6.1 DataFrames and Series
Pandas is a powerful library for data manipulation in Python. It provides two primary data structures— DataFrame and Series—that are designed to help you manage and manipulate data effectively.
In the world of data science, it's essential to have a good understanding of these two data structures. A DataFrame is a two-dimensional table, where each column can have a different data type, and each row represents a single record. It's similar to a spreadsheet in Excel, but with more advanced functionality. On the other hand, a Series is a one-dimensional array-like object that can hold any data type, including integers, floats, and strings.
Both DataFrame and Series offer a wide range of built-in functions and methods that simplify data manipulation tasks. For instance, you can use them to filter, group, sort, join, and merge data, among other things. They also provide an intuitive and straightforward syntax that makes it easy to perform...