Series Attributes

Every Series carries built-in attributes that describe it — its labels, its values, its type, its size, and more. They're facts about the Series, so you read them without brackets.

1Click through the attributes

Here's a sample Series with a name and one missing value. Click any attribute to see what it returns.

Attribute inspector

Attributes describe a Series (no brackets — they're not functions). Click one to see what it returns.

Math_Scores

a95.0

bNaN

c72.0

d91.0

dtype: float64

# the labels

s.index

Index(['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'], dtype='object')

2The nine key attributes

index — the labels of the Series.
values — the data, returned as a NumPy array.
dtype — the data type of the values (e.g. int64, float64, object).
shape — the dimensions as a tuple; always (n,) for a Series.
ndim — number of dimensions; always 1.
size — the total number of elements.
name— the Series' optional name.
hasnans — True if it contains any NaN.
empty — True if the Series has no elements.

3See them all at once

Run this and match each printout to the widget above. Watch the dtype: because one value is NaN, the whole Series is float64.

attributes.py

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

s = pd.Series(
    [95, np.nan, 72, 91],
    index=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'],
    name='Math_Scores'
)
print(s)

print("\n--- Attributes ---")
print("index:   ", s.index)
print("values:  ", s.values)
print("dtype:   ", s.dtype)
print("shape:   ", s.shape)
print("ndim:    ", s.ndim)
print("size:    ", s.size)
print("name:    ", s.name)
print("hasnans: ", s.hasnans)
print("empty:   ", s.empty)

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

s = pd.Series(
    [95, np.nan, 72, 91],
    index=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'],
    name='Math_Scores'
)
print(s)

print("\n--- Attributes ---")
print("index:   ", s.index)
print("values:  ", s.values)
print("dtype:   ", s.dtype)
print("shape:   ", s.shape)
print("ndim:    ", s.ndim)
print("size:    ", s.size)
print("name:    ", s.name)
print("hasnans: ", s.hasnans)
print("empty:   ", s.empty)

Watch Out

Attributes take no brackets: it's s.size, not s.size(). Adding () tries to call it like a function and errors. (Methods like head() do need brackets — the bracket is the giveaway.)

Quick Check

Which attribute tells you whether a Series contains any missing values?

Quick Check

What is s.ndim for any Series?

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