The Series

A column with labels attached, and the labels travel with the data.

A labelled column

A Series is one column of values plus an index. The index is not decoration: it is how values line up when two Series meet.

import pandas as pd

scores = pd.Series([92, 88, 79], index=["Ada", "Grace", "Alan"])
print(scores)
print(scores["Grace"])

Everything numpy did, a Series does too

Masks, arithmetic and aggregation all carry over. What is added is that the labels survive the operation.

import pandas as pd

scores = pd.Series([92, 88, 79], index=["Ada", "Grace", "Alan"])
print(scores.mean())
print(scores[scores > 85])

Exercise

Try It Yourself

Write top_scorer(scores) that takes a Series of scores indexed by name and returns the name of the highest scorer.

import pandas as pd

def top_scorer(scores):
    # The label of the largest value.
    return None

print(top_scorer(pd.Series([92, 88], index=["Ada", "Grace"])))

Press Run to see output

Check Your Understanding

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