How to select columns from dataframe by regex

You can use DataFrame.filter this way:

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame(np.array([[2,4,4],[4,3,3],[5,9,1]]),columns=['d','t','didi'])
>>
   d  t  didi
0  2  4     4
1  4  3     3
2  5  9     1

df.filter(regex=("d.*"))

>>
   d  didi
0  2     4
1  4     3
2  5     1

The idea is to select columns by regex

Use select:

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame([[10, 14, 12, 44, 45, 78]], columns=['a', 'b', 'c', 'd1', 'd2', 'd3'])

df.select(lambda col: col.startswith('d'), axis=1)

Result:

   d1  d2  d3
0  44  45  78

This is a nice solution if you're not comfortable with regular expressions.

On a larger dataset especially, a vectorized approach is actually MUCH FASTER (by more than two orders of magnitude) and is MUCH more readable. I'm providing a screenshot as proof. (Note: Except for the last few lines I wrote at the bottom to make my point clear with a vectorized approach, the other code was derived from the answer by @Alexander.)

Here's that code for reference:

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
n = 10000
cols = ['{0}_{1}'.format(letters, number) 
        for number in range(n) for letters in ('d', 't', 'didi')]
df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(30000, n * 3), columns=cols)

%timeit df[[c for c in df if c[0] == 'd']]

%timeit df[[c for c in df if c.startswith('d')]]

%timeit df.select(lambda col: col.startswith('d'), axis=1)

%timeit df.filter(regex=("d.*"))

%timeit df.filter(like='d')

%timeit df.filter(like='d', axis=1)

%timeit df.filter(regex=("d.*"), axis=1)

%timeit df.columns.map(lambda x: x.startswith("d"))

columnVals = df.columns.map(lambda x: x.startswith("d"))

%timeit df.filter(columnVals, axis=1)