How to convert categorical data to binary data in Python?

Categorical Data is data that corresponds to the Categorical Variable. A Categorical Variable is a variable that takes fixed, a limited set of possible values. For example Gender, Blood group, a person having country residential or not, etc.

Characteristics of Categorical Data :

• This is mostly used in Statistics.
• Numerical Operation like Addition, Subtraction etc. on this type of Data is not possible.
• All the values of Categorical Data are in Categories.
• It usually uses the Array Data Structure.

Example :

A Binary Data is a Data which uses two possible states or values i.e. 0 and 1.Binary data is mostly used in various fields like in Computer Science we use it as under name Bit(Binary Digit), in Digital Electronic and mathematics we use it as under name Truth Values, and we use name Binary Variable in Statistics.

Characteristics :

• The (0 and 1) also referred to as (true and false), (success and failure), (yes and no) etc.
• Binary Data is a discrete Data and also used in statistics.

Example :

Conversion of Categorical Data into Binary Data

Our task is to convert Categorical data into Binary Data as shown below in python :

Step-by-step Approach:

Step 1) In order to convert Categorical Data into Binary Data we use some function which is available in Pandas Framework. That's why Pandas framework is imported

# import required module
import pandas as pd

Step2) After that a list is created and data is entered as shown below.

# import required modules
import pandas as pd

# assign data
data = [["Jagroop", "Male"], ["Praveen", "Male"],
        ["Harjot", "Female"], ["Pooja", "Female"],
        ["Mohit", "Male"]]

Step 3) After that Dataframe is created using pd.DataFrame() and here we add extra line i.e. print(data_frame) in order to show the Categorical Data Output as shown below:

# import required modules
import pandas as pd

# assign data
data = [["Jagroop", "Male"], ["Praveen", "Male"],
        ["Harjot", "Female"], ["Pooja", "Female"],
        ["Mohit", "Male"]]

# display categorical output
data_frame = pd.DataFrame(data, columns=["Name", "Gender"])
print(data_frame)

Output:

Step 4) Till step 3 we get Categorical Data now we will convert it into Binary Data. So for that, we have to the inbuilt function of Pandas i.e. get_dummies() as shown:

Here we use get_dummies() for only Gender column because here we want to convert Categorical Data to Binary data only for Gender Column.

# import required modules
import pandas as pd

# assign data
data = [["Jagroop", "Male"], ["Praveen", "Male"],
        ["Harjot", "Female"], ["Pooja", "Female"],
        ["Mohit", "Male"]]

# display categorical output
data_frame = pd.DataFrame(data, columns=["Name", "Gender"])
print(data_frame)

# converting to binary data
df_one = pd.get_dummies(data_frame["Gender"])
print(df_one)

Here we get output in binary code for Gender Column only. Here we have two options to use it wisely:

1. Add above output to Dataframe -> Remove Gender Column -> Remove Female column(if we want Male =1 and Female =0) -> Rename Male = Gender -> Show Output of Conversion.
2. Add above output to Dataframe -> Remove Gender Column -> Remove Male column( if we want Male =0 and Female =1) -> Rename Female = Gender -> Show Output of Conversion.

In the below program we used the first option and Write code accordingly as shown below:

# import required modules
import pandas as pd

# assign data
data = [["Jagroop", "Male"], ["Praveen", "Male"],
        ["Harjot", "Female"], ["Pooja", "Female"],
        ["Mohit", "Male"]]

# display categorical output
data_frame = pd.DataFrame(data, columns=["Name", "Gender"])
# print(data_frame)

# converting to binary data
df_one = pd.get_dummies(data_frame["Gender"])
# print(df_one)

# display result
df_two = pd.concat((df_one, data_frame), axis=1)
df_two = df_two.drop(["Gender"], axis=1)
df_two = df_two.drop(["Male"], axis=1)
result = df_two.rename(columns={"Female": "Gender"})
print(result)

Output:

Below is the complete program based on the above approach:

# Pandas is imported in order to use various inbuilt
# Functions available in Pandas framework
import pandas as pd

# Data is initialized here
data = [["Jagroop", "Male"], ["Parveen", "Male"],
        ["Harjot", "Female"], ["Pooja", "Female"],
        ["Mohit", "Male"]]

# Data frame is created under column name Name and Gender
data_frame = pd.DataFrame(data, columns=["Name", "Gender"])

# Data of Gender is converted into Binary Data
df_one = pd.get_dummies(data_frame["Gender"])

# Binary Data is Concatenated into Dataframe
df_two = pd.concat((df_one, data_frame), axis=1)

# Gendercolumn is dropped
df_two = df_two.drop(["Gender"], axis=1)

# We want Male =0 and Female =1 So we drop Male column here
df_two = df_two.drop(["Male"], axis=1)

# Rename the Column
result = df_two.rename(columns={"Female": "Gender"})

# Print the Result
print(result)

Output: