get list of pandas dataframe columns based on data type

list(df.select_dtypes(['object']).columns)

This should do the trick


If you want a list of columns of a certain type, you can use groupby:

>>> df = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2.3456, 'c', 'd', 78]], columns=list("ABCDE"))
>>> df
   A       B  C  D   E
0  1  2.3456  c  d  78

[1 rows x 5 columns]
>>> df.dtypes
A      int64
B    float64
C     object
D     object
E      int64
dtype: object
>>> g = df.columns.to_series().groupby(df.dtypes).groups
>>> g
{dtype('int64'): ['A', 'E'], dtype('float64'): ['B'], dtype('O'): ['C', 'D']}
>>> {k.name: v for k, v in g.items()}
{'object': ['C', 'D'], 'int64': ['A', 'E'], 'float64': ['B']}

As of pandas v0.14.1, you can utilize select_dtypes() to select columns by dtype

In [2]: df = pd.DataFrame({'NAME': list('abcdef'),
    'On_Time': [True, False] * 3,
    'On_Budget': [False, True] * 3})

In [3]: df.select_dtypes(include=['bool'])
Out[3]:
  On_Budget On_Time
0     False    True
1      True   False
2     False    True
3      True   False
4     False    True
5      True   False

In [4]: mylist = list(df.select_dtypes(include=['bool']).columns)

In [5]: mylist
Out[5]: ['On_Budget', 'On_Time']

Tags:

Python

Pandas