Panda's DataFrame - renaming multiple identically named columns

pandas, python

Solution

I was looking to find a solution within Pandas more than a general Python solution. Column's get_loc() function returns a masked array if it finds duplicates with 'True' values pointing to the locations where duplicates are found. I then use the mask to assign new values into those locations. In my case, I know ahead of time how many dups I'm going to get and what I'm going to assign to them but it looks like df.columns.get_duplicates() would return a list of all dups and you can then use that list in conjunction with get_loc() if you need a more generic dup-weeding action

'''UPDATED AS-OF SEPT 2020'''

cols=pd.Series(df.columns)
for dup in df.columns[df.columns.duplicated(keep=False)]: 
    cols[df.columns.get_loc(dup)] = ([dup + '.' + str(d_idx) 
                                     if d_idx != 0 
                                     else dup 
                                     for d_idx in range(df.columns.get_loc(dup).sum())]
                                    )
df.columns=cols

    blah    blah2   blah3   blah.1  blah.2
 0     0        1       2        3       4
 1     5        6       7        8       9

New Better Method (Update 03Dec2019)

This code below is better than above code. Copied from another answer below (@SatishSK):

#sample df with duplicate blah column
df=pd.DataFrame(np.arange(2*5).reshape(2,5))
df.columns=['blah','blah2','blah3','blah','blah']
df

# you just need the following 4 lines to rename duplicates
# df is the dataframe that you want to rename duplicated columns

cols=pd.Series(df.columns)

for dup in cols[cols.duplicated()].unique(): 
    cols[cols[cols == dup].index.values.tolist()] = [dup + '.' + str(i) if i != 0 else dup for i in range(sum(cols == dup))]

# rename the columns with the cols list.
df.columns=cols

df

Output:

    blah    blah2   blah3   blah.1  blah.2
0   0   1   2   3   4
1   5   6   7   8   9

Problem

I have several columns named the same in a df. I need to rename them but the problem is that the `df.rename` method renames them all the same way. How I can rename the below blah(s) to blah1, blah4, blah5? ``` df = pd.DataFrame(np.arange(2*5).reshape(2,5)) df.columns = ['blah','blah2','blah3','blah','blah'] df # blah blah2 blah3 blah blah # 0 0 1 2 3 4 # 1 5 6 7 8 9 ``` Here is what happens when using the `df.rename` method: ``` df.rename(columns={'blah':'blah1'}) # blah1 blah2 blah3 blah1 blah1 # 0 0 1 2 3 4 # 1 5 6 7 8 9 ```

Original source

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