return n smallest indexes by column using pandas

Question

I have the following (simplified) dataframe:

df = pd.DataFrame({\'X\': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5,6,7,8,9,10],
\'Y\': [10,20,30,40,50,-10,-20,-30,-40,-50],
\'Z\': [20,18         


        

Answer 1

You can use apply with nsmallest:

n = 3
df.apply(lambda x: pd.Series(x.nsmallest(n).index))

#   X   Y   Z
#0  A   J   J
#1  B   I   I
#2  C   H   H