Random Sample of a subset of a dataframe in Pandas

Question

Say i have a dataframe with 100,000 entries and want to split it into 100 sections of 1000 entries.

How do i take a random sample of say size 50 of just one of the

Answer 1

This is a nice place for recursion.

def main2():
    rows = 8  # say you have 8 rows, real data will need len(rows) for int
    rands = []
    for i in range(rows):
        gen = fun(rands)
        rands.append(gen)
    print(rands)  # now range through random values


def fun(rands):
    gen = np.random.randint(0, 8)
    if gen in rands:
        a = fun(rands)
        return a
    else: return gen


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main2()

output: [6, 0, 7, 1, 3, 5, 4, 2]

Answer 2

One solution is to use the choice function from numpy.

Say you want 50 entries out of 100, you can use:

import numpy as np
chosen_idx = np.random.choice(1000, replace=False, size=50)
df_trimmed = df.iloc[chosen_idx]

This is of course not considering your block structure. If you want a 50 item sample from block i for example, you can do:

import numpy as np
block_start_idx = 1000 * i
chosen_idx = np.random.choice(1000, replace=False, size=50)
df_trimmed_from_block_i = df.iloc[block_start_idx + chosen_idx]

Answer 3

You can use the sample method*:

In [11]: df = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2], [3, 4], [5, 6], [7, 8]], columns=["A", "B"])

In [12]: df.sample(2)
Out[12]:
   A  B
0  1  2
2  5  6

In [13]: df.sample(2)
Out[13]:
   A  B
3  7  8
0  1  2

*On one of the section DataFrames.

Note: If you have a larger sample size that the size of the DataFrame this will raise an error unless you sample with replacement.

In [14]: df.sample(5)
ValueError: Cannot take a larger sample than population when 'replace=False'

In [15]: df.sample(5, replace=True)
Out[15]:
   A  B
0  1  2
1  3  4
2  5  6
3  7  8
1  3  4