Hey there! Curious about data's hidden secrets? Today, we dive into Basic Data Analysis—an essential step for data comprehension. We unearth patterns, and guide decision-making across various fields, be it business, science, or daily life, with a powerful tool—the pandas Python library. Let's embark on this journey!

Rising to the challenge of solving a data mystery, Basic Data Analysis serves as the groundwork. It encompasses understanding and decision-making—be it a business owner understanding customer behavior, a scientist analyzing research data, or a student making sense of study material. With pandas, this process becomes effortless.

Firstly, we employ value_counts(), a method that swiftly counts the frequency of DataFrame elements. Consider an imaginary dataset of pets.

Python
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1import pandas as pd
2
3# Creating DataFrame
4data =  {'Name': ['Tommy', 'Rex', 'Bella', 'Charlie', 'Lucy', 'Cooper'],
5         'Type': ['Dog', 'Dog', 'Cat', 'Cat', 'Dog', 'Bird']}
6pets_df = pd.DataFrame(data)

Using the value_counts() function we can count count unique elements of a series (a dataframe column):

Python
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1print(pets_df['Type'].value_counts())
2# Output:
3# Dog     3
4# Cat     2
5# Bird    1
6# Name: Type, dtype: int64

With value_counts(), establishing frequency distribution in series becomes straightforward.

For summarizing data, groupby() and agg() prove useful! Now let’s add weight to the pets in our DataFrame to illustrate these methods:

Python
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1import pandas as pd
2
3# Creating DataFrame
4data =  {'Name': ['Tommy', 'Rex', 'Bella', 'Charlie', 'Lucy', 'Cooper'],
5         'Type': ['Dog', 'Dog', 'Cat', 'Cat', 'Dog', 'Bird'],
6         'Weight': [12, 15, 8, 9, 14, 1]}
7pets_df = pd.DataFrame(data)

Now group and calculate the mean of data based on pet type.

Python
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1print(pets_df.groupby('Type').agg({'Weight': 'mean'}))

1. groupby('Type'): Splits the data into groups based on 'Type'.
2. .agg({'Weight': 'mean'}): Applies the 'mean' function to the 'Weight' column for each group.

The resulting DataFrame shows the average weight for each pet type:

• Bird: 1.0
• Cat: 8.5
• Dog: 13.67

Of course, calculating mean is not the only option. We can use functions like min, max, median, etc. We will talk more about using different aggregation functions in the next course.

Lastly, let's sort our data. The sort_values() function sorts our DataFrame as per one or many columns.

Let's arrange our pet DataFrame by pet weight.

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1sorted_pets_df = pets_df.sort_values('Weight')
2print(sorted_pets_df)
3#       Name  Type  Weight
4# 5   Cooper  Bird       1
5# 2    Bella   Cat       8
6# 3  Charlie   Cat       9
7# 0    Tommy   Dog      12
8# 4     Lucy   Dog      14
9# 1      Rex   Dog      15

We obtained sorted data efficiently with just one simple command!

Great job! You've learned how to execute Basic Data Analysis using pandas functions. We explored value_counts(), groupby(), agg(), and sort_values().

Are these concepts a lot to digest? Don't worry! Exciting upcoming exercises will reinforce these concepts, so let's delve into practice. Remember, each accomplished task boosts your data analysis skills!