Python Pandas Replacing Header with Top Row

Question

new_header = df.iloc[0] #grab the first row for the header
df = df[1:] #take the data less the header row
df.columns = new_header #set the header row as the df header

The dataframe can be changed by just doing

df.columns = df.iloc[0]
df = df[1:]

Then

df.to_csv(path, index=False) 

Should do the trick.

If you want a one-liner, you can do:

df.rename(columns=df.iloc[0]).drop(df.index[0])

@ostrokach answer is best. Most likely you would want to keep that throughout any references to the dataframe, thus would benefit from inplace = True.
df.rename(columns=df.iloc[0], inplace = True) df.drop([0], inplace = True)

Another one-liner using Python swapping:

df, df.columns = df[1:] , df.iloc[0]

This won't reset the index

Although, the opposite won't work as expected df.columns, df = df.iloc[0], df[1:]

Here's a simple trick that defines column indices "in place". Because set_index sets row indices in place, we can do the same thing for columns by transposing the data frame, setting the index, and transposing it back:

df = df.T.set_index(0).T

Note you may have to change the 0 in set_index(0) if your rows have a different index already.