Reshaping

Reshaping and Pivoting Data

Reshape data from wide to long format using the stack function:

julia> using DataFrames, CSV

julia> iris = DataFrame(CSV.File(joinpath(dirname(pathof(DataFrames)), "../docs/src/assets/iris.csv")));

julia> first(iris, 6)
6×5 DataFrame
│ Row │ SepalLength │ SepalWidth │ PetalLength │ PetalWidth │ Species       │
│     │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ 5.1         │ 3.5        │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ setosa        │
│ 2   │ 4.9         │ 3.0        │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ setosa        │
│ 3   │ 4.7         │ 3.2        │ 1.3         │ 0.2        │ setosa        │
│ 4   │ 4.6         │ 3.1        │ 1.5         │ 0.2        │ setosa        │
│ 5   │ 5.0         │ 3.6        │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ setosa        │
│ 6   │ 5.4         │ 3.9        │ 1.7         │ 0.4        │ setosa        │

julia> last(iris, 6)
6×5 DataFrame
│ Row │ SepalLength │ SepalWidth │ PetalLength │ PetalWidth │ Species       │
│     │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ 6.7         │ 3.3        │ 5.7         │ 2.5        │ virginica     │
│ 2   │ 6.7         │ 3.0        │ 5.2         │ 2.3        │ virginica     │
│ 3   │ 6.3         │ 2.5        │ 5.0         │ 1.9        │ virginica     │
│ 4   │ 6.5         │ 3.0        │ 5.2         │ 2.0        │ virginica     │
│ 5   │ 6.2         │ 3.4        │ 5.4         │ 2.3        │ virginica     │
│ 6   │ 5.9         │ 3.0        │ 5.1         │ 1.8        │ virginica     │

julia> d = stack(iris, 1:4);

julia> first(d, 6)
6×3 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable    │ value    │ Species       │
│     │ Symbol      │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼─────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ SepalLength │ 5.1      │ setosa        │
│ 2   │ SepalLength │ 4.9      │ setosa        │
│ 3   │ SepalLength │ 4.7      │ setosa        │
│ 4   │ SepalLength │ 4.6      │ setosa        │
│ 5   │ SepalLength │ 5.0      │ setosa        │
│ 6   │ SepalLength │ 5.4      │ setosa        │

julia> last(d, 6)
6×3 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable   │ value    │ Species       │
│     │ Symbol     │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ PetalWidth │ 2.5      │ virginica     │
│ 2   │ PetalWidth │ 2.3      │ virginica     │
│ 3   │ PetalWidth │ 1.9      │ virginica     │
│ 4   │ PetalWidth │ 2.0      │ virginica     │
│ 5   │ PetalWidth │ 2.3      │ virginica     │
│ 6   │ PetalWidth │ 1.8      │ virginica     │

The second optional argument to stack indicates the columns to be stacked. These are normally referred to as the measured variables. Column names can also be given:

julia> d = stack(iris, [:SepalLength, :SepalWidth, :PetalLength, :PetalWidth]);

julia> first(d, 6)
6×3 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable    │ value    │ Species       │
│     │ Symbol      │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼─────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ SepalLength │ 5.1      │ setosa        │
│ 2   │ SepalLength │ 4.9      │ setosa        │
│ 3   │ SepalLength │ 4.7      │ setosa        │
│ 4   │ SepalLength │ 4.6      │ setosa        │
│ 5   │ SepalLength │ 5.0      │ setosa        │
│ 6   │ SepalLength │ 5.4      │ setosa        │

julia> last(d, 6)
6×3 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable   │ value    │ Species       │
│     │ Symbol     │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ PetalWidth │ 2.5      │ virginica     │
│ 2   │ PetalWidth │ 2.3      │ virginica     │
│ 3   │ PetalWidth │ 1.9      │ virginica     │
│ 4   │ PetalWidth │ 2.0      │ virginica     │
│ 5   │ PetalWidth │ 2.3      │ virginica     │
│ 6   │ PetalWidth │ 1.8      │ virginica     │

Note that all columns can be of different types. Type promotion follows the rules of vcat.

The stacked DataFrame that results includes all of the columns not specified to be stacked. These are repeated for each stacked column. These are normally refered to as identifier (id) columns. In addition to the id columns, two additional columns labeled :variable and :values contain the column identifier and the stacked columns.

A third optional argument to stack represents the id columns that are repeated. This makes it easier to specify which variables you want included in the long format:

julia> d = stack(iris, [:SepalLength, :SepalWidth], :Species);

julia> first(d, 6)
6×3 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable    │ value    │ Species       │
│     │ Symbol      │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼─────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ SepalLength │ 5.1      │ setosa        │
│ 2   │ SepalLength │ 4.9      │ setosa        │
│ 3   │ SepalLength │ 4.7      │ setosa        │
│ 4   │ SepalLength │ 4.6      │ setosa        │
│ 5   │ SepalLength │ 5.0      │ setosa        │
│ 6   │ SepalLength │ 5.4      │ setosa        │

julia> last(d, 6)
6×3 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable   │ value    │ Species       │
│     │ Symbol     │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ SepalWidth │ 3.3      │ virginica     │
│ 2   │ SepalWidth │ 3.0      │ virginica     │
│ 3   │ SepalWidth │ 2.5      │ virginica     │
│ 4   │ SepalWidth │ 3.0      │ virginica     │
│ 5   │ SepalWidth │ 3.4      │ virginica     │
│ 6   │ SepalWidth │ 3.0      │ virginica     │

If you prefer to specify the id columns then use Not with stack like this:

julia> d = stack(iris, Not(:Species));

julia> first(d, 6)
6×3 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable    │ value    │ Species       │
│     │ Symbol      │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼─────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ SepalLength │ 5.1      │ setosa        │
│ 2   │ SepalLength │ 4.9      │ setosa        │
│ 3   │ SepalLength │ 4.7      │ setosa        │
│ 4   │ SepalLength │ 4.6      │ setosa        │
│ 5   │ SepalLength │ 5.0      │ setosa        │
│ 6   │ SepalLength │ 5.4      │ setosa        │

julia> last(d, 6)
6×3 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable   │ value    │ Species       │
│     │ Symbol     │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ PetalWidth │ 2.5      │ virginica     │
│ 2   │ PetalWidth │ 2.3      │ virginica     │
│ 3   │ PetalWidth │ 1.9      │ virginica     │
│ 4   │ PetalWidth │ 2.0      │ virginica     │
│ 5   │ PetalWidth │ 2.3      │ virginica     │
│ 6   │ PetalWidth │ 1.8      │ virginica     │

unstack converts from a long format to a wide format. The default is requires specifying which columns are an id variable, column variable names, and column values:

julia> iris.id = 1:size(iris, 1)
1:150

julia> longdf = stack(iris, Not([:Species, :id]));

julia> first(longdf, 6)
6×4 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable    │ value    │ Species       │ id    │
│     │ Symbol      │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │ Int64 │
├─────┼─────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┼───────┤
│ 1   │ SepalLength │ 5.1      │ setosa        │ 1     │
│ 2   │ SepalLength │ 4.9      │ setosa        │ 2     │
│ 3   │ SepalLength │ 4.7      │ setosa        │ 3     │
│ 4   │ SepalLength │ 4.6      │ setosa        │ 4     │
│ 5   │ SepalLength │ 5.0      │ setosa        │ 5     │
│ 6   │ SepalLength │ 5.4      │ setosa        │ 6     │

julia> last(longdf, 6)
6×4 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable   │ value    │ Species       │ id    │
│     │ Symbol     │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │ Int64 │
├─────┼────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┼───────┤
│ 1   │ PetalWidth │ 2.5      │ virginica     │ 145   │
│ 2   │ PetalWidth │ 2.3      │ virginica     │ 146   │
│ 3   │ PetalWidth │ 1.9      │ virginica     │ 147   │
│ 4   │ PetalWidth │ 2.0      │ virginica     │ 148   │
│ 5   │ PetalWidth │ 2.3      │ virginica     │ 149   │
│ 6   │ PetalWidth │ 1.8      │ virginica     │ 150   │

julia> widedf = unstack(longdf, :id, :variable, :value);

julia> first(widedf, 6)
6×5 DataFrame
│ Row │ id    │ PetalLength │ PetalWidth │ SepalLength │ SepalWidth │
│     │ Int64 │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │
├─────┼───────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ 1   │ 1     │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ 5.1         │ 3.5        │
│ 2   │ 2     │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ 4.9         │ 3.0        │
│ 3   │ 3     │ 1.3         │ 0.2        │ 4.7         │ 3.2        │
│ 4   │ 4     │ 1.5         │ 0.2        │ 4.6         │ 3.1        │
│ 5   │ 5     │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ 5.0         │ 3.6        │
│ 6   │ 6     │ 1.7         │ 0.4        │ 5.4         │ 3.9        │

julia> last(widedf, 6)
6×5 DataFrame
│ Row │ id    │ PetalLength │ PetalWidth │ SepalLength │ SepalWidth │
│     │ Int64 │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │
├─────┼───────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ 1   │ 145   │ 5.7         │ 2.5        │ 6.7         │ 3.3        │
│ 2   │ 146   │ 5.2         │ 2.3        │ 6.7         │ 3.0        │
│ 3   │ 147   │ 5.0         │ 1.9        │ 6.3         │ 2.5        │
│ 4   │ 148   │ 5.2         │ 2.0        │ 6.5         │ 3.0        │
│ 5   │ 149   │ 5.4         │ 2.3        │ 6.2         │ 3.4        │
│ 6   │ 150   │ 5.1         │ 1.8        │ 5.9         │ 3.0        │

If the remaining columns are unique, you can skip the id variable and use:

julia> longdf = stack(iris, Not([:Species, :id]));

julia> first(longdf, 6)
6×4 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable    │ value    │ Species       │ id    │
│     │ Symbol      │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │ Int64 │
├─────┼─────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┼───────┤
│ 1   │ SepalLength │ 5.1      │ setosa        │ 1     │
│ 2   │ SepalLength │ 4.9      │ setosa        │ 2     │
│ 3   │ SepalLength │ 4.7      │ setosa        │ 3     │
│ 4   │ SepalLength │ 4.6      │ setosa        │ 4     │
│ 5   │ SepalLength │ 5.0      │ setosa        │ 5     │
│ 6   │ SepalLength │ 5.4      │ setosa        │ 6     │

julia> widedf = unstack(longdf, :variable, :value);

julia> first(widedf, 6)
6×6 DataFrame
│ Row │ Species       │ id    │ PetalLength │ PetalWidth │ SepalLength │ SepalWidth │
│     │ Categorical…⍰ │ Int64 │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │
├─────┼───────────────┼───────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ 1   │ setosa        │ 1     │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ 5.1         │ 3.5        │
│ 2   │ setosa        │ 2     │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ 4.9         │ 3.0        │
│ 3   │ setosa        │ 3     │ 1.3         │ 0.2        │ 4.7         │ 3.2        │
│ 4   │ setosa        │ 4     │ 1.5         │ 0.2        │ 4.6         │ 3.1        │
│ 5   │ setosa        │ 5     │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ 5.0         │ 3.6        │
│ 6   │ setosa        │ 6     │ 1.7         │ 0.4        │ 5.4         │ 3.9        │

You can even skip passing the :variable and :value values as positional arguments, as they will be used by default, and write:

julia> widedf = unstack(longdf);

julia> first(widedf, 6)
6×6 DataFrame
│ Row │ Species       │ id    │ PetalLength │ PetalWidth │ SepalLength │ SepalWidth │
│     │ Categorical…⍰ │ Int64 │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │ Float64⍰    │ Float64⍰   │
├─────┼───────────────┼───────┼─────────────┼────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ 1   │ setosa        │ 1     │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ 5.1         │ 3.5        │
│ 2   │ setosa        │ 2     │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ 4.9         │ 3.0        │
│ 3   │ setosa        │ 3     │ 1.3         │ 0.2        │ 4.7         │ 3.2        │
│ 4   │ setosa        │ 4     │ 1.5         │ 0.2        │ 4.6         │ 3.1        │
│ 5   │ setosa        │ 5     │ 1.4         │ 0.2        │ 5.0         │ 3.6        │
│ 6   │ setosa        │ 6     │ 1.7         │ 0.4        │ 5.4         │ 3.9        │

Passing view=true to stack returns a data frame whose columns are views into the original wide data frame. Here is an example:

julia> d = stack(iris, view=true);

julia> first(d, 6)
6×4 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable    │ value    │ Species       │ id    │
│     │ Symbol      │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │ Int64 │
├─────┼─────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┼───────┤
│ 1   │ SepalLength │ 5.1      │ setosa        │ 1     │
│ 2   │ SepalLength │ 4.9      │ setosa        │ 2     │
│ 3   │ SepalLength │ 4.7      │ setosa        │ 3     │
│ 4   │ SepalLength │ 4.6      │ setosa        │ 4     │
│ 5   │ SepalLength │ 5.0      │ setosa        │ 5     │
│ 6   │ SepalLength │ 5.4      │ setosa        │ 6     │

julia> last(d, 6)
6×4 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable   │ value    │ Species       │ id    │
│     │ Symbol     │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │ Int64 │
├─────┼────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┼───────┤
│ 1   │ PetalWidth │ 2.5      │ virginica     │ 145   │
│ 2   │ PetalWidth │ 2.3      │ virginica     │ 146   │
│ 3   │ PetalWidth │ 1.9      │ virginica     │ 147   │
│ 4   │ PetalWidth │ 2.0      │ virginica     │ 148   │
│ 5   │ PetalWidth │ 2.3      │ virginica     │ 149   │
│ 6   │ PetalWidth │ 1.8      │ virginica     │ 150   │

This saves memory. To create the view, several AbstractVectors are defined:

:variable column – EachRepeatedVector This repeats the variables N times where N is the number of rows of the original AbstractDataFrame.

:value column – StackedVector This is provides a view of the original columns stacked together.

Id columns – RepeatedVector This repeats the original columns N times where N is the number of columns stacked.

None of these reshaping functions perform any aggregation. To do aggregation, use the split-apply-combine functions in combination with reshaping. Here is an example:

julia> using Statistics

julia> d = stack(iris, Not(:Species));

julia> first(d, 6)
6×3 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable    │ value    │ Species       │
│     │ Symbol      │ Float64⍰ │ Categorical…⍰ │
├─────┼─────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┤
│ 1   │ SepalLength │ 5.1      │ setosa        │
│ 2   │ SepalLength │ 4.9      │ setosa        │
│ 3   │ SepalLength │ 4.7      │ setosa        │
│ 4   │ SepalLength │ 4.6      │ setosa        │
│ 5   │ SepalLength │ 5.0      │ setosa        │
│ 6   │ SepalLength │ 5.4      │ setosa        │

julia> x = by(d, [:variable, :Species], df -> DataFrame(vsum = mean(df.value)));

julia> first(x, 6)

6×3 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable    │ Species       │ vsum    │
│     │ Symbol      │ Categorical…⍰ │ Float64 │
├─────┼─────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│ 1   │ SepalLength │ setosa        │ 5.006   │
│ 2   │ SepalLength │ versicolor    │ 5.936   │
│ 3   │ SepalLength │ virginica     │ 6.588   │
│ 4   │ SepalWidth  │ setosa        │ 3.428   │
│ 5   │ SepalWidth  │ versicolor    │ 2.77    │
│ 6   │ SepalWidth  │ virginica     │ 2.974   │

julia> first(unstack(x, :Species, :vsum), 6)
5×4 DataFrame
│ Row │ variable    │ setosa   │ versicolor │ virginica │
│     │ Symbol      │ Float64⍰ │ Float64⍰   │ Float64⍰  │
├─────┼─────────────┼──────────┼────────────┼───────────┤
│ 1   │ PetalLength │ 1.462    │ 4.26       │ 5.552     │
│ 2   │ PetalWidth  │ 0.246    │ 1.326      │ 2.026     │
│ 3   │ SepalLength │ 5.006    │ 5.936      │ 6.588     │
│ 4   │ SepalWidth  │ 3.428    │ 2.77       │ 2.974     │
│ 5   │ id          │ 25.5     │ 75.5       │ 125.5     │