Setting DataFrame values with enlargement

Question

I have two DataFrames (with DatetimeIndex) and want to update the first frame (the older one) with data from the second frame (the newer one).

Answer 1

df2.combine_first(df1) (documentation) seems to serve your requirement; PFB code snippet & output

import pandas as pd

print 'pandas-version: ', pd.__version__

df1 = pd.DataFrame.from_records([('2015-07-09 12:00:00',1,1,1),
                                 ('2015-07-09 13:00:00',1,1,1),
                                 ('2015-07-09 14:00:00',1,1,1),
                                 ('2015-07-09 15:00:00',1,1,1)],
                                columns=['Dt', 'A', 'B', 'C']).set_index('Dt')
# print df1

df2 = pd.DataFrame.from_records([('2015-07-09 14:00:00',2,2,2,2),
                                 ('2015-07-09 15:00:00',2,2,2,2),
                                 ('2015-07-09 16:00:00',2,2,2,2),
                                 ('2015-07-09 17:00:00',2,2,2,2),],
                               columns=['Dt', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D']).set_index('Dt')
res_combine1st = df2.combine_first(df1)
print res_combine1st

output

pandas-version:  0.15.2
                     A  B  C   D
Dt                              
2015-07-09 12:00:00  1  1  1 NaN
2015-07-09 13:00:00  1  1  1 NaN
2015-07-09 14:00:00  2  2  2   2
2015-07-09 15:00:00  2  2  2   2
2015-07-09 16:00:00  2  2  2   2
2015-07-09 17:00:00  2  2  2   2