Python, lambda function as argument for groupby

Question

I'm trying to figure out what a piece of code is doing, but I'm getting kinda lost on it.

I have a pandas dataframe, which has been loaded by the following .csv file:

origin_census_block_group,date_range_start,date_range_end,device_count,distance_traveled_from_home,bucketed_distance_traveled,median_dwell_at_bucketed_distance_traveled,completely_home_device_count,median_home_dwell_time,bucketed_home_dwell_time,at_home_by_each_hour,part_time_work_behavior_devices,full_time_work_behavior_devices,destination_cbgs,delivery_behavior_devices,median_non_home_dwell_time,candidate_device_count,bucketed_away_from_home_time,median_percentage_time_home,bucketed_percentage_time_home,mean_home_dwell_time,mean_non_home_dwell_time,mean_distance_traveled_from_home
010539707003,2020-06-25T00:00:00-05:00,2020-06-26T00:00:00-05:00,49,626,"{""16001-50000"":5,""0"":11,"">50000"":4,""2001-8000"":3,""1-1000"":9,""1001-2000"":7,""8001-16000"":1}","{""16001-50000"":110,"">50000"":155,""<1000"":40,""2001-8000"":237,""1001-2000"":27,""8001-16000"":180}",12,627,"{""721-1080"":11,""361-720"":9,""61-360"":1,""<60"":11,"">1080"":12}","[32,32,28,30,30,31,27,23,20,20,20,17,19,19,15,14,17,20,20,21,25,22,24,23]",7,3,"{""120330012011"":1,""010030107031"":1,""010030114052"":2,""120330038001"":1,""010539701003"":1,""010030108001"":1,""010539707002"":14,""010539705003"":2,""120330015001"":1,""121130102003"":1,""010539701002"":1,""120330040001"":1,""370350101014"":2,""120330033081"":2,""010030106003"":1,""010539706001"":2,""010539707004"":3,""120330039001"":1,""010539699003"":1,""120330030003"":1,""010539707003"":41,""010970029003"":1,""010539705004"":1,""120330009002"":1,""010539705001"":3,""010539704003"":1,""120330028012"":1,""120330035081"":1,""120330036102"":1,""120330036142"":1,""010030114062"":1,""010539706004"":7,""010539706002"":1,""120330036082"":1,""010539707001"":7,""010030102001"":1,""120330028011"":1}",2,241,71,"{""21-45"":4,""481-540"":2,""541-600"":1,""721-840"":1,""1201-1320"":1,""301-360"":3,""<20"":13,""61-120"":3,""241-300"":3,""121-180"":1,""421-480"":3,""1321-1440"":4,""1081-1200"":1,""961-1080"":2,""601-660"":1,""181-240"":1,""661-720"":2,""361-420"":3}",72,"{""0-25"":13,""76-100"":21,""51-75"":6,""26-50"":3}",657,413,1936
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010890017002,2020-06-25T00:00:00-05:00,2020-06-26T00:00:00-05:00,78,1934,"{""16001-50000"":2,""0"":12,"">50000"":9,""2001-8000"":27,""1-1000"":12,""1001-2000"":8,""8001-16000"":8}","{""16001-50000"":49,"">50000"":99,""<1000"":111,""2001-8000"":37,""1001-2000"":24,""8001-16000"":28}",11,787,"{""721-1080"":17,""361-720"":11,""61-360"":11,""<60"":15,"">1080"":23}","[49,42,48,48,47,48,44,44,39,32,34,32,36,31,32,36,40,37,36,38,49,45,46,46]",5,1,"{""010890101002"":1,""010730108041"":1,""010890020003"":2,""010890010001"":2,""010890025011"":3,""010890026001"":4,""280819505003"":1,""281059504004"":1,""010890103022"":1,""120990056011"":1,""010890109012"":2,""010890019021"":6,""010890013021"":4,""010890015004"":3,""010890108003"":1,""010890014022"":6,""281059501003"":1,""281059503001"":1,""010890007022"":3,""010890017001"":3,""010890107023"":1,""010890021002"":1,""010890009011"":1,""010890109013"":1,""010730120022"":1,""010890031003"":15,""011170303151"":1,""010890019011"":9,""010890030002"":2,""010890110221"":1,""011170305021"":1,""010890026003"":2,""010890025012"":3,""010730117034"":1,""010830208022"":1,""010890031002"":2,""010890112002"":1,""010210602001"":1,""010890002022"":1,""010890017002"":65,""281059506021"":1,""010890010003"":2,""010890106222"":1,""120990059182"":1,""010890110222"":1,""010890020001"":1,""010890101003"":1,""010890018013"":1,""010890021001"":1,""010890109021"":1,""010890108001"":1,""010770106005"":1,""281059506011"":1,""010030114032"":2,""010830209001"":1,""010890027222"":1,""010730128023"":1,""010890009021"":1,""010030114051"":1,""010030109031"":1,""010030103003"":1,""010890031001"":1,""010890021003"":1,""010030114062"":4,""010890106241"":1,""281059504003"":1,""010890018011"":10,""010890019031"":5,""010890027012"":1,""010730108054"":1,""010890106223"":2,""010890111001"":1,""010210603002"":1,""010890109011"":1,""010890019012"":2,""010890113001"":1,""010890028013"":3}",1,229,99,"{""481-540"":3,""541-600"":2,""46-60"":1,""721-840"":1,""1201-1320"":7,""301-360"":6,""<20"":18,""61-120"":10,""241-300"":5,""121-180"":2,""1321-1440"":2,""841-960"":1,""1081-1200"":1,""961-1080"":3,""601-660"":3,""181-240"":2,""661-720"":3}",78,"{""0-25"":16,""76-100"":44,""51-75"":11,""26-50"":7}",708,353,14328
010950308022,2020-06-25T00:00:00-05:00,2020-06-26T00:00:00-05:00,100,2481,"{""16001-50000"":11,""0"":19,"">50000"":11,""2001-8000"":40,""1-1000"":6,""1001-2000"":3,""8001-16000"":4}","{""16001-50000"":150,"">50000"":23,""<1000"":739,""2001-8000"":23,""1001-2000"":12,""8001-16000"":208}",17,703,"{""721-1080"":21,""361-720"":19,""61-360"":10,""<60"":24,"">1080"":26}","[62,64,64,63,65,67,54,48,37,37,34,33,30,34,32,33,35,43,50,56,58,56,56,57]",8,6,"{""010950306004"":1,""010950302023"":1,""011030054051"":1,""010950311002"":1,""010950309023"":1,""010499606003"":1,""121319506023"":2,""010950308022"":86,""121319506016"":2,""010950304013"":1,""010950307024"":1,""010950309041"":1,""010890019021"":2,""010950312001"":5,""010499607002"":1,""011150402013"":1,""010550102003"":1,""120050027043"":3,""010719509003"":1,""010950302022"":1,""010950308023"":2,""120050027051"":2,""471079701022"":1,""010890106221"":1,""010950306001"":1,""010950302011"":2,""011150405013"":1,""011150402041"":2,""010950312002"":16,""011030054042"":1,""010950301002"":2,""130459105011"":1,""010730001001"":1,""130459102001"":1,""010890109013"":2,""010950308013"":14,""010719508004"":1,""120050027041"":3,""010550110021"":3,""010730049022"":1,""010950308024"":1,""010950312004"":6,""010950312003"":1,""010550104012"":2,""010550110013"":1,""120860004111"":1,""010890027222"":1,""010950306002"":2,""010950304015"":1,""011030054041"":1,""010950309031"":8,""010950308021"":1,""010950302024"":1,""010950307011"":5,""010550110012"":2,""011150404013"":1,""130459103003"":1,""120050027032"":3,""010950307012"":5,""010950309022"":2,""010950307023"":1,""010719508003"":1,""010499608001"":2,""010950310003"":1,""011150402043"":1,""120860099063"":1,""010950309021"":4,""010950309043"":2,""010950308011"":1,""010950306003"":3,""120050027042"":1,""010950308025"":5,""010950309032"":6,""010499607001"":1}",1,199,132,"{""21-45"":8,""481-540"":6,""541-600"":4,""46-60"":3,""721-840"":3,""1201-1320"":4,""301-360"":3,""<20"":20,""61-120"":10,""241-300"":2,""121-180"":4,""421-480"":3,""1321-1440"":1,""841-960"":3,""961-1080"":2,""601-660"":1,""181-240"":3,""661-720"":1,""361-420"":2}",74,"{""0-25"":20,""76-100"":48,""51-75"":23,""26-50"":4}",661,350,5044

df = pd.read_csv(csv_file,
        usecols=[
                'origin_census_block_group',
                'date_range_start',
                'date_range_end',
                'device_count',
                'distance_traveled_from_home',
                'completely_home_device_count',
                'median_home_dwell_time',
                'part_time_work_behavior_devices',
                'full_time_work_behavior_devices'
                ],
                    dtype={'origin_census_block_group': str},
                ).set_index('origin_census_block_group')

and, later in the code, the dataframe is modified by:

df = df.groupby(lambda cbg: cbg[:5]).sum()

I don't quite understand what this line is doing precisely. Groupby generally groups a dataframe by column, so...is it grouping the dataframe using multiple columns (0 to 5)? What is the effect of .sum() at the end?

Answer 1

If you run your code exactly as you wrote it (both the creation of df and the groupby) you can see the result. I print first couple of columns of the output of groupby

         device_count    distance_traveled_from_home
-----  --------------  -----------------------------
01053              49                            626
01073             139                           2211
01089              78                           1934
01095             100                           2481

What happens here is the function lambda cbg: cbg[:5] is applied to each of the index values (strings that look like numbers in column origin_census_block_group). As a side, note the statement

...
dtype={'origin_census_block_group': str},

when creating the df, so somebody went into trouble to make sure they are actually str

So the function is applied to string like '010539707003' and returns a substring which is the first 5 characters of that string:

'010539707003'[:5]

produces

'01053'

so I assume there are multiple keys that share the first 5 characters (in the actual file -- the snippet has them all unique so not very interesting) and all these rows are grouped together

Then .sum() is applied to each numerical column of each group and returns, well, the column sum per each groupby key. This is what you see in my output in column 'device_count' and so on.

Hope this is clear now