Pandas Python – Count Number of Records or Rows in DataFrame

countdataframepandaspython

Obviously new to Pandas. How can i simply count the number of records in a dataframe.

I would have thought some thing as simple as this would do it and i can't seem to even find the answer in searches…probably because it is too simple.

cnt = df.count
print cnt

the above code actually just prints the whole df

Best Answer

To get the number of rows in a dataframe use:

df.shape[0]

(and df.shape[1] to get the number of columns).

As an alternative you can use 

len(df)

or

len(df.index)

(and len(df.columns) for the columns)

shape is more versatile and more convenient than len(), especially for interactive work (just needs to be added at the end), but len is a bit faster (see also this answer).

To avoid: count() because it returns the number of non-NA/null observations over requested axis

len(df.index) is faster 

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

df = pd.DataFrame(np.arange(24).reshape(8, 3),columns=['A', 'B', 'C'])
df['A'][5]=np.nan
df
# Out:
#     A   B   C
# 0   0   1   2
# 1   3   4   5
# 2   6   7   8
# 3   9  10  11
# 4  12  13  14
# 5 NaN  16  17
# 6  18  19  20
# 7  21  22  23

%timeit df.shape[0]
# 100000 loops, best of 3: 4.22 µs per loop

%timeit len(df)
# 100000 loops, best of 3: 2.26 µs per loop

%timeit len(df.index)
# 1000000 loops, best of 3: 1.46 µs per loop

df.__len__ is just a call to len(df.index)

import inspect 
print(inspect.getsource(pd.DataFrame.__len__))
# Out:
#     def __len__(self):
#         """Returns length of info axis, but here we use the index """
#         return len(self.index)

Why you should not use count()

df.count()
# Out:
# A    7
# B    8
# C    8
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