How to Rename a Column in a DataFrame?

In this short how-to article, we will learn how to rename a column in Pandas and PySpark DataFrames. 

Pandas

The rename function can be used for renaming the columns.

# Rename one columns
df = df.rename(columns={"date": "purchase_date"})

# Rename multiple columns
df = df.rename(columns={"date": "purchase_date", "qty": "quantity"})

Or, using the inplace parameter:

df.rename(columns={"date": "purchase_date"}, inplace=True)

PySpark

The withColumnRenamed function is used for renaming columns in a PySpark DataFrame.

# Rename one column
df = df.withColumnRenamed("date", "purchase_date")

# Multiple columns
df = df.withColumnRenamed("date", "purchase_date").withColumnRenamed("qty", "quantity")

This question is also being asked as:

• How to change DataFrame column names in PySpark?
• Renaming column names in Pandas

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