How to access pandas DataFrame datetime index using strings

Question

This is a very simple and practical question. I have the feeling that it must be a silly detail and that there should be similar questions. I wasn\'t able to find them tho.

Answer 1

Reversing your dataframe allows the indexing to work:

Here is your .csv datafile:

Date,PETR4,CSNA3,VALE5
2008-01-01,0.0,0.0,0.0
2008-01-02,1.0,1.0,1.0
2008-01-03,7.0,7.0,7.0

Use the following incantation to read it into a DataFrame:

>>> a = pd.read_csv('your.csv', index_col=0, parse_dates=True, infer_datetime_format=True)

Then, try to index a row:

>>> a['2008-01-01']
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in 
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pandas/core/frame.py", line 1969, in __getitem__
    return self._getitem_column(key)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pandas/core/frame.py", line 1976, in _getitem_column
    return self._get_item_cache(key)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pandas/core/generic.py", line 1091, in _get_item_cache
    values = self._data.get(item)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pandas/core/internals.py", line 3211, in get
    loc = self.items.get_loc(item)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pandas/core/index.py", line 1759, in get_loc
    return self._engine.get_loc(key)
  File "pandas/index.pyx", line 137, in pandas.index.IndexEngine.get_loc (pandas/index.c:3979)
  File "pandas/index.pyx", line 157, in pandas.index.IndexEngine.get_loc (pandas/index.c:3843)
  File "pandas/hashtable.pyx", line 668, in pandas.hashtable.PyObjectHashTable.get_item (pandas/hashtable.c:12265)
  File "pandas/hashtable.pyx", line 676, in pandas.hashtable.PyObjectHashTable.get_item (pandas/hashtable.c:12216)
KeyError: '2008-01-01'

You end up with a traceback with KeyError

However, if you reverse it, like this:

>>> b = a[::-1]

Then try the same index, you get the proper result:

>>> b['2008-01-01']
            PETR4  CSNA3  VALE5
Date                           
2008-01-01      0      0      0

I do NOT know why this is the case. Chances are, it has something to do with being a time series one way, but not the other? Someone more knowledgeable should answer that.

Update: By RTFM, I discovered this page:

https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/timeseries.html

If you find the section titled "Slice vs. Exact Match", there is a warning that explains this behavior. The problem seems to be that for a TimeSeries, an exact match is interpreted as a column name. For unsorted dataframes, this doesn't happen. See the warning box in the section referenced above. I still find this terribly confusing, but there you go...

Edit: Changed the printout of b, which was wrong in the original.

Edit1: Update with explanation in python documentation.