Pandas Data Series: Compute difference of differences between consecutive numbers of a given series

Last update on April 03 2025 13:08:23 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

26. Difference of Differences

Write a Pandas program to compute difference of differences between consecutive numbers of a given series.

Sample Solution :

Python Code :

import pandas as pd
series1 = pd.Series([1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 15])
print("Original Series:")
print(series1)
print("\nDifference of differences between consecutive numbers of the said series:")
print(series1.diff().tolist())
print(series1.diff().diff().tolist())

Sample Output:

Original Series:
0     1
1     3
2     5
3     8
4    10
5    11
6    15
dtype: int64

Difference of differences between consecutive numbers of the said series:
[nan, 2.0, 2.0, 3.0, 2.0, 1.0, 4.0]
[nan, nan, 0.0, 1.0, -1.0, -1.0, 3.0]

Explanation:

In the above exercise -

series1 = pd.Series([1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 15]): This code creates a Pandas Series object 'series1' containing seven integers.

series1.diff().tolist(): This line applies the .diff() method to the Pandas Series object 'series1' to compute the first discrete difference of the Series object. The .tolist() method is used to convert the resulting Pandas Series object into a Python list. The resulting list contains the difference between each pair of adjacent elements in the original Series object 'series1'.

series1.diff().diff().tolist(): This line applies the .diff() method again to the result of the first .diff() method call to compute the second discrete difference of the Series object. The .tolist() method is again used to convert the resulting Pandas Series object into a Python list. The resulting list contains the difference between each pair of adjacent elements in the list obtained in the first line.

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

• Write a Pandas program to compute the difference of differences for a Series and then replace NaN values with zero.
• Write a Pandas program to calculate the second-order difference of a Series and then find the maximum of these differences.
• Write a Pandas program to compute the difference of differences for a Series and then plot a line graph of the results.
• Write a Pandas program to calculate the difference of differences for a Series and then determine if the pattern is increasing or decreasing.

Python-Pandas Code Editor:

Have another way to solve this solution? Contribute your code (and comments) through Disqus.

Previous: Write a Pandas program to calculate the number of characters in each word in a given series.
Next: Write a Pandas program to convert a series of date strings to a timeseries.