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Pandas DataFrame sort_index() Method

❮ DataFrame Reference


Example

Sort the DataFrame by index labels:

import pandas as pd

data = {
  "age": [50, 40, 30, 40, 20, 10, 30],
  "qualified": [True, False, False, False, False, True, True]
}

idx = ["Mary", "Sally", "Emil", "Tobias", "Linus", "John", "Peter"]
df = pd.DataFrame(data, index = idx)

newdf = df.sort_index()
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Definition and Usage

The sort_index() method sorts the DataFrame by the index.


Syntax

dataframe.sort_index(axis, level, ascending, inplace, kind, na_position, sort_remaining, ignore_index, key)

Parameters

The parameters are keyword arguments.

Parameter Value Description
axis 0
1
'index'
'columns'
Optional. Default 0. Specifies the axis to sort by
level String
Number
List of Strings/Numbers
Optional. Default None. Specifies the index level to sort on
ascending True
False
Optional, default True. Specifies whether to sort ascending (0 -> 9) or descending (9 -> 0)
inplace True
False
Optional, default False. Specifies whether to perform the operation on the original DataFrame or not, if not, which is default, this method returns a new DataFrame
kind 'quicksort'
'mergesort'
'heapsort'
Optional, default 'quicksort'. Specifies the sorting algorithm
na_position 'first'
'last'
Optional, default 'last'. Specifies how to handle NULL values. 'first' means put them first, 'last' means put them last.
sort_remaining True
False
Optional, default True. Specifies whether to sort by other levels as well, or not
ignore_index True
False
Optional, default False. Specifies whether to ignore index or not. If True the original indexes are ignored, and replaced by 0, 1, 2 etc.
key Function Optional, specify a function to be executed before the sorting

Return Value

A DataFrame with the sorted result, or None if the inplace parameter is set to True.


❮ DataFrame Reference