How to Drop Rows by Index in Pandas (With Examples)

You can use the following syntax to drop one row from a pandas DataFrame by index number:

#drop first row from DataFrame
df = df.drop(index=0)

And you can use the following syntax to drop multiple rows from a pandas DataFrame by index numbers:

#drop first, second, and fourth row from DataFrame
df = df.drop(index=[0, 1, 3])

If your DataFrame has strings as index values, you can simply pass the names as strings to drop:

df = df.drop(index=['first', 'second', 'third'])

The following examples show how to drop rows by index in practice.

Example 1: Drop One Row by Index

The following code shows how to drop the second row in a pandas DataFrame:

import pandas as pd

#create DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({'team': ['Mavs', 'Lakers', 'Spurs', 'Cavs'],
                   'first': ['Dirk', 'Kobe', 'Tim', 'Lebron'],
                   'last': ['Nowitzki', 'Bryant', 'Duncan', 'James'],
                   'points': [26, 31, 22, 29]})

#view DataFrame
df

        team	first	last	 points
0	Mavs	Dirk	Nowitzki 26
1	Lakers	Kobe	Bryant	 31
2	Spurs	Tim	Duncan	 22
3	Cavs	Lebron	James	 29

#drop second row from DataFrame
df = df.drop(index=1) 

#view resulting dataFrame
df

        team	first	last	 points
0	Mavs	Dirk	Nowitzki 26
2	Spurs	Tim	Duncan	 22
3	Cavs	Lebron	James	 29

Example 2: Drop Multiple Rows by Index

The following code shows how to drop multiple rows in a pandas DataFrame by index:

import pandas as pd

#create DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({'team': ['Mavs', 'Lakers', 'Spurs', 'Cavs'],
                   'first': ['Dirk', 'Kobe', 'Tim', 'Lebron'],
                   'last': ['Nowitzki', 'Bryant', 'Duncan', 'James'],
                   'points': [26, 31, 22, 29]})

#view DataFrame
df

        team	first	last	 points
0	Mavs	Dirk	Nowitzki 26
1	Lakers	Kobe	Bryant	 31
2	Spurs	Tim	Duncan	 22
3	Cavs	Lebron	James	 29

#drop first, second, and fourth row from DataFrame
df = df.drop(index=[0, 1, 3]) 

#view resulting dataFrame
df

	team	first	last	points
2	Spurs	Tim	Duncan	22

Example 3: Drop Rows When Index is a String

The following code shows how to drop rows from a pandas DataFrame by index when the index is a string instead of a number:

import pandas as pd

#create DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({'team': ['Mavs', 'Lakers', 'Spurs', 'Cavs'],
                   'last': ['Nowitzki', 'Bryant', 'Duncan', 'James'],
                   'last': ['Nowitzki', 'Bryant', 'Duncan', 'James'],
                   'points': [26, 31, 22, 29]},
                   index=['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'])

#view DataFrame
df
        team	first	last	 points
A	Mavs	Dirk	Nowitzki 26
B	Lakers	Kobe	Bryant	 31
C	Spurs	Tim	Duncan	 22
D	Cavs	Lebron	James	 29

#remove rows with index values 'A' and 'C'
df = df.drop(index=['A', 'C'])

#view resulting DataFrame
df

team	first	last	points
B	Lakers	Kobe	Bryant	31
D	Cavs	Lebron	James	29