
In this post, I will show you how to reset index in Pandas DataFrame in Python. Often after doing data manipulation in pandas dataframe the manipulated data may contain row index name of the original dataframe.
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We can use python pandas.reset_index()
function to set index to the default integer index starting at 0.
pandas.reset_index
Syntax
DataFrame.reset_index(level=None, drop=False, inplace=False, col_level=0, col_fill='', allow_duplicates=_NoDefault.no_default, names=None)
Parameters
level: str, int, tuple or list (default None)
- Only remove the specified levels from the index. By default removes all levels
drop: bool (default False)
- Used for resetting the index to it’s default integer index
inplace: bool (default False)
- Whether to modify the DataFrame instead of creating a new one
col_level: str or int (default 0)
- if the columns contain multiple levels, determines the level at which the labels will be inserted. It is inserted into the first level by default.
col_fill: object (default ")
- if the columns contain multiple levels, determine the name of other levels. If value is None then the index name will be repeated
- Returns: DataFrame containing the new index or None if
inplace=True
How to reset index in pandas dataframe
Create a sample DataFrame
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import random
# Create dataframe with index
df = pd.DataFrame({
'Physics': [85, 74, 63, 88, 91],
'Chemistry': [69, 83, 73, 50, 61],
'Mathematic': [74, 82, 61, 72, 65]
}, index=['Rajesh', 'Nitesh', 'Neha', 'Sivam', 'Arti'])
df

Case 1: Pandas reset index to start at 0
df.reset_index()

After applying reset.index()
function, the index name will be converted to a column name (in our example, student names). The default name of the column will be index
.
Case 2: Rename Pandas DataFrame Index
Now as you can see the name of the converted column is index
, but we want that column name to be Student_Name
.
# reset index to column in pandas
df.index.rename('Student_Name', inplace=True)
df

Reset Index
df = df.reset_index()
df

Case 2: pandas reset index to start at 1
Now if you want to start the index from 1 instead of 0
df.index = np.arange(1, len(df) + 1)
df

Conclusion
In this pandas set index tutorial, I explained different ways of resetting the index in the pandas library of python, this is the post to solve if pandas reset index not working:
- Reset index name in pandas
- pandas reindex from 0
- pandas resetting index to start at 1
- pandas remove index column
- pandas reset index without adding column (inplace)
If you are new to Python then this is the course for you: Learn Python in 100 days.
If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this article, please let me know in the comment section below.

Hi there, I’m Anindya Naskar, Data Science Engineer. I created this website to show you what I believe is the best possible way to get your start in the field of Data Science.