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| 1 | +# About pandas |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +## History of development |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +In 2008, _pandas_ development began at [AQR Capital Management](http://www.aqr.com). |
| 6 | +By the end of 2009 it had been [open sourced](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source), |
| 7 | +and is actively supported today by a community of like-minded individuals around the world who |
| 8 | +contribute their valuable time and energy to help make open source _pandas_ |
| 9 | +possible. Thank you to [all of our contributors](team.html). |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +Since 2015, _pandas_ is a [NumFOCUS sponsored project](https://numfocus.org/sponsored-projects). |
| 12 | +This will help ensure the success of development of _pandas_ as a world-class open-source project. |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +### Timeline |
| 15 | + |
| 16 | +- **2008**: Development of _pandas_ started |
| 17 | +- **2009**: _pandas_ becomes open source |
| 18 | +- **2012**: First edition of _Python for Data Analysis_ is published |
| 19 | +- **2015**: _pandas_ becomes a [NumFOCUS sponsored project](https://numfocus.org/sponsored-projects) |
| 20 | +- **2018**: First in-person core developer sprint |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +## Library Highlights |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +- A fast and efficient **DataFrame** object for data manipulation with |
| 25 | + integrated indexing; |
| 26 | + |
| 27 | +- Tools for **reading and writing data** between in-memory data structures and |
| 28 | + different formats: CSV and text files, Microsoft Excel, SQL databases, and |
| 29 | + the fast HDF5 format; |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +- Intelligent **data alignment** and integrated handling of **missing data**: |
| 32 | + gain automatic label-based alignment in computations and easily manipulate |
| 33 | + messy data into an orderly form; |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +- Flexible **reshaping** and pivoting of data sets; |
| 36 | + |
| 37 | +- Intelligent label-based **slicing**, **fancy indexing**, and **subsetting** |
| 38 | + of large data sets; |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +- Columns can be inserted and deleted from data structures for **size |
| 41 | + mutability**; |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +- Aggregating or transforming data with a powerful **group by** engine |
| 44 | + allowing split-apply-combine operations on data sets; |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +- High performance **merging and joining** of data sets; |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +- **Hierarchical axis indexing** provides an intuitive way of working with |
| 49 | + high-dimensional data in a lower-dimensional data structure; |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +- **Time series**-functionality: date range generation and frequency |
| 52 | + conversion, moving window statistics, moving window linear regressions, date |
| 53 | + shifting and lagging. Even create domain-specific time offsets and join time |
| 54 | + series without losing data; |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | +- Highly **optimized for performance**, with critical code paths written in |
| 57 | + [Cython](http://www.cython.org/) or C. |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | +- Python with *pandas* is in use in a wide variety of **academic and |
| 60 | + commercial** domains, including Finance, Neuroscience, Economics, |
| 61 | + Statistics, Advertising, Web Analytics, and more. |
| 62 | + |
| 63 | +## Mission |
| 64 | + |
| 65 | +_pandas_ aims to be the fundamental high-level building block for doing practical, |
| 66 | +real world data analysis in Python. |
| 67 | +Additionally, it has the broader goal of becoming the most powerful and flexible |
| 68 | +open source data analysis / manipulation tool available in any language. |
| 69 | + |
| 70 | +## Vision |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +A world where data analytics and manipulation software is: |
| 73 | + |
| 74 | +- Accessible to everyone |
| 75 | +- Free for users to use and modify |
| 76 | +- Flexible |
| 77 | +- Powerful |
| 78 | +- Easy to use |
| 79 | +- Fast |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +## Values |
| 82 | + |
| 83 | +Is in the core of _pandas_ to be respectful and welcoming with everybody, |
| 84 | +users, contributors and the broader community. Regardless of level of experience, |
| 85 | +gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, |
| 86 | +personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, or nationality. |
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