til/python/create-a-dummy-dataframe-in-pandas.md

Create A Dummy DataFrame In Pandas

Pandas has all kinds of utilities for pulling in and processing tabular data. You can pull in a bunch of data from a SQL database into a DataFrame. This DataFrame object is then something you could pass around, process, and read from.

When you are sketching out an implementation or writing some tests, it may not be feasible to read data from a DB. Instead, you can create a little dummy DataFrame using the from_dict function.

import pd

data = {'pokemon': ['Charmander', 'Squirtle', 'Bulbasaur'], 'type': ['Fire', 'Water', 'Grass']}
pd.DataFrame.from_dict(data)

This creates a two column DataFrame with a pokemon header and a type header. The two lists of value will be matched up positionally, so squirtle will be paired with water.