Checking whether the data frame is copy or view in Pandas

Question

Is there an easy way to check whether two data frames are different copies or views of the same underlying data that doesn't involve manipulations? I'm trying to get a grip on when each is generated, and given how idiosyncratic the rules seem to be, I'd like an easy way to test.

For example, I thought "id(df.values)" would be stable across views, but they don't seem to be:

# Make two data frames that are views of same data.

df = pd.DataFrame([[1,2,3,4],[5,6,7,8]], index = ['row1','row2'], 

       columns = ['a','b','c','d'])

df2 = df.iloc[0:2,:]

# Demonstrate they are views:

df.iloc[0,0] = 99

df2.iloc[0,0]

Out[70]: 99

# Now try and compare the id on values attribute

# Different despite being views! 

id(df.values)

Out[71]: 4753564496

id(df2.values)

Out[72]: 4753603728

# And we can, of course, compare df and df2

df is df2

Out[73]: False

Answer 1

One can verify either by:

• testing equivalence of the values.base attribute rather than the values attribute, just like the following code:

df.values.base is df2.values.base rather df.values is df2.values

• Or we can use the (admittedly internal) _is_view attribute (df2._is_view is True).

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