Load Only Columns You Are Interested In With Pandas

The aim of this explainer💡 is to recommend the use of usecol= parameter with read_csv method that is the first step in loading csv files in Pandas.

1. notes

• the docs say wisely

Using this parameter results in much faster parsing time and lower memory usage.

2. steps

• check your cols without the parameter

import pandas as pd
pd.set_option('display.max_rows', None)
df = pd.read_csv(".\\dm.csv")
df.head()

• this returns the first 5 rows of all columns
• then select necessary either with name or with indices with usecols=

import pandas as pd
pd.set_option('display.max_rows', None)
df = pd.read_csv(".\\dm.csv", usecols=[0,3,4,5])
df