How to delete all rows in a dataframe?

Question

I want to delete all the rows in a dataframe.

The reason I want to do this is so that I can reconstruct the dataframe with an iterative loop. I want to start with a completely empty dataframe.

Alternatively, I could create an empty df from just the column / type information if that is possible

Answer 1

Here's another method if you have an existing DataFrame that you'd like to empty without recreating the column information:

df_empty = df[0:0]

df_empty is a DataFrame with zero rows but with the same column structure as df

Answer 2

If you have an existing DataFrame with the columns you want then extract the column names into a list comprehension then create an empty DataFrame with your column names.

# Creating DataFrame from a CSV file with desired headers
csv_a = "path/to/my.csv"
df_a = pd.read_csv(csv_a)

# Extract column names into a list
names = [x for x in df_a.columns]

# Create empty DataFrame with those column names
df_b = pd.DataFrame(columns=names)

Answer 3

df.drop(df.index,inplace=True) 

This line will delete all rows, by keeping the column names.