DataFrame

The term DataFrame typically refers to a tabular dataset that can be viewed as a two dimensional table. Often the columns of this dataset refers to a list of features, while the rows represent a number of measurements. As the data on the real world is not perfect, DataFrame supports non measurements or NaN elements.

Common examples of DataFrames can be found on Excel sheets, CSV files or SQL database tables, but this data can come on a variety of other formats, like a collection of JSON objects or XML files.

The utility of DataFrames resides on the ability to subset them, merge them, summarize the data for individual features or apply functions to entire rows or columns, all while keeping column type integrity.