How to rename a batch of columns in pandas?

Question

I have a pandas data frame with 1000 columns. Lets say I would like to rename columns 100 to 499 to ['x1','x2',....,'x400']. Is there any way to do it in pandas data frame without individually renaming each column? I am aware how to do multiple renaming I just want to figure out if it's possible to do it for a series of columns without the need to specify each column's name (I don't want to write 1000 column names individually in dataframe.columns).

Answer 1

Create dictionary first and then rename:

np.random.seed(100)
df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randint(10, size=(3,10)), columns=list('abcdefghij'))
print (df)
   a  b  c  d  e  f  g  h  i  j
0  8  8  3  7  7  0  4  2  5  2
1  2  2  1  0  8  4  0  9  6  2
2  4  1  5  3  4  4  3  7  1  1

a = df.columns[np.arange(4,8)]
b = ['x' + str(i) for i in np.arange(1,len(a)+1)]
d = dict(zip(a, b))
print (d)
{'h': 'x4', 'e': 'x1', 'f': 'x2', 'g': 'x3'}

df = df.rename(columns=d)
print (df)
   a  b  c  d  x1  x2  x3  x4  i  j
0  8  8  3  7   7   0   4   2  5  2
1  2  2  1  0   8   4   0   9  6  2
2  4  1  5  3   4   4   3   7  1  1