[Solved] Good alternative to Pandas append() method now that it is being deprecated?

Pandas was recently updated to the version 1.4.0 and in the recent update the Pandas .append() method, has been deprecated.

The Pandas .append() method, was used to add a single row or column to your existing dataframe. It was a very efficient and simple way to add a new row or column to your dataframe.

The below article will discuss why the Pandas .append() method has been deprecated and what are some Good alternative to Pandas .append() method, now that it is being deprecated.

Why the Pandas .append() method has been deprecated?

Pandas was recently updated to the version 1.4.0 and in the recent update the Pandas .append() method, has been deprecated.

This was done because  Series.append and DataFrame.append in pandas are both making an analogy to list.append, but it is not a good analogy because the behavior is not and can not in place.

The data for an index and values need to be copied and made into a new dataframe to create the result. You can read up more on this issue on pandas issue 35407.

The append method for lists are very efficient and will not deprecated.

On the other hand dataframes, are continuously created and recreated and have data added to them and frequently deleted from them, because of their design, this is also the reason why they have deprecated the method

The below paragraph will discuss what are some Good alternative to Pandas .append() method, now that it is being deprecated. It will also discuss the reason why they are better:

Good alternative to Pandas .append() method, now that it is being deprecated?

One good alternative for Pandas .append() method is to use the pandas.concat method. Many pandas developers already use this method instead of append because of it’s flexibility.

You can easily change the axis from 0 or 1 depending if you want to add a row or a column. Another alternative is to create a list by appending dictionaries and then converting it to a list.

Good alternative to Pandas .append() method, now that it is being deprecated, are mentioned below:

Alternative 1: using concat

One of the best alternative to Pandas .append() is using pandas.concat(). Many pandas developers already use this method instead of append because of it’s flexibility. You can easily change the axis from 0 or 1 depending if you want to add a row or a column

The pandas.concat method can concatenate pandas objects along a particular axis along with optional set logic on the other axes in your dataframe. It is also widely used because it can add a layer of hierarchical indexing on the concatenation axis.

Below given will be a reference that can help you use the pandas.cancat method:

df1 = pd.DataFrame([['a', 1], ['b', 2]],
                   columns=['letter', 'number'])
df1
  letter  number
0      a       1
1      b       2
df2 = pd.DataFrame([['c', 3], ['d', 4]],
                   columns=['letter', 'number'])
df2
  letter  number
0      c       3
1      d       4
pd.concat([df1, df2])
  letter  number
0      a       1
1      b       2
0      c       3
1      d       4

If you do not want the hierarchical index you can always set ignore_index option to True to get a normal index value. Look at the below reference to understand this:

s1 = pd.Series(['a', 'b'])
s2 = pd.Series(['c', 'd'])
pd.concat([s1, s2], ignore_index=True)
0    a
1    b
2    c
3    d
dtype: object

This should help you understand one of the Good alternative to Pandas .append() method, now that it is being deprecated

Alterantive 2: Using dictionaries

One good alternative to Pandas .append() method, now that it is being deprecated is to use dictionaries to create a list, and then when needed you could directly create a new dataframe by using the below mentioned code:

df = pd.DataFrame.from_records(your_list)

This should help you understand one of the Good alternative to Pandas .append() method, now that it is being deprecated

Conclusion

One good and direct alternative is to use the pandas.concat method.Many pandas developers already use this method instead of append because of it’s flexibility.

You can easily change the axis from 0 or 1 depending if you want to add a row or a column.

Another alternative is to create a list by appending dictionaries and then converting it to a list.