How to get column names

Here’s how to get column names in Pandas.

To get the column names of your dataframe in Pandas you only need to use the columns function.

How to get column names

import pandas as pd

df1 = pd.DataFrame({"my_column1": ["something", "somethingelse"],
                    "my_column2": ['foo', 'bar'],
                    "my_column3": ['some', 'data']})

print(df1.columns)

Output:

Index(['my_column1', 'my_column2', 'my_column3'], dtype='object')

Pandas lists all the columns present in my dataframe.

How to get a list of column names

If such an output is problematic for you or you need it as a data source, use the to_list method. Using the to_list function, Pandas will return the column names as a list.

import pandas as pd

df1 = pd.DataFrame({"my_column1": ["something", "somethingelse"],
                    "my_column2": ['foo', 'bar'],
                    "my_column3": ['some', 'data']})

print(df1.columns.values.tolist())

Output:

['my_column1', 'my_column2', 'my_column3']

How to get the name of a specific column

Using the columns function you can also easily get the name of a specific column. For example, I will write code that displays the first column. I will use index 0.

import pandas as pd

df1 = pd.DataFrame({"my_column1": ["something", "somethingelse"],
                    "my_column2": ['foo', 'bar'],
                    "my_column3": ['some', 'data']})

print(df1.columns[0])

Output:

my_column1

You learned how to get the column names and how to get the column name by index. You can also save output as a list.