DOC: Enhancing pivot / reshape docs

doc/source/reshaping.rst

@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ Reshaping and Pivot Tables
 Reshaping by pivoting DataFrame objects
 ---------------------------------------
 
+.. image:: _static/reshaping_pivot.png
+
 .. ipython::
    :suppress:
 
@@ -33,8 +35,7 @@ Reshaping by pivoting DataFrame objects
 
    In [3]: df = unpivot(tm.makeTimeDataFrame())
 
-Data is often stored in CSV files or databases in so-called "stacked" or
-"record" format:
+Data is often stored in so-called "stacked" or "record" format:
 
 .. ipython:: python
 
@@ -60,8 +61,6 @@ To select out everything for variable ``A`` we could do:
 
    df[df['variable'] == 'A']
 
-.. image:: _static/reshaping_pivot.png
-
 But suppose we wish to do time series operations with the variables. A better
 representation would be where the ``columns`` are the unique variables and an
 ``index`` of dates identifies individual observations. To reshape the data into
@@ -81,7 +80,7 @@ column:
 .. ipython:: python
 
    df['value2'] = df['value'] * 2
-   pivoted = df.pivot('date', 'variable')
+   pivoted = df.pivot(index='date', columns='variable')
    pivoted
 
 You can then select subsets from the pivoted ``DataFrame``:
@@ -93,6 +92,12 @@ You can then select subsets from the pivoted ``DataFrame``:
 Note that this returns a view on the underlying data in the case where the data
 are homogeneously-typed.
 
+.. note::
+   ``pandas.pivot`` will error with a ``ValueError: Index contains duplicate
+   entries, cannot reshape`` if the index/column pair is not unique. In this
+   case, consider using :func:`~pandas.pivot_table` which is a generalization
+   of pivot that can handle duplicate values for one index/column pair.
+
 .. _reshaping.stacking:
 
 Reshaping by stacking and unstacking
@@ -698,10 +703,124 @@ handling of NaN:
     In [3]: np.unique(x, return_inverse=True)[::-1]
     Out[3]: (array([3, 3, 0, 4, 1, 2]), array([nan, 3.14, inf, 'A', 'B'], dtype=object))
 
-
 .. note::
     If you just want to handle one column as a categorical variable (like R's factor),
     you can use  ``df["cat_col"] = pd.Categorical(df["col"])`` or
     ``df["cat_col"] = df["col"].astype("category")``. For full docs on :class:`~pandas.Categorical`,
     see the :ref:`Categorical introduction <categorical>` and the
     :ref:`API documentation <api.categorical>`.
+
+Frequently Asked Questions (and Examples)
+------------------
+
+In this section, we will review frequently asked questions and examples. The 
+column names and relevant column values are named to correspond with how this
+DataFrame will be pivoted in the answers below.
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   np.random.seed([3,1415])
+   n = 20
+
+   cols = np.array(['key', 'row', 'item', 'col'])
+   arr1 = (np.random.randint(5, size=(n, 4)) // [2, 1, 2, 1]).astype(str)
+
+   df = pd.DataFrame(np.core.defchararray.add(cols, arr1), columns=cols).join(
+       pd.DataFrame(np.random.rand(n, 2).round(2)).add_prefix('val')
+   )
+
+   df
+
+Question 1
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+How do I pivot ``df`` such that the ``col`` values are columns,
+``row`` values are the index, and mean of ``val0`` are the values? In
+particular, the resulting DataFrame should look like:
+
+.. code-block:: ipython
+
+   col   col0   col1   col2   col3  col4
+   row                                  
+   row0  0.77  0.605    NaN  0.860  0.65
+   row2  0.13    NaN  0.395  0.500  0.25
+   row3   NaN  0.310    NaN  0.545   NaN
+   row4   NaN  0.100  0.395  0.760  0.24
+
+**Answer**
+This solution uses :func:`~pandas.pivot_table`. Also note that
+``aggfunc='mean'`` is the default. It is included here to be explicit.
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   df.pivot_table(
+       values='val0', index='row', columns='col', aggfunc='mean')
+
+Note that we can also replace the missing values by using the ``fill_value``
+parameter.
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   df.pivot_table(
+       values='val0', index='row', columns='col', aggfunc='mean', fill_value=0)
+
+Also note that we can pass in other aggregation functions as well. For example,
+we can also pass in ``sum``.
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   df.pivot_table(
+       values='val0', index='row', columns='col', aggfunc='sum', fill_value=0)
+
+Question 2
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+How can I perform multiple aggregations at the same time? For example, what if
+I wanted to perform both a ``sum`` and ``mean`` aggregation?
+
+**Answer**
+We can pass in a list to the ``aggfunc`` argument.
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   df.pivot_table(
+       values='val0', index='row', columns='col', aggfunc=['mean', 'sum'])
+
+Question 3
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+How can I aggregate over multiple value columns?
+
+**Answer**
+We can pass in a list to the ``values`` parameter.
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   df.pivot_table(
+       values=['val0', 'val1'], index='row', columns='col', aggfunc=['mean'])
+
+Question 4
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+How can I Group By over multiple columns?
+
+**Answer**
+We can pass in a list to the ``columns`` parameter.
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   df.pivot_table(
+       values=['val0'], index='row', columns=['item', 'col'], aggfunc=['mean'])
+
+Question 5
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+How can I aggregate the frequency in which the columns and rows occur together
+a.k.a. "cross tabulation"?
+
+**Answer**
+We can pass ``size`` to the ``aggfunc`` parameter.
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   df.pivot_table(index='row', columns='col', fill_value=0, aggfunc='size')

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.23.0.txt

@@ -1375,6 +1375,7 @@ Reshaping
 - Bug in :func:`isna`, which cannot handle ambiguous typed lists (:issue:`20675`)
 - Bug in :func:`concat` which raises an error when concatenating TZ-aware dataframes and all-NaT dataframes (:issue:`12396`)
 - Bug in :func:`concat` which raises an error when concatenating empty TZ-aware series (:issue:`18447`)
+- Updated :func:`~pandas.pivot_table` with more comprehensive examples. Also updated Reshaping and Pivot Tables documentation with a Frequenty Asked Questions example (:issue:`19089`)
 
 Other
 ^^^^^

pandas/core/frame.py

@@ -5233,50 +5233,73 @@ def pivot(self, index=None, columns=None, values=None):
         ...                    "C": ["small", "large", "large", "small",
         ...                          "small", "large", "small", "small",
         ...                          "large"],
-        ...                    "D": [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]})
+        ...                    "D": [1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7],
+        ...                    "E": [2, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 9]})
         >>> df
-             A    B      C  D
-        0  foo  one  small  1
-        1  foo  one  large  2
-        2  foo  one  large  2
-        3  foo  two  small  3
-        4  foo  two  small  3
-        5  bar  one  large  4
-        6  bar  one  small  5
-        7  bar  two  small  6
-        8  bar  two  large  7
+             A    B      C  D  E
+        0  foo  one  small  1  2
+        1  foo  one  large  2  4
+        2  foo  one  large  2  5
+        3  foo  two  small  3  5
+        4  foo  two  small  3  6
+        5  bar  one  large  4  6
+        6  bar  one  small  5  8
+        7  bar  two  small  6  9
+        8  bar  two  large  7  9
+
+        This first example aggregates values by taking the sum.
 
         >>> table = pivot_table(df, values='D', index=['A', 'B'],
         ...                     columns=['C'], aggfunc=np.sum)
         >>> table
         C        large  small
         A   B
-        bar one    4.0    5.0
-            two    7.0    6.0
-        foo one    4.0    1.0
-            two    NaN    6.0
+        bar one      4      5
+            two      7      6
+        foo one      4      1
+            two    NaN      6
+
+        We can also fill missing values using the `fill_value` parameter.
 
         >>> table = pivot_table(df, values='D', index=['A', 'B'],
-        ...                     columns=['C'], aggfunc=np.sum)
+        ...                     columns=['C'], aggfunc=np.sum, fill_value=0)
         >>> table
         C        large  small
         A   B
-        bar one    4.0    5.0
-            two    7.0    6.0
-        foo one    4.0    1.0
-            two    NaN    6.0
+        bar one      4      5
+            two      7      6
+        foo one      4      1
+            two      0      6
+
+        The next example aggregates by taking the mean using values for
+        multiple columns.
+
+        >>> table = pivot_table(df, values=['D', 'E'], index=['A', 'C'],
+        ...                     aggfunc={'D': np.mean,
+        ...                              'E': np.mean})
+        >>> table
+                          D         E
+                       mean      mean
+        A   C
+        bar large  5.500000  7.500000
+            small  5.500000  8.500000
+        foo large  2.000000  4.500000
+            small  2.333333  4.333333
+
+        We can also calculate multiple types of aggregations for any given
+        value column.
 
         >>> table = pivot_table(df, values=['D', 'E'], index=['A', 'C'],
         ...                     aggfunc={'D': np.mean,
         ...                              'E': [min, max, np.mean]})
         >>> table
                           D   E
-                       mean max median min
+                       mean max      mean min
         A   C
-        bar large  5.500000  16   14.5  13
-            small  5.500000  15   14.5  14
-        foo large  2.000000  10    9.5   9
-            small  2.333333  12   11.0   8
+        bar large  5.500000  9   7.500000   6
+            small  5.500000  9   8.500000   8
+        foo large  2.000000  5   4.500000   4
+            small  2.333333  6   4.333333   2
 
         Returns
         -------