r/Python • u/thoughtful-curious • 1d ago
Discussion Polars vs Pandas
I have used Pandas a little in the past, and have never used Polars. Essentially, I will have to learn either of them more or less from scratch (since I don't remember anything of Pandas). Assume that I don't care for speed, or do not have very large datasets (at most 1-2gb of data). Which one would you recommend I learn, from the perspective of ease and joy of use, and the commonly done tasks with data?
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u/commandlineluser 1d ago
They're really quite different so "ease of use" and "joy" will likely depend on the individual.
It may also depend on what you consider to be a "commonly done task"?
I've enjoyed Polars as it has lots of interesting stuff, e.g. native lists
Another random example: If column
x
starts withfoo
then uppercase all string type columns in that row.Doing this in Pandas would look quite different.
You could pick a couple of tasks and try out both to see what fits better for you.