Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, and user input. Here is an example: "Use pip to install the packages in the requirements.txt file."

A block of code is set as follows. The start of the line will be preceded by >>> and continuations of that line will be preceded by ...:

>>> import pandas as pd

>>> df = pd.read_csv(
...     'data/fb_2018.csv', index_col='date', parse_dates=True
... )
>>> df.head()

Any code without the preceding >>> or ... is not something we will run—it is for reference:

try:
    del df['ones']
except KeyError:
    # handle the error here
    pass

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

>>> df.plot(
...     x='date',
...     y='price',
...     kind='line',
...     title='Price over Time',
...     legend=False,
...     ylim=(0, None)
... )

Results will be shown without anything preceding the lines:

>>> pd.Series(np.random.rand(2), name='random')
0    0.235793
1    0.257935
Name: random, dtype: float64

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

# Windows:
C:\path\of\your\choosing> mkdir pandas_exercises

# Linux, Mac, and shorthand:
$ mkdir pandas_exercises