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Pandas DataFrame sort_values() Method

❮ DataFrame Reference


Example

Sort the DataFrame by age:

import pandas as pd

data = {
  "age": [50, 40, 30, 40, 20, 10, 30],
  "qualified": [True, False, False, False, False, True, True]
}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)

newdf = df.sort_values(by='age')
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Definition and Usage

The sort_values() method sorts the DataFrame by the specified label.


Syntax

dataframe.sort_values(by, axis, ascending, inplace, kind, na_position, ignore_index, key)

Parameters

The parameters are keyword arguments.

Parameter Value Description
by String
List of strings
Required. Specify labels to sort by. Either index level(s) or column label(s). Or, if the axis is 1 or 'columns' this values specify column level(s) or index label(s)
axis 0
1
'index'
'columns'
Optional. Default 0. Specifies the axis to sort by
ascending True
False
Optional, default True. Specifies whether to sort ascending (0 -> 9) or descending (9 -> 0)
inplace True
False
Optional, default False. Specifies whether to perform the operation on the original DataFrame or not, if not, which is default, this method returns a new DataFrame
kind 'quicksort'
'mergesort'
'heapsort'
Optional, default 'quicksort'. Specifies the sorting algorithm
na_position 'first'
'last'
Optional, default 'last'. Specifies how to handle NULL values. 'first' means put them first, 'last' means put them last.
ignore_index True
False
Optional, default False. Specifies whether to ignore index or not. If True the original indexes are ignored, and replaced by 0, 1, 2 etc.
key Function Optional, specify a function to be executed before the sorting

Return Value

A DataFrame with the sorted result, or None if the inplace parameter is set to True.


❮ DataFrame Reference