pandas will drop support for Python 2 this month with pandas 0.24

The next version of the Python library, pandas 0.24.0 will not have support for Python 2. pandas is a popular Python library widely used for data manipulation and data analysis. It is used in areas like numerical tables and time series data.

Jeff Reback, pandas maintainer Tweeted on Wednesday:

https://twitter.com/jreback/status/1080603676882935811

Many major Python libraries removing Python 2 support

One of the first tools to drop support for Python 2 was ipython in 2017. This was followed by matplotlib and more recently NumPy. Other popular libraries like scikit-learn and SciPy will also be removing support for Python 2 this year. IDEs like Spyder and Pythran are also included in the list.

Python 2 support ending in 2020

Core Python developers will stop supporting Python 2 no later than the year 2020. This move is to control fragmentation and save on workforce for maintaining Python 2. Python 2 will no longer receive any new features and all support for it will cease next year. As stated on the official website: “2.7 will receive bugfix support until January 1, 2020. After the last release, 2.7 will receive no support.”

Python 2 support was about to end in 2015 itself but was extended by five years considering the user base.

Users seem to welcome the change to move forward as a comment on Hacker new says: “Time to move forward. Python 2 is so 2010.”

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