Bug fix - rename dataframe reset index

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.5.0.rst

@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ Other enhancements
 - Improved error message in :class:`~pandas.core.window.Rolling` when ``window`` is a frequency and ``NaT`` is in the rolling axis (:issue:`46087`)
 - :class:`Series` and :class:`DataFrame` with ``IntegerDtype`` now supports bitwise operations (:issue:`34463`)
 - Add ``milliseconds`` field support for :class:`~pandas.DateOffset` (:issue:`43371`)
--
+- :meth:`DataFrame.reset_index` now accepts a ``names`` argument which renames the index names (:issue:`6878`)
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 .. _whatsnew_150.notable_bug_fixes:

pandas/core/frame.py

@@ -5684,6 +5684,7 @@ def reset_index(
         col_level: Hashable = ...,
         col_fill: Hashable = ...,
         allow_duplicates: bool | lib.NoDefault = ...,
+        names: Hashable | Sequence[Hashable] = None,
     ) -> DataFrame:
         ...
 
@@ -5696,6 +5697,7 @@ def reset_index(
         col_level: Hashable = ...,
         col_fill: Hashable = ...,
         allow_duplicates: bool | lib.NoDefault = ...,
+        names: Hashable | Sequence[Hashable] = None,
     ) -> None:
         ...
 
@@ -5708,6 +5710,7 @@ def reset_index(
         col_level: Hashable = ...,
         col_fill: Hashable = ...,
         allow_duplicates: bool | lib.NoDefault = ...,
+        names: Hashable | Sequence[Hashable] = None,
     ) -> None:
         ...
 
@@ -5720,6 +5723,7 @@ def reset_index(
         col_level: Hashable = ...,
         col_fill: Hashable = ...,
         allow_duplicates: bool | lib.NoDefault = ...,
+        names: Hashable | Sequence[Hashable] = None,
     ) -> None:
         ...
 
@@ -5731,6 +5735,7 @@ def reset_index(
         col_level: Hashable = ...,
         col_fill: Hashable = ...,
         allow_duplicates: bool | lib.NoDefault = ...,
+        names: Hashable | Sequence[Hashable] = None,
     ) -> None:
         ...
 
@@ -5743,6 +5748,7 @@ def reset_index(
         col_level: Hashable = ...,
         col_fill: Hashable = ...,
         allow_duplicates: bool | lib.NoDefault = ...,
+        names: Hashable | Sequence[Hashable] = None,
     ) -> DataFrame | None:
         ...
 
@@ -5755,6 +5761,7 @@ def reset_index(
         col_level: Hashable = 0,
         col_fill: Hashable = "",
         allow_duplicates: bool | lib.NoDefault = lib.no_default,
+        names: Hashable | Sequence[Hashable] = None,
     ) -> DataFrame | None:
         """
         Reset the index, or a level of it.
@@ -5785,6 +5792,13 @@ def reset_index(
 
             .. versionadded:: 1.5.0
 
+        names : int, str or 1-dimensional list, default None
+            Using the given string, rename the DataFrame column which contains the
+            index data. If the DataFrame has a MultiIndex, this has to be a list or
+            tuple with length equal to the number of levels.
+
+            .. versionadded:: 1.5.0
+
         Returns
         -------
         DataFrame or None
@@ -5855,6 +5869,16 @@ class  name
         mammal lion     80.5     run
                monkey    NaN    jump
 
+        Using the `names` parameter, choose a name for the index column:
+
+        >>> df.reset_index(names=['classes', 'names'])
+          classes   names  speed species
+                             max    type
+        0    bird  falcon  389.0     fly
+        1    bird  parrot   24.0     fly
+        2  mammal    lion   80.5     run
+        3  mammal  monkey    NaN    jump
+
         If the index has multiple levels, we can reset a subset of them:
 
         >>> df.reset_index(level='class')
@@ -5920,12 +5944,13 @@ class    max    type
 
         if not drop:
             to_insert: Iterable[tuple[Any, Any | None]]
+
+            default = "index" if "index" not in self else "level_0"
+            names = self.index._get_default_index_names(names, default)
+
             if isinstance(self.index, MultiIndex):
-                names = com.fill_missing_names(self.index.names)
                 to_insert = zip(self.index.levels, self.index.codes)
             else:
-                default = "index" if "index" not in self else "level_0"
-                names = [default] if self.index.name is None else [self.index.name]
                 to_insert = ((self.index, None),)
 
             multi_col = isinstance(self.columns, MultiIndex)

pandas/core/indexes/base.py

@@ -1771,6 +1771,41 @@ def _validate_names(
 
         return new_names
 
+    def _get_default_index_names(
+        self, names: Hashable | Sequence[Hashable] | None = None, default=None
+    ) -> list[Hashable]:
+        """
+        Get names of index.
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        names : int, str or 1-dimensional list, default None
+            Index names to set.
+        default : str
+            Default name of index.
+
+        Raises
+        ------
+        TypeError
+            if names not str or list-like
+        """
+        from pandas.core.indexes.multi import MultiIndex
+
+        if names is not None:
+            if isinstance(names, str) or isinstance(names, int):
+                names = [names]
+
+        if not isinstance(names, list) and names is not None:
+            raise ValueError("Index names must be str or 1-dimensional list")
+
+        if not names:
+            if isinstance(self, MultiIndex):
+                names = com.fill_missing_names(self.names)
+            else:
+                names = [default] if self.name is None else [self.name]
+
+        return names
+
     def _get_names(self) -> FrozenList:
         return FrozenList((self.name,))
 

pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_reset_index.py

@@ -754,3 +754,42 @@ def test_reset_index_interval_columns_object_cast():
         columns=Index(["Year", Interval(0, 1), Interval(1, 2)]),
     )
     tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
+
+
+def test_reset_index_rename(float_frame):
+    # GH 6878
+    result = float_frame.reset_index(names="new_name")
+    expected = Series(float_frame.index.values, name="new_name")
+    tm.assert_series_equal(result["new_name"], expected)
+
+    result = float_frame.reset_index(names=123)
+    expected = Series(float_frame.index.values, name=123)
+    tm.assert_series_equal(result[123], expected)
+
+
+def test_reset_index_rename_multiindex(float_frame):
+    # GH 6878
+    stacked_df = float_frame.stack()[::2]
+    stacked_df = DataFrame({"foo": stacked_df, "bar": stacked_df})
+
+    names = ["first", "second"]
+    stacked_df.index.names = names
+
+    result = stacked_df.reset_index()
+    expected = stacked_df.reset_index(names=["new_first", "new_second"])
+    tm.assert_series_equal(result["first"], expected["new_first"], check_names=False)
+    tm.assert_series_equal(result["second"], expected["new_second"], check_names=False)
+
+
+def test_errorreset_index_rename(float_frame):
+    # GH 6878
+    stacked_df = float_frame.stack()[::2]
+    stacked_df = DataFrame({"first": stacked_df, "second": stacked_df})
+
+    with pytest.raises(
+        ValueError, match="Index names must be str or 1-dimensional list"
+    ):
+        stacked_df.reset_index(names={"first": "new_first", "second": "new_second"})
+
+    with pytest.raises(IndexError, match="list index out of range"):
+        stacked_df.reset_index(names=["new_first"])