Python Pandas - Remove the specified categories from CategoricalIndex

To remove the specified categories from CategoricalIndex, use the remove_categories() method in Pandas.

At first, import the required libraries −

import pandas as pd

Set the categories for the categorical using the "categories" parameter. Treat the categorical as ordered using the "ordered" parameter −

catIndex = pd.CategoricalIndex(["p", "q", "r", "s","p", "q", "r", "s"], ordered=True, categories=["p", "q", "r", "s"])

Remove categories using remove_categories(). Set the categories to be removed as a parameter. Values which were in the removed categories will be set to NaN −

print("\nCategoricalIndex after removing specified categories...\n",
catIndex.remove_categories(["p", "q"]))

Example

Following is the code −

import pandas as pd

# Set the categories for the categorical using the "categories" parameter
# Treat the categorical as ordered using the "ordered" parameter
catIndex = pd.CategoricalIndex(["p", "q", "r", "s","p", "q", "r", "s"], ordered=True, categories=["p", "q", "r", "s"])

# Display the CategoricalIndex
print("CategoricalIndex...\n",catIndex)

# Get the categories
print("\nDisplaying Categories from CategoricalIndex...\n",catIndex.categories)

# Remove categories using remove_categories()
# Set the categories to be removed as a parameter
# Values which were in the removed categories will be set to NaN
print("\nCategoricalIndex after removing specified categories...\n",
catIndex.remove_categories(["p", "q"]))

Output

This will produce the following output −

CategoricalIndex...
CategoricalIndex(['p', 'q', 'r', 's', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's'], categories=['p', 'q', 'r', 's'], ordered=True, dtype='category')

Displaying Categories from CategoricalIndex...
Index(['p', 'q', 'r', 's'], dtype='object')

CategoricalIndex after removing specified categories...
CategoricalIndex([nan, nan, 'r', 's', nan, nan, 'r', 's'], categories=['r', 's'], ordered=True, dtype='category')