python - Get only the first and last rows of each group with pandas

Question

Iam newbie in python. I have huge a dataframe with millions of rows and id. my data looks like this:

Time    ID  X   Y
8:00    A   23  100
9:00    B   24  110
10:00   B   25  120
11:00   C   26  130
12:00   C   27  140
13:00   A   28  150
14:00   A   29  160
15:00   D   30  170
16:00   C   31  180
17:00   B   32  190
18:00   A   33  200
19:00   C   34  210
20:00   A   35  220
21:00   B   36  230
22:00   C   37  240
23:00   B   38  250

I want to sort the data on id and time. The expected result what I looking for like this"

Time    ID  X   Y
8:00    A   23  100
13:00   A   28  150
14:00   A   29  160
18:00   A   33  200
20:00   A   35  220
9:00    B   24  110
10:00   B   25  120
17:00   B   32  190
21:00   B   36  230
23:00   B   38  250
11:00   C   26  130
12:00   C   27  140
16:00   C   31  180
19:00   C   34  210
22:00   C   37  240
15:00   D   30  170

and I want to pick only "The first and the last" of the id and eliminate the rest. The expected result looks like this:

Time    ID  X   Y
8:00    A   23  100
20:00   A   35  220
9:00    B   24  110
23:00   B   38  250
11:00   C   26  130
22:00   C   37  240
15:00   D   30  170

how to do it in pandas? thank you for your advice

Answer 1

Use groupby, find the head and tail for each group, and concat the two.

g = df.groupby('ID')

(pd.concat([g.head(1), g.tail(1)])
   .drop_duplicates()
   .sort_values('ID')
   .reset_index(drop=True))

    Time ID   X    Y
0   8:00  A  23  100
1  20:00  A  35  220
2   9:00  B  24  110
3  23:00  B  38  250
4  11:00  C  26  130
5  22:00  C  37  240
6  15:00  D  30  170

If you can guarantee each ID group has at least two rows, the drop_duplicates call is not needed.

---

Details

g.head(1)

    Time ID   X    Y
0   8:00  A  23  100
1   9:00  B  24  110
3  11:00  C  26  130
7  15:00  D  30  170

g.tail(1)

     Time ID   X    Y
7   15:00  D  30  170
12  20:00  A  35  220
14  22:00  C  37  240
15  23:00  B  38  250

pd.concat([g.head(1), g.tail(1)])

     Time ID   X    Y
0    8:00  A  23  100
1    9:00  B  24  110
3   11:00  C  26  130
7   15:00  D  30  170
7   15:00  D  30  170
12  20:00  A  35  220
14  22:00  C  37  240
15  23:00  B  38  250