[python] Remove pandas rows with duplicate indices

How to remove rows with duplicate index values?

In the weather DataFrame below, sometimes a scientist goes back and corrects observations -- not by editing the erroneous rows, but by appending a duplicate row to the end of a file.

I'm reading some automated weather data from the web (observations occur every 5 minutes, and compiled into monthly files for each weather station.) After parsing a file, the DataFrame looks like:

                      Sta  Precip1hr  Precip5min  Temp  DewPnt  WindSpd  WindDir  AtmPress
Date                                                                                      
2001-01-01 00:00:00  KPDX          0           0     4       3        0        0     30.31
2001-01-01 00:05:00  KPDX          0           0     4       3        0        0     30.30
2001-01-01 00:10:00  KPDX          0           0     4       3        4       80     30.30
2001-01-01 00:15:00  KPDX          0           0     3       2        5       90     30.30
2001-01-01 00:20:00  KPDX          0           0     3       2       10      110     30.28

Example of a duplicate case:

import pandas 
import datetime

startdate = datetime.datetime(2001, 1, 1, 0, 0)
enddate = datetime.datetime(2001, 1, 1, 5, 0)
index = pandas.DatetimeIndex(start=startdate, end=enddate, freq='H')
data1 = {'A' : range(6), 'B' : range(6)}
data2 = {'A' : [20, -30, 40], 'B' : [-50, 60, -70]}
df1 = pandas.DataFrame(data=data1, index=index)
df2 = pandas.DataFrame(data=data2, index=index[:3])
df3 = df2.append(df1)

df3
                       A   B
2001-01-01 00:00:00   20 -50
2001-01-01 01:00:00  -30  60
2001-01-01 02:00:00   40 -70
2001-01-01 03:00:00    3   3
2001-01-01 04:00:00    4   4
2001-01-01 05:00:00    5   5
2001-01-01 00:00:00    0   0
2001-01-01 01:00:00    1   1
2001-01-01 02:00:00    2   2

And so I need df3 to eventually become:

                       A   B
2001-01-01 00:00:00    0   0
2001-01-01 01:00:00    1   1
2001-01-01 02:00:00    2   2
2001-01-01 03:00:00    3   3
2001-01-01 04:00:00    4   4
2001-01-01 05:00:00    5   5

I thought that adding a column of row numbers (df3['rownum'] = range(df3.shape[0])) would help me select the bottom-most row for any value of the DatetimeIndex, but I am stuck on figuring out the group_by or pivot (or ???) statements to make that work.

If anyone like me likes chainable data manipulation using the pandas dot notation (like piping), then the following may be useful:

df3 = df3.query('~index.duplicated()')

This enables chaining statements like this:

df3.assign(C=2).query('~index.duplicated()').mean()

You can drop index duplicates with 'drop_duplicates':

df.loc[df.index.drop_duplicates(keep='first')]

Remove duplicates (Keeping First)

idx = np.unique( df.index.values, return_index = True )[1]
df = df.iloc[idx]

Remove duplicates (Keeping Last)

df = df[::-1]
df = df.iloc[ np.unique( df.index.values, return_index = True )[1] ]

Tests: 10k loops using OP's data

numpy method - 3.03 seconds
df.loc[~df.index.duplicated(keep='first')] - 4.43 seconds
df.groupby(df.index).first() - 21 seconds
reset_index() method - 29 seconds

Oh my. This is actually so simple!

grouped = df3.groupby(level=0)
df4 = grouped.last()
df4
                      A   B  rownum

2001-01-01 00:00:00   0   0       6
2001-01-01 01:00:00   1   1       7
2001-01-01 02:00:00   2   2       8
2001-01-01 03:00:00   3   3       3
2001-01-01 04:00:00   4   4       4
2001-01-01 05:00:00   5   5       5

Follow up edit 2013-10-29 In the case where I have a fairly complex MultiIndex, I think I prefer the groupby approach. Here's simple example for posterity:

import numpy as np
import pandas

# fake index
idx = pandas.MultiIndex.from_tuples([('a', letter) for letter in list('abcde')])

# random data + naming the index levels
df1 = pandas.DataFrame(np.random.normal(size=(5,2)), index=idx, columns=['colA', 'colB'])
df1.index.names = ['iA', 'iB']

# artificially append some duplicate data
df1 = df1.append(df1.select(lambda idx: idx[1] in ['c', 'e']))
df1
#           colA      colB
#iA iB                    
#a  a  -1.297535  0.691787
#   b  -1.688411  0.404430
#   c   0.275806 -0.078871
#   d  -0.509815 -0.220326
#   e  -0.066680  0.607233
#   c   0.275806 -0.078871  # <--- dup 1
#   e  -0.066680  0.607233  # <--- dup 2

and here's the important part

# group the data, using df1.index.names tells pandas to look at the entire index
groups = df1.groupby(level=df1.index.names)  
groups.last() # or .first()
#           colA      colB
#iA iB                    
#a  a  -1.297535  0.691787
#   b  -1.688411  0.404430
#   c   0.275806 -0.078871
#   d  -0.509815 -0.220326
#   e  -0.066680  0.607233

This adds the index as a dataframe column, drops duplicates on that, then removes the new column:

df = df.reset_index().drop_duplicates(subset='index', keep='last').set_index('index').sort_index()

Note that the use of .sort_index() above at the end is as needed and is optional.

Unfortunately, I don't think Pandas allows one to drop dups off the indices. I would suggest the following:

df3 = df3.reset_index() # makes date column part of your data
df3.columns = ['timestamp','A','B','rownum'] # set names
df3 = df3.drop_duplicates('timestamp',take_last=True).set_index('timestamp') #done!