Map values using input an input mapping or function.
Maps the values (their categories, not the codes) of the index to new categories. If the mapping correspondence is one-to-one the result is a CategoricalIndex which has the same order property as the original, otherwise an Index is returned.
If a dict or Series is used any unmapped category is mapped to NaN. Note that if this happens an Index will be returned.
Mapping correspondence.
Mapped index.
See also
Index.mapApply a mapping correspondence on an Index.
Series.mapApply a mapping correspondence on a Series.
Series.applyApply more complex functions on a Series.
Examples
>>> idx = pd.CategoricalIndex(['a', 'b', 'c'])
>>> idx
CategoricalIndex(['a', 'b', 'c'], categories=['a', 'b', 'c'],
ordered=False, dtype='category')
>>> idx.map(lambda x: x.upper())
CategoricalIndex(['A', 'B', 'C'], categories=['A', 'B', 'C'],
ordered=False, dtype='category')
>>> idx.map({'a': 'first', 'b': 'second', 'c': 'third'})
CategoricalIndex(['first', 'second', 'third'], categories=['first',
'second', 'third'], ordered=False, dtype='category')
If the mapping is one-to-one the ordering of the categories is preserved:
>>> idx = pd.CategoricalIndex(['a', 'b', 'c'], ordered=True)
>>> idx
CategoricalIndex(['a', 'b', 'c'], categories=['a', 'b', 'c'],
ordered=True, dtype='category')
>>> idx.map({'a': 3, 'b': 2, 'c': 1})
CategoricalIndex([3, 2, 1], categories=[3, 2, 1], ordered=True,
dtype='category')
If the mapping is not one-to-one an Index is returned:
>>> idx.map({'a': 'first', 'b': 'second', 'c': 'first'})
Index(['first', 'second', 'first'], dtype='object')
If a dict is used, all unmapped categories are mapped to NaN and the result is an Index:
>>> idx.map({'a': 'first', 'b': 'second'})
Index(['first', 'second', nan], dtype='object')
© 2008–2011, AQR Capital Management, LLC, Lambda Foundry, Inc. and PyData Development Team
© 2011–2025, Open source contributors
Licensed under the 3-clause BSD License.
https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/version/2.3.0/reference/api/pandas.CategoricalIndex.map.html