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Crosstab Or Pivot Table (In Pandas) Deciding When to Use Which

Deciding Between Cross Tabulation & Pivot Table Can Be Confusing

Adam Ross Nelson
Towards Data Science

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Overview

Many of Pandas features can produce similar results. The apparent ambiguity can be confusing and frustrating for beginner and experienced users alike. This article compares pd.crosstab with pd.pivot_table in an effort to help you see how each will perform differently.

For this demonstration I will reference a personal data source: My posting activity on LinkedIn. This related article shows how to find and access this data for yourself.

The Data

If you’re here for heat map advice: Browse to the end of the article for a code excerpt that produces the optimal heat map displayed below.

The following are the first five records in my shares.csv file which you can download from LinkedIn.

Displays my first five posts on LinkedIn as further described in the article.
Image Credit: Excerpt of Author’s Data. Displays my first five posts on LinkedIn as further described in the article.

I began my life on LinkedIn in 2010 (or sooner). My first post was “Whistle while your work. Make it happen!” I have no…

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