Custom sorting in pandas dataframe

Question

I have python pandas dataframe, in which a column contains month name.

How can I do a custom sort using a dictionary, for example:

custom_dict = {'March':0, 'April':1, 'Dec':3}  

Answer 1

Making the month column a categorical one and specifying the ordering:

df['m'] = pd.Categorical(df['m'], ["March", "April", "Dec"])

df  # looks the same!

Output:

   a  b     m

0  1 2  March

1  5 6    Dec

2  3 4  April

Now, when you sort the month column it will sort with respect to that list:

df.sort("m")

Output:

   a  b     m

0  1 2  March

2  3 4  April

1  5 6    Dec

Note: if a value is not in the list it will be converted to NaN.

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