Installing and exploring pandas

The minimal dependency set requirements for pandas is given as follows:

• NumPy: This is the fundamental numerical array package that we installed and covered extensively in the preceding chapters

• python-dateutil: This is a date-handling library

• pytz: This handles time zone definitions

This list is the bare minimum; a longer list of optional dependencies can be located at http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/install.html. We can install pandas via PyPI with pip or easy_install, using a binary installer, with the aid of our operating system package manager, or from the source by checking out the code. The binary installers can be downloaded from http://pandas.pydata.org/getpandas.html.

The command to install pandas with pip is as follows:

$ pip install pandas

You may have to prepend the preceding command with sudo if your user account doesn't have sufficient rights. For most, if not all, Linux distributions, the pandas package name is python-pandas. Please...