API: allow list-like to DataFrame rename

doc/source/indexing.rst

@@ -1586,6 +1586,25 @@ If you create an index yourself, you can just assign it to the ``index`` field:
 
    data.index = index
 
+.. versionadded:: 0.20.0
+
+A new index can also be created on an existing object by passing values
+to the ``rename`` method.
+
+.. ipython:: python
+   :suppress:
+
+   data = data.reset_index()
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   data
+   data.rename(index=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'])
+   data.rename(columns=['q', 'w', 'r', 't'])
+
+
+
+
 .. _indexing.view_versus_copy:
 
 Returning a view versus a copy

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.20.0.txt

@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ Other enhancements
 - ``pandas.io.json.json_normalize()`` gained the option ``errors='ignore'|'raise'``; the default is ``errors='raise'`` which is backward compatible. (:issue:`14583`)
 
 - ``.select_dtypes()`` now allows the string 'datetimetz' to generically select datetimes with tz (:issue:`14910`)
-
+- ``pd.DataFrame.rename`` now accepts a list-like for the ``index`` and ``columns`` parameters to assign new axis values (:issue:`14829`)
 
 .. _whatsnew_0200.api_breaking:
 

pandas/core/frame.py

@@ -2842,6 +2842,11 @@ def set_index(self, keys, drop=True, append=False, inplace=False,
         Returns
         -------
         dataframe : DataFrame
+
+        See Also
+        --------
+        DataFrame.rename
+
         """
         if not isinstance(keys, list):
             keys = [keys]

pandas/core/generic.py

@@ -581,7 +581,7 @@ def swaplevel(self, i=-2, j=-1, axis=0):
         ----------
         %(axes)s : scalar, list-like, dict-like or function, optional
             Scalar or list-like will alter the ``Series.name`` attribute,
-            and raise on DataFrame or Panel.
+            for DataFrame list-like will form new values for the axes,
             dict-like or functions are transformations to apply to
             that axis' values
         copy : boolean, default True
@@ -635,6 +635,11 @@ def swaplevel(self, i=-2, j=-1, axis=0):
         0  1  4
         1  2  5
         2  3  6
+        >>> df.rename(index=['a', 'b', 'c'], columns=[1, 2])
+           1  2
+        a  1  4
+        b  2  5
+        c  3  6
         """
 
     @Appender(_shared_docs['rename'] % dict(axes='axes keywords for this'
@@ -672,13 +677,17 @@ def f(x):
         # start in the axis order to eliminate too many copies
         for axis in lrange(self._AXIS_LEN):
             v = axes.get(self._AXIS_NAMES[axis])
+            baxis = self._get_block_manager_axis(axis)
             if v is None:
                 continue
-            f = _get_rename_function(v)
 
-            baxis = self._get_block_manager_axis(axis)
-            result._data = result._data.rename_axis(f, axis=baxis, copy=copy)
-            result._clear_item_cache()
+            f = _get_rename_function(v)
+            if is_list_like(f) and not callable(f):
+                result._set_axis(axis=baxis, labels=v)
+            else:
+                result._data = result._data.rename_axis(f, axis=baxis,
+                                                        copy=copy)
+                result._clear_item_cache()
 
         if inplace:
             self._update_inplace(result._data)

pandas/tests/test_generic.py

@@ -1504,6 +1504,30 @@ def test_to_xarray(self):
                            expected,
                            check_index_type=False)
 
+    def test_rename_list_like(self):
+        # GH 14829
+        df = pd.DataFrame({'a': [1, 2], 'b': [3, 4]}, columns=['a', 'b'])
+
+        expected = df.copy()
+        expected.columns = ['J', 'K']
+        result = df.rename(columns=['J', 'K'])
+        assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
+
+        expected.index = ['a', 'b']
+        for box in [list, np.array, Index]:
+            result = df.rename(columns=box(['J', 'K']), index=box(['a', 'b']))
+            assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
+
+        result = df.copy()
+        result.rename(columns=['J', 'K'], index=['a', 'b'], inplace=True)
+        assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
+
+        with tm.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            df.rename(index=[1, 3, 3])
+
+        with tm.assertRaises(TypeError):
+            df.rename(index=1)
+
 
 class TestPanel(tm.TestCase, Generic):
     _typ = Panel