Manually generating Pandas DataFrame from nested dictionary structure

Question

I'm trying to create a dictionary from a nested data structure (taxonomy) as follows:

pd.DataFrame({'genus':  ['Unknown', 'External Metal'], 
              'species':['Other Feature/Anomaly', 
                        ['Close External Metal', 'Touching Metal Object']]})

I get the following as output:

            genus                                        species
0         Unknown                          Other Feature/Anomaly
1  External Metal  [Close External Metal, Touching Metal Object]

Here's what I want:

            genus                                        species
0         Unknown                          Other Feature/Anomaly
1  External Metal                           Close External Metal 
2  External Metal                          Touching Metal Object

Or perhaps there is a better way of thinking about structuring these sorts of hierarchies using Pandas? I'm not opposed to having the output structured differently than I have indicated above as long as the hierarchy is properly maintained and I can easily navigate that hierarchy Thanks!

Scott Boston · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-13 16:47:09Z

1

Let's use apply, pd.Series, and stack:

df.set_index('genus').species.apply(pd.Series).stack().reset_index(name='Species').drop('level_1', axis=1)

Output:

            genus                Species
0         Unknown  Other Feature/Anomaly
1  External Metal   Close External Metal
2  External Metal  Touching Metal Object

answered Jun 13, 2017 at 16:47

Scott Boston

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1 Comment

tubuliferous Over a year ago

Great answer! Thanks.

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