Peeking: head() & tail()

Real datasets can have thousands of rows — printing all of them is useless. head() and tail() let you glance at just the top or bottom few to check your data looks right.

1Peek at the top or the bottom

Drag n and switch between head() and tail() to see exactly which rows come back.

head() & tail()

Big Series are long. Peek at just the top or bottom few rows — drag n to see how many.

n =5

a10

b20

c30

d40

e50

f60

g70

h80

i90

j100

what you called

s.head()

returns

a, b, c, d, e

Call it with no number and you get 5 rows by default.

2How they work

🔼 s.head(n) — the first n rows. Default is 5.
🔽 s.tail(n) — the last n rows. Default is 5.

head_tail.py

import pandas as pd

s = pd.Series(
    [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100],
    index=list('abcdefghij')
)

print("--- s.head() : default first 5 ---")
print(s.head())

print("\n--- s.head(3) : first 3 ---")
print(s.head(3))

print("\n--- s.tail(2) : last 2 ---")
print(s.tail(2))

import pandas as pd

s = pd.Series(
    [10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100],
    index=list('abcdefghij')
)

print("--- s.head() : default first 5 ---")
print(s.head())

print("\n--- s.head(3) : first 3 ---")
print(s.head(3))

print("\n--- s.tail(2) : last 2 ---")
print(s.tail(2))

Tip

These don't change your Series — they just return a small copy to look at. Call them with no number for 5 rows, or pass any count you like.

Quick Check

What does s.tail() return by default?

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