We use the name of the dataframe followed by a dot and the head() function.

This is shown in the following code below.

import seaborn as sns tips=sns.load_dataset('tips') tips Out[4]: total_bill tip sex smoker day time size 0 16.99 1.01 Female No Sun Dinner 2 1 10.34 1.66 Male No Sun Dinner 3 2 21.01 3.50 Male No Sun Dinner 3 3 23.68 3.31 Male No Sun Dinner 2 4 24.59 3.61 Female No Sun Dinner 4 5 25.29 4.71 Male No Sun Dinner 4 6 8.77 2.00 Male No Sun Dinner 2 7 26.88 3.12 Male No Sun Dinner 4 8 15.04 1.96 Male No Sun Dinner 2 9 14.78 3.23 Male No Sun Dinner 2 10 10.27 1.71 Male No Sun Dinner 2 11 35.26 5.00 Female No Sun Dinner 4 12 15.42 1.57 Male No Sun Dinner 2 13 18.43 3.00 Male No Sun Dinner 4 14 14.83 3.02 Female No Sun Dinner 2 15 21.58 3.92 Male No Sun Dinner 2 16 10.33 1.67 Female No Sun Dinner 3 17 16.29 3.71 Male No Sun Dinner 3 18 16.97 3.50 Female No Sun Dinner 3 19 20.65 3.35 Male No Sat Dinner 3 20 17.92 4.08 Male No Sat Dinner 2 21 20.29 2.75 Female No Sat Dinner 2 22 15.77 2.23 Female No Sat Dinner 2 23 39.42 7.58 Male No Sat Dinner 4 24 19.82 3.18 Male No Sat Dinner 2 25 17.81 2.34 Male No Sat Dinner 4 26 13.37 2.00 Male No Sat Dinner 2 27 12.69 2.00 Male No Sat Dinner 2 28 21.70 4.30 Male No Sat Dinner 2 29 19.65 3.00 Female No Sat Dinner 2 .. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 214 28.17 6.50 Female Yes Sat Dinner 3 215 12.90 1.10 Female Yes Sat Dinner 2 216 28.15 3.00 Male Yes Sat Dinner 5 217 11.59 1.50 Male Yes Sat Dinner 2 218 7.74 1.44 Male Yes Sat Dinner 2 219 30.14 3.09 Female Yes Sat Dinner 4 220 12.16 2.20 Male Yes Fri Lunch 2 221 13.42 3.48 Female Yes Fri Lunch 2 222 8.58 1.92 Male Yes Fri Lunch 1 223 15.98 3.00 Female No Fri Lunch 3 224 13.42 1.58 Male Yes Fri Lunch 2 225 16.27 2.50 Female Yes Fri Lunch 2 226 10.09 2.00 Female Yes Fri Lunch 2 227 20.45 3.00 Male No Sat Dinner 4 228 13.28 2.72 Male No Sat Dinner 2 229 22.12 2.88 Female Yes Sat Dinner 2 230 24.01 2.00 Male Yes Sat Dinner 4 231 15.69 3.00 Male Yes Sat Dinner 3 232 11.61 3.39 Male No Sat Dinner 2 233 10.77 1.47 Male No Sat Dinner 2 234 15.53 3.00 Male Yes Sat Dinner 2 235 10.07 1.25 Male No Sat Dinner 2 236 12.60 1.00 Male Yes Sat Dinner 2 237 32.83 1.17 Male Yes Sat Dinner 2 238 35.83 4.67 Female No Sat Dinner 3 239 29.03 5.92 Male No Sat Dinner 3 240 27.18 2.00 Female Yes Sat Dinner 2 241 22.67 2.00 Male Yes Sat Dinner 2 242 17.82 1.75 Male No Sat Dinner 2 243 18.78 3.00 Female No Thur Dinner 2 [244 rows x 7 columns] tips.head() Out[5]: total_bill tip sex smoker day time size 0 16.99 1.01 Female No Sun Dinner 2 1 10.34 1.66 Male No Sun Dinner 3 2 21.01 3.50 Male No Sun Dinner 3 3 23.68 3.31 Male No Sun Dinner 2 4 24.59 3.61 Female No Sun Dinner 4

So the first thing we have to do is import seaborn as sns. We import as sns because it's an abbreviated shorthand way of referrign to the seaborn module.

We then load a built-in dataframe from seaborn with the load_dataset() function.

One of the built-in datas ets is the tips data set. We get this data set with the load_dataset() function.

We then show the full data set.

You can see that this data set is 244 rows long.

When examining a data set, you may not want to see all these rows. You may just want to see a certain amount of rows, not the whole thing.

By default, when you call the head() function in Python, it shows the first 5 rows of the dataframe, which is what you see above.

However, you don't have to always see the first 5 rows. You may want to see just the first row or the first 3 rows. Or you may want to see the first 10 rows. To do this, use the head() function and specify the number of rows that you would like returned.

In the following code below, we show the first 3 rows of the tips dataframe object using the head() function and specifying 3 as its parameter.

import seaborn as sns tips=sns.load_dataset('tips') tips.head(3) Out[8]: total_bill tip sex smoker day time size 0 16.99 1.01 Female No Sun Dinner 2 1 10.34 1.66 Male No Sun Dinner 3 2 21.01 3.50 Male No Sun Dinner 3 tips.head(10) Out[9]: total_bill tip sex smoker day time size 0 16.99 1.01 Female No Sun Dinner 2 1 10.34 1.66 Male No Sun Dinner 3 2 21.01 3.50 Male No Sun Dinner 3 3 23.68 3.31 Male No Sun Dinner 2 4 24.59 3.61 Female No Sun Dinner 4 5 25.29 4.71 Male No Sun Dinner 4 6 8.77 2.00 Male No Sun Dinner 2 7 26.88 3.12 Male No Sun Dinner 4 8 15.04 1.96 Male No Sun Dinner 2 9 14.78 3.23 Male No Sun Dinner 2

So we again use the head() function in the code above, but this time we specify how many rows we want returned by putting in an integer as a parameter to the head() function.

In the first example, we use the statement, tips.head(3)

This returns the first 3 rows of the tips dataframe object.

In the second example, we use the statement, tips.head(10)

This returns the first 10 rows of the tips dataframe object.

And this is how to get the head of a pandas dataframe ojbect in Python.

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