For this skill builder, we are exploring some important functions in the package of pandas and Altair. DS programming requires a lot of data wrangling. Using the proper functions, we can create concise and comprehensive codes. You should be exposed to a few functions through the readings this week.

You may want to at least scan the readings before beginning this task since this serves as an assessment of your understanding of the assigned readings. A prepared student should be able to finish the exercises within 60 minutes. You should work through it on your own.

Before you start

Make sure you have installed VS-code, pandas, and Altair on your computer. You can install these packages by typing this line in the terminal:

pip install pandas altair

OR if you have more than one version of python:

pip3.9 install pandas altair

pip3.9 indicates the version of python you are installing the packages to.

Data import

Run the following code to import the data we need for this skill builder:


# package import
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import altair as al 
# data import
dat = pd.read_csv("https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/csv/AER/Guns.csv")

Make sure the variable dat is correctly assigned in your environment and finish the following exercises. You can read the documentation of the data on this page - https://vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/doc/AER/Guns.html

Exercise 1

One of the first things we can do to a freshly imported data is to check its columns. This will help us understand the basic structure of the dataframe(table).

Using one line of code, select all the columns in dat, assign it to a variable called col_list.

Hint

Every dataframe has an attribute "columns". Accessing this attribute will give you a list of all column names

We often want to know the dimension of a dataframe. How many columns are in the dataset? How many rows are in the dataset?

Using one line of code, show the number of columns and rows in dat.

Hint

Every dataframe has an attribute "shape". Accessing this attribute will give you the dimension of a datafarme

Now run dat.head(). It will print out the first 5 rows of data in dat.

Just from looking at the output, what column(s) seems to be redundant with the row number?

Hint

There is one column that serves as nothing but a row counter, that columns is redundant.

Exercise 2

After a brief investigation of the data, we will clean up the data. By cleaning up, we are trying to filter down dat so this only holds data we need. We will first get rid of the extra column we found in the previous excercise.

Using one line of code, drop the redundant column using the variable col_list (created in excercise 1)

Hint

Use `drop()`.

Understand what “axis” is as a parameter of drop().

Your function should looks like this:

dat.drop([col_list[_]], axis = _)

fill the “_"’s with the correct values and assign the output to dat.

Don’t forget to save the changes in dat. Run dat.head() to make sure the column is dropped in dat.

Exercise 3

We have filtered dat vertically by dropping a column. Now we will try to filter dat horizontally, meaning we will get rid of some the rows.

We can do that by applying a condition to dat. A condition is an expression that can be evaluated as True/False. For example, 8 > 5 is an expression that evaluates to be True. This is trivial because 8 will always be greater than 5.

Run the code below:

what is the difference between exp1 and exp2?

exp1 = 8 > 5
exp2 = dat.violent < 300

Hint

Try type() on else variable OR calling else variable.

Run ths code below:

By putting dat.violent < 300, and the violent column from dat into a dataframe, what is the relationship between the two columns?

exp = pd.DataFrame({"dat.violent < 300" : exp2,
                    "violent value from dat" : dat.violent})

exp

Hint

Try computing `dat.violent[n] < 300` and `(dat.violent < 300)[n]` where n is less than the number of row. The two expressions will always be the same as long as n is less than the number of rows.

Using query(), filter down the dat so that it only contains the data for idaho

Hint

query() takes in expressions and filters down data.

Don’t forget to save the changes in dat. Run dat.shape() to make sure the there are 23 rows and 13 columns.

Exercise 4

Besides filtering, we can manipulate the data by adding new data to it. By adding a new column to the data, we assign a new value to each row.

Using assign(), create a new column that show the ratio between murder rate and violent rate.

Hint

Use assign()

You see get the ratio by computing this code:

dat.murder/dat.violent

Exercise 5

Create a scatter plot that shows the relationship between murder rate and violent rate for the state of Idaho. Your chart should show murder rate as the x-axis, violent as the y-axis.

Hint

Can you mimic this plot?

(https://altair-viz.github.io/gallery/scatter_tooltips.html)

For an extra push

Exercise 6

Using a line of code, filter down the data set so that it only shows the data in years between 1993 and 1997.

Exercise 7

Create a line chart that show prisoners numbers for the state of Idaho, Utah, and Oregon.

Your chart should show year as the x-axis, prisoner as the y-axis, states as different colours, along with an appropriate title.

Exercise 8

Without using query(), finshed the data wrangling in question 2,5 and 6.

After you have completed this skill builder with your team (or on your own) then compare your work to our script

See the script.