You can use the following methods to sort the rows of a pandas DataFrame based on the absolute value of a column:
Method 1: Sort by Absolute Value (smallest abs. value shown first)
df.reindex(df['my_column'].abs().sort_values().index)
Method 2: Sort by Absolute Value (largest abs. value shown first)
df.reindex(df['my_column'].abs().sort_values(ascending=False).index)
The following examples show how to use each method in practice with the following pandas DataFrame that contains information about various basketball players:
import pandas as pd #create DataFrame df = pd.DataFrame({'player': ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F', 'G', 'H'], 'over_under': [4, -9, 2, 0, 1, 12, -4, -5]}) #view DataFrame print(df) player over_under 0 A 4 1 B -9 2 C 2 3 D 0 4 E 1 5 F 12 6 G -4 7 H -5
Example 1: Sort by Absolute Value (smallest abs. value shown first)
We can use the following syntax to sort the rows of the DataFrame based on the absolute value of the over_under column:
#sort DataFrame based on absolute value of over_under column
df_sorted = df.reindex(df['over_under'].abs().sort_values().index)
#view sorted DataFrame
print(df_sorted)
player over_under
3 D 0
4 E 1
2 C 2
0 A 4
6 G -4
7 H -5
1 B -9
5 F 12
Notice that the rows are sorted from smallest absolute value in the over_under column to largest absolute value.
Example 2: Sort by Absolute Value (largest abs. value shown first)
We can use the following syntax to sort the rows of the DataFrame based on the absolute value of the over_under column:
#sort DataFrame based on absolute value of over_under column
df_sorted = df.reindex(df['over_under'].abs().sort_values(ascending=False).index)
#view sorted DataFrame
print(df_sorted)
player over_under
5 F 12
1 B -9
7 H -5
0 A 4
6 G -4
2 C 2
4 E 1
3 D 0
Notice that the rows are sorted from largest absolute value in the over_under column to smallest absolute value.
Note: You can find the complete documentation for the pandas sort_values() function here.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in pandas:
Pandas: How to Sort by Date
Pandas: How to Sort Columns by Name
Pandas: How to Sort by Both Index and Column