Understanding how to access multi-indexed pandas DataFrame can help you with all kinds of task like that.
Copy paste this in your code to generate example:
# hierarchical indices and columns
index = pd.MultiIndex.from_product([[2013, 2014], [1, 2]],
names=['year', 'visit'])
columns = pd.MultiIndex.from_product([['Bob', 'Guido', 'Sue'], ['HR', 'Temp']],
names=['subject', 'type'])
# mock some data
data = np.round(np.random.randn(4, 6), 1)
data[:, ::2] *= 10
data += 37
# create the DataFrame
health_data = pd.DataFrame(data, index=index, columns=columns)
health_data
Will give you table like this:
Standard access by column
health_data['Bob']
type HR Temp
year visit
2013 1 22.0 38.6
2 52.0 38.3
2014 1 30.0 38.9
2 31.0 37.3
health_data['Bob']['HR']
year visit
2013 1 22.0
2 52.0
2014 1 30.0
2 31.0
Name: HR, dtype: float64
# filtering by column/subcolumn - your case:
health_data['Bob']['HR']==22
year visit
2013 1 True
2 False
2014 1 False
2 False
health_data['Bob']['HR'][2013]
visit
1 22.0
2 52.0
Name: HR, dtype: float64
health_data['Bob']['HR'][2013][1]
22.0
Access by row
health_data.loc[2013]
subject Bob Guido Sue
type HR Temp HR Temp HR Temp
visit
1 22.0 38.6 40.0 38.9 53.0 37.5
2 52.0 38.3 42.0 34.6 30.0 37.7
health_data.loc[2013,1]
subject type
Bob HR 22.0
Temp 38.6
Guido HR 40.0
Temp 38.9
Sue HR 53.0
Temp 37.5
Name: (2013, 1), dtype: float64
health_data.loc[2013,1]['Bob']
type
HR 22.0
Temp 38.6
Name: (2013, 1), dtype: float64
health_data.loc[2013,1]['Bob']['HR']
22.0
Slicing multi-index
idx=pd.IndexSlice
health_data.loc[idx[:,1], idx[:,'HR']]
subject Bob Guido Sue
type HR HR HR
year visit
2013 1 22.0 40.0 53.0
2014 1 30.0 52.0 45.0