Working with Data Frames in Python and R

Data frame objects facilitate most data analysis exercises in both R and Python (perhaps with the exception of time series analysis, where the focus is on R time series and Pandas series objects). Data frames are a tidy and meaningful way to store data.

This post will display exactly the same workflow in both languages. I will run though the Python code first, and you can find an equivalent R script presented at the end.

If you are an R user and have been tempted to explore the exciting world of Python one of the first things you will notice is the similarity of syntax. This should make it easy to pick up the basics. However, there are some key differences between the two. A good example is how to index the first observation in a set of data. R indexing starts at 1 while Python indexing starts at 0!