Attempt to sort pandas df returns multiindex error

Question

Relatively new to python, I'm trying to use pandas sort_values() to sort my df by a specific column. But I'm getting an error about multiindexing, but I don't think I've created a multiindex have I? Here is the data I'm practicing with. I want to see all data organized by "diggies" in ascending.

df

  letters digits diggies
0       A      1          7
1       B      2          3
2       C      3         20

df.sort_values(by="diggies") ValueError: Cannot sort by column diggies in a multi-index you need to explicitly provide all the levels

Have I unintentionally created a multiindex? Interestingly, I was able to run sort from another practice data set I imported from a CSV. I though the difference might ahve been the data types, but they are both combinations of either "objects" or "int64".

Any tips on why I'm getting this error and how to get around it? Thanks

***added info

MultiIndex(levels=[['digits', 'letters', 'diggies']], labels=[[1, 0, 2]])

Just ran df.columns...which does indicate its a multiIndex...why is that and how do I fix it? — joe5
– joe5, Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 2:47

BENY · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-03 02:50:30Z

1

You can using get_level_values to reset the index

df.columns=df.columns.get_level_values(0)

answered Dec 3, 2018 at 2:50

BENY

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1 Comment

joe5 Over a year ago

Thanks! That worked...I'll have to read up somemore to understand how I created multiindex in first place and how .get_level_values() works. I apprecaite the quick response.

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