How to find a minimum value in a pandas dataframe column ?

Examples of how to find a minimum value in a pandas dataframe column:

Create a dataframe

Lets create for example a simple dataframe:

import pandas as pd

data = {'Name':['Ben','Anna','Zoe','Tom','John','Steve','Becky','Bob'], 
        'Age':[36,27,20,12,30,20,22,21]}

df = pd.DataFrame(data)

df

which returns

    Name  Age
0    Ben   36
1   Anna   27
2    Zoe   20
3    Tom   12
4   John   30
5  Steve   20
6  Becky   22
7    Bob   21

Find the min value in the column Age

To find the minimum value in the column Age, a solution is to use the pandas function min:

df['Age'].min()

that gives the min value:

12

Find the index corresponding to the min value in the column Age

It is also possible to find the index corresponding to the min value in the column Age using the pandas function called idxmin

df['Age'].idxmin()

returns here

3

Then using the index above:

df.iloc[3,:]

we get

Name    Tom
Age      12
Name: 3, dtype: object

An example with multiple rows with a min value in the same column

Lets create a dataframe with two min values in the column Age:

import pandas as pd

data = {'Name':['Ben','Anna','Zoe','Tom','John','Steve','Becky','Bob'], 
        'Age':[12,27,20,12,30,20,22,21]}

df = pd.DataFrame(data)

print(df)

gives

    Name  Age
0    Ben   12
1   Anna   27
2    Zoe   20
3    Tom   12
4   John   30
5  Steve   20
6  Becky   22
7    Bob   21

Then the function min:

df['Age'].min()

returns the min value which is

12

however idxmin

df['Age'].idxmin()

returns only the first index:

0

To get rows with a min value in the column Age a solution is to do:

df[ df['Age'] == df['Age'].min() ]

  Name  Age
0  Ben   12
3  Tom   12

and to get the indexes:

df[ df['Age'] == df['Age'].min() ].index

which returns

Int64Index([0, 3], dtype='int64')

References

• pandas.DataFrame.min
• pandas.DataFrame.idxmin