Select first or last N rows in a Dataframe using head() and tail() method in Python-Pandas

Let’s discuss how to select top or bottom N number of rows from a Dataframe using head() & tail() methods.

1) Select first N Rows from a Dataframe using head() method of Pandas DataFrame :

Pandas head() method is used to return top n (5 by default) rows of a data frame or series

Syntax: Dataframe.head(n).

Parameters: (optional) n is integer value, number of rows to be returned.

Return: Dataframe with top n rows .

Let’s Create a dataframe

# import pandas library as pd
import pandas as pd

# List of Tuples
students = [('Ankit', 22, 'Up', 'Geu'),
           ('Ankita', 31, 'Delhi', 'Gehu'),
           ('Rahul', 16, 'Tokyo', 'Abes'),
           ('Simran', 41, 'Delhi', 'Gehu'),
           ('Shaurya', 33, 'Delhi', 'Geu'),
           ('Harshita', 35, 'Mumbai', 'Bhu' ),
           ('Swapnil', 35, 'Mp', 'Geu'),
           ('Priya', 35, 'Uk', 'Geu'),
           ('Jeet', 35, 'Guj', 'Gehu'),
           ('Ananya', 35, 'Up', 'Bhu')
            ]

# Create a DataFrame object from
# list of tuples along with columns
# and indices.
details = pd.DataFrame(students, columns =['Name', 'Age',
                                           'Place', 'College'],
                        index =['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e',
                                'f', 'g', 'i', 'j', 'k'])

details

Output:

Example 1:

# Show first 5 rows of the details dataframe
# from top
details.head()

Output:

Example 2:

# display top 3 rows of the dataframe
details.head(3)

Output:

Example 3:

# display top 2 rows of the specific columns
details[['Name', 'Age']].head(2)

Output:

2) Select last N Rows from a Dataframe using tail() method of Pandas DataFrame :

Pandas tail() method is used to return bottom n (5 by default) rows of a data frame or series.

Syntax: Dataframe.tail(n)

Parameters: (optional) n is integer value, number of rows to be returned.

Return: Dataframe with bottom n rows .

Example 1:

# Show bottom 5 rows of the dataframe
details.tail()

Output:

Example 2:

# Show bottom 3 rows of the dataframe
details.tail(3)

Output:

Example 3:

# Show bottom 2 rows of the specific
# columns from dataframe
details[['Name', 'Age']].tail(2)

Output: