Comparing two dataframes and getting the differences [duplicate]

Question

I have two dataframes. Examples:

df1:
Date       Fruit  Num  Color 
2013-11-24 Banana 22.1 Yellow
2013-11-24 Orange  8.6 Orange
2013-11-24 Apple   7.6 Green
2013-11-24 Celery 10.2 Green

df2:
Date       Fruit  Num  Color 
2013-11-24 Banana 22.1 Yellow
2013-11-24 Orange  8.6 Orange
2013-11-24 Apple   7.6 Green
2013-11-24 Celery 10.2 Green
2013-11-25 Apple  22.1 Red
2013-11-25 Orange  8.6 Orange

Each dataframe has the Date as an index. Both dataframes have the same structure.

What i want to do, is compare these two dataframes and find which rows are in df2 that aren't in df1. I want to compare the date (index) and the first column (Banana, APple, etc) to see if they exist in df2 vs df1.

I have tried the following:

• Outputting difference in two Pandas dataframes side by side - highlighting the difference
• Comparing two pandas dataframes for differences

For the first approach I get this error: "Exception: Can only compare identically-labeled DataFrame objects". I have tried removing the Date as index but get the same error.

On the third approach, I get the assert to return False but cannot figure out how to actually see the different rows.

Any pointers would be welcome

Answer 1

This approach, df1 != df2, works only for dataframes with identical rows and columns. In fact, all dataframes axes are compared with _indexed_same method, and exception is raised if differences found, even in columns/indices order.

If I got you right, you want not to find changes, but symmetric difference. For that, one approach might be concatenate dataframes:

>>> df = pd.concat([df1, df2])
>>> df = df.reset_index(drop=True)

group by

>>> df_gpby = df.groupby(list(df.columns))

get index of unique records

>>> idx = [x[0] for x in df_gpby.groups.values() if len(x) == 1]

filter

>>> df.reindex(idx)
         Date   Fruit   Num   Color
9  2013-11-25  Orange   8.6  Orange
8  2013-11-25   Apple  22.1     Red

Answer 2

Updating and placing, somewhere it will be easier for others to find, ling's comment upon jur's response above.

df_diff = pd.concat([df1,df2]).drop_duplicates(keep=False)

---

Testing with these DataFrames:

# with import pandas as pd

df1 = pd.DataFrame({
    'Date':['2013-11-24','2013-11-24','2013-11-24','2013-11-24'],
    'Fruit':['Banana','Orange','Apple','Celery'],
    'Num':[22.1,8.6,7.6,10.2],
    'Color':['Yellow','Orange','Green','Green'],
    })

df2 = pd.DataFrame({
    'Date':['2013-11-24','2013-11-24','2013-11-24','2013-11-24','2013-11-25','2013-11-25'],
    'Fruit':['Banana','Orange','Apple','Celery','Apple','Orange'],
    'Num':[22.1,8.6,7.6,10.2,22.1,8.6],
    'Color':['Yellow','Orange','Green','Green','Red','Orange'],
    })

---

Results in this:

# for df1

         Date   Fruit   Num   Color
0  2013-11-24  Banana  22.1  Yellow
1  2013-11-24  Orange   8.6  Orange
2  2013-11-24   Apple   7.6   Green
3  2013-11-24  Celery  10.2   Green


# for df2

         Date   Fruit   Num   Color
0  2013-11-24  Banana  22.1  Yellow
1  2013-11-24  Orange   8.6  Orange
2  2013-11-24   Apple   7.6   Green
3  2013-11-24  Celery  10.2   Green
4  2013-11-25   Apple  22.1     Red
5  2013-11-25  Orange   8.6  Orange


# for df_diff

         Date   Fruit   Num   Color
4  2013-11-25   Apple  22.1     Red
5  2013-11-25  Orange   8.6  Orange

Answer 3

Passing the dataframes to concat in a dictionary, results in a multi-index dataframe from which you can easily delete the duplicates, which results in a multi-index dataframe with the differences between the dataframes:

import sys
if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
    from StringIO import StringIO
else:
    from io import StringIO
import pandas as pd

DF1 = StringIO("""Date       Fruit  Num  Color 
2013-11-24 Banana 22.1 Yellow
2013-11-24 Orange  8.6 Orange
2013-11-24 Apple   7.6 Green
2013-11-24 Celery 10.2 Green
""")
DF2 = StringIO("""Date       Fruit  Num  Color 
2013-11-24 Banana 22.1 Yellow
2013-11-24 Orange  8.6 Orange
2013-11-24 Apple   7.6 Green
2013-11-24 Celery 10.2 Green
2013-11-25 Apple  22.1 Red
2013-11-25 Orange  8.6 Orange""")


df1 = pd.read_table(DF1, sep='\s+')
df2 = pd.read_table(DF2, sep='\s+')
#%%
dfs_dictionary = {'DF1':df1,'DF2':df2}
df=pd.concat(dfs_dictionary)
df.drop_duplicates(keep=False)

Result:

             Date   Fruit   Num   Color
DF2 4  2013-11-25   Apple  22.1     Red
    5  2013-11-25  Orange   8.6  Orange

Answer 4

# THIS WORK FOR ME

# Get all diferent values
df3 = pd.merge(df1, df2, how='outer', indicator='Exist')
df3 = df3.loc[df3['Exist'] != 'both']


# If you like to filter by a common ID
df3  = pd.merge(df1, df2, on="Fruit", how='outer', indicator='Exist')
df3  = df3.loc[df3['Exist'] != 'both']