Pandas Crosstab: Change Order of Columns That Are Named as Formatted Dates (mmm yy)

Question

I have been looking for how to order columns for pandas crosstabs to no avail. I specifically need to order my columns which are formatted dates (mmm yy) based on the values of the dates and not sorted alphabetically on the the 3-letter name of month (mmm).

Here are the details of my code:

python 3.3

pandas 0.12.0

f_dtflt is a pandas dataframe.

f_dtflt.COLLECTION_DATE is dtype datetime64[ns]

My crosstab statement is:

pd.crosstab(f_dtflt.EW_REGIONCOLLSITE, f_dtflt.COLLECTION_DATE.apply(lambda x: x.strftime("%b %y")), margins=True)

The output is:

COLLECTION_DATE    Apr 13  Aug 13  Dec 12  Feb 13  Jan 13  Jul 13  Jun 13 
EW_REGIONCOLLSITE                                                           
EAST                 1964    2092    2280    2272    2757    2113    1902   
WEST                 2579    2011    1003    2351    2216    1506    1823   
All                  4543    4103    3283    4623    4973    3619    3725   

COLLECTION_DATE    Mar 13  May 13  Nov 12  Oct 12  Sep 13    All  
EW_REGIONCOLLSITE                                                 
EAST                 1682    1981    2108     825     975  22951  
WEST                 2770    3014     407      42     888  20610  
All                  4452    4995    2515     867    1863  43561

I want the columns to be ordered by ascending date...Oct 12, Nov 12, ... Jan 13, ...Sep 13. I recognize that I could format the dates so that they are yy-mm (e.g. 13-01) but these labels will be used in a report and that is a compromise I hope not to make.

I'm new to python and pandas so please help the newbie by connecting any dots in your responses! Thanks a bunch.

---

METHOD 1

Edit in response to the first part of @Andy's answer. There is an issue with step 3:

I have tried to implement Andy's suggestion and here is more info on this effort.

1) I ran the following line to see what the dates look like. The following line creates values such as '2012-10' for collection date. ("beautified" by print?)

print(pd.DatetimeIndex(f_dtflt['COLLECTION_DATE']).to_period('M'))

2) When the above statement is entered into the crosstab, it changes the month values to digits such as 513, 514, etc. (actual values in field?)

table1=pd.crosstab(f_dtflt.EW_REGIONCOLLSITE, pd.DatetimeIndex(f_dtflt['COLLECTION_DATE']).to_period('M'), margins=True)

Here is the output:

col_0              513   514   515   516   517   518   519   520   521   522
EW_REGIONCOLLSITE                                                              
EAST               825  2108  2280  2757  2272  1682  1964  1981  1902  2113   
WEST                42   407  1003  2216  2351  2770  2579  3014  1823  1506   
All                867  2515  3283  4973  4623  4452  4543  4995  3725  3619   

col_0               523   524    All  
EW_REGIONCOLLSITE                     
EAST               2092   975  22951  
WEST               2011   888  20610  
All                4103  1863  43561  

3) When I run the following code, it throws an error that 'int' object has no attribute 'strftime'

table1.columns = table1.columns.map(lambda x: x.strftime("%b %y"))

I played around with this quite a bit and here are some of my notes:

# This runs and creates an array of strings: '513' etc.
pd.to_datetime(table1.columns.map(str), unit='M')

# The last entry in table1.columns is "All" and needs to be removed.  Hence [:-1] slice.
# This also runs but seems to give years in 1630's.
pd.DatetimeIndex(table1.columns[:-1].map(str)).to_datetime('M')

# This does not run because it says object is immutable
table1.columns[:-1]=pd.DatetimeIndex(table1.columns[:-1].map(str)).to_datetime('M')

# This also runs but the output is weird.  It seems to give an array of both dates and -1
table1.columns.reindex(pd.DatetimeIndex(table1.columns[:-1].map(str)).to_datetime('M'))

# Does not run:  DatetimeIndex() must be called with a collection of some kind, '513' was passed
table1.columns = table1.columns.map(lambda x: pd.DatetimeIndex(str(x)).strftime("%b %y"))

# Does not run:  DatetimeIndex object is not callable
table1.rename(columns=pd.DatetimeIndex(table1.columns[:-1].map(str)).to_datetime('M'))

4) This does work for labeling the columns in the crosstab:

table1.columns.name = 'COLLECTION_DATE'

---

METHOD 2

@Andy gave a second suggestion and I played around with it and couldn't get it to work. A big part of the issue is my lack of familiarity with python, pandas, and numpy. I made notes for myself as I tried to sort it out. Here are my notes:

# Working with a new concept
# This creates row titles of 12 10, 12 11, etc.
table1=pd.crosstab(f_dtflt.EW_REGIONCOLLSITE, f_dtflt.COLLECTION_DATE.apply(lambda x: x.strftime("%y %m")), margins=True)

# This throws an error that yb is not defined
table1.columns.map(lambda yb: "%s %s" % (y, b) for y, b in yb.split())

# Tried to simplify and see what happens.  Runs and creates an array of lists such as [['12, '10'], ['12', '11']...]
table1.columns.map(lambda x: x.split())

# Trying a different approach.  This creates a numpy array of datetimes.
tempholder=table1.columns[:-1].map(lambda x: datetime.datetime(year=int(x[0:2]), month=int(x[3:]), day=1))

# Noted that f_dtflt['COLLECTION_DATE'] was a dtype of datetime64[ns] but tempholder was dtype object. So had issue.
# Convert to datetime64
# Get error:  Out of bounds nanosecond timestamp: 12-10-01 00:00:00
tempholder=pd.to_datetime(tempholder)

# Tempholder is an array of datetimes from the datetime module.  I used the pandas date function above.  
# Need to change that and use python datetime module function.
# Does not work: 'numpy.ndarray' object has no attribute 'apply'...
# this is a pandas function which does not work on a numpy array.
tempholder.apply(lambda x: x.strftime('%b %y'))

# This works for numpy array but I can't tell what it contains.  
# print(tempholder) gives <map object at 0x0000000026C04F28>
# tempholder gives Out[169]: <builtins.map at 0x26c04f28>
tempholder=map(lambda x: x.strftime('%b %y'), tempholder)

Answer 1

I approached this problem from a slightly different angle and created a function that can be used as a general method of ordering columns in a crosstab in pandas. It may also work for a pivot table but I didn't test that nor did I look at the details. I suppose it can also be used to order row labels too but I didn't try for that.

This creates a crosstab with column labels such as "12 10_Oct 12" and 12 11_Nov 12". The label effectively forces the alphabetizing of crosstab to work in my favor. The alphabetizing section of the label is concatenated with "_" and the label that I want to use.

table_1=pd.crosstab(f_dtflt.EW_REGIONCOLLSITE, f_dtflt.COLLECTION_DATE.apply(lambda x: x.strftime("%y %m_%b %y")), margins=True)

Output:

"COLLECTION_DATE    12 10_Oct 12  12 11_Nov 12  12 12_Dec 12  13 01_Jan 13  
EW_REGIONCOLLSITE                                                           
EAST                        825          2108          2280          2757   
WEST                         42           407          1003          2216   
All                         867          2515          3283          4973   

COLLECTION_DATE    13 02_Feb 13  13 03_Mar 13  13 04_Apr 13  13 05_May 13  
EW_REGIONCOLLSITE                                                           
EAST                       2272          1682          1964          1981   
WEST                       2351          2770          2579          3014   
All                        4623          4452          4543          4995   

COLLECTION_DATE    13 06_Jun 13  13 07_Jul 13  13 08_Aug 13  13 09_Sep 13  
EW_REGIONCOLLSITE                                                           
EAST                       1902          2113          2092           975   
WEST                       1823          1506          2011           888   
All                        3725          3619          4103          1863   

COLLECTION_DATE      All  
EW_REGIONCOLLSITE         
EAST               22951  
WEST               20610  
All                43561 "

The function and calls:

def clean_label(label_list, margins='False'):
    ''' This function takes the column index list from a crosstab (or pivot table?) in pandas and removes the 
    part of the label before and including the "_".  This allows the user to order the columns manually by creating
    an alphabetical index followed by "_" and then the label that they would like to use.  For example, a label such as
    ['a_Positive', 'b_Negative'] will be converted to ['Positive', 'Negative'].  Another example would be to order dates
    in a table from ['12 10_Oct 12', '12 11_Nov 12'] to ['Oct 12', 'Nov 12']

    margins = False if the crosstab was created without margins and therefore does not have an "All" at the end of the list
    margins = True if the crosstab was created with margins and therefore has an "All" at the end of the list
    '''
    corrected_list=list()

    # If one creates margins in pivot/crosstab, will get the last column of "All"
    # This has to be removed from the following code or it will throw an error.
    if margins:
        convert_list = label_list[:-1]
    else:
        convert_list = label_list

    for l in convert_list:
        x,y=l.split('_')
        corrected_list.append(y)

    if margins:
        corrected_list.append('Total')  # Renames "All" to "Total"

    return corrected_list  

# Change the labels on the crosstab table
table_1.columns=clean_label(table_1.columns, margins=True)

# Change name of columns
table_1.columns.name = 'Month of Collection'

# Change name of rows
table_1.index.name = 'Region'

Output (final table):

"Month of Collection  Oct 12  Nov 12  Dec 12  Jan 13  Feb 13  Mar 13  Apr 13  
Region                                                                        
EAST                    825    2108    2280    2757    2272    1682    1964   
WEST                     42     407    1003    2216    2351    2770    2579   
All                     867    2515    3283    4973    4623    4452    4543   

Month of Collection  May 13  Jun 13  Jul 13  Aug 13  Sep 13  Total  
Region                                                              
EAST                   1981    1902    2113    2092     975  22951  
WEST                   3014    1823    1506    2011     888  20610  
All                    4995    3725    3619    4103    1863  43561  "