How do I set an unnamed column as the index?

Question

In all the examples I have found, a column name is usually required to set it as the index

Instead of going into excel to add a column header, I was wondering if it's possible to set an empty header as the index. The column has all the values I want included, but lacks a column name:

My script is currently:

import pandas as pd
data = pd.read_csv('file.csv')
data

Answer 1

You could also just select the column by id with iloc:

data = data.set_index(data.iloc[:, 0])

Or when you call pd.read_csv(), specify index_col:

data = pd.read_csv('path.csv', index_col=0)

Answer 2

You don't need to rename the first column in excel. It's as easy in pandas as well:

new_columns = data.columns.values
new_columns[0] = 'Month'
data.columns = new_columns

Afterwards, you can set the index:

data = data.set_index('Month')

Answer 3

You can do as follows:

import pandas as pd
data = pd.read_csv('file.csv',index_col=0)
data