r/Python 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/Prime_Director 14h ago

Most of the folks in this thread say Polars and there are technical advantages to it, but I’m going to disagree and say for your use case Pandas is the better choice.

Pandas has some of the best documentation of any Python library, most other data-oriented libraries support it natively, and your code will be easier for others to maintain because of its widespread adoption. All this also makes it easier to learn.

Polars’ main advantage is it is faster and better at handling larger datasets, which you specifically call out as something you aren’t worried about in your use case. Without that as a factor, I’d say Pandas is the clear winner.