This is a quick cheatsheet on creating and indexing with Pandas MultiIndexes.

Guide

I’m representing values in the DataFrame using symbols. For a DataFrame like the one to the left, the representation I’ll use is the one on the right.

For example, A in the sample DataFrame is represented by the blue rectangle that look like in the images. As additional examples, B in the sample DataFrame is represented by , the row one is and two is .

Creating MultiIndexes

Four ways to create MultiIndexes are pd.MultiIndex.from_tuples, pd.MultiIndex.from_product, pd.MultiIndex.from_arrays, and pd.MultiIndex.from_frame.

pd.MultiIndex.from_tuples
 
pd.MultiIndex.from_arrays
 
pd.MultiIndex.from_product
 
pd.MultiIndex.from_frame
The column names become the names of the levels.

Creating a sample DataFrame with MultiIndex

You can create a DataFrame with MultiIndexes as both the index and the columns.

MultiIndex from a group by

You can create up with a DataFrame with a MultiIndex by using a pivot or groupby using multiple columns.

Accessing columns

This section describes how to select different columns and rows using the MultiIndexes. This section uses the DataFrame below, which has a MultiIndex as the columns and rows.

Columns

Rows