polars.Expr.cut

Expr.cut(
    breaks: Sequence[float],
    *,
    labels: Sequence[str_] | None = None,
    left_closed: bool = False,
    include_breaks: bool = False,
) → Expr

Bin continuous values into discrete categories.

engine:In Memory

Warning

This functionality is considered unstable. It may be changed at any point without it being considered a breaking change.

Parameters:

breaks

List of unique cut points.

labels

Names of the categories. The number of labels must be equal to the number of cut points plus one.

left_closed

Set the intervals to be left-closed instead of right-closed.

include_breaks

Include a column with the right endpoint of the bin each observation falls in. This will change the data type of the output from an Enum to a Struct.

Returns:

Expr

Expression of data type Enum if include_breaks is set to False (default), otherwise an expression of data type Struct.

See also

qcut

Examples

Divide a column into three categories.

>>> df = pl.DataFrame({"foo": [-2, -1, 0, 1, 2]})
>>> df.with_columns(
...     pl.col("foo").cut([-1, 1], labels=["a", "b", "c"]).alias("cut")
... )
shape: (5, 2)
┌─────┬──────┐
│ foo ┆ cut  │
│ --- ┆ ---  │
│ i64 ┆ enum │
╞═════╪══════╡
│ -2  ┆ a    │
│ -1  ┆ a    │
│ 0   ┆ b    │
│ 1   ┆ b    │
│ 2   ┆ c    │
└─────┴──────┘

Add both the category and the breakpoint.

>>> df.with_columns(
...     pl.col("foo").cut([-1, 1], include_breaks=True).alias("cut")
... ).unnest("cut")
shape: (5, 3)
┌─────┬────────────┬────────────┐
│ foo ┆ breakpoint ┆ category   │
│ --- ┆ ---        ┆ ---        │
│ i64 ┆ f64        ┆ enum       │
╞═════╪════════════╪════════════╡
│ -2  ┆ -1.0       ┆ (-inf, -1] │
│ -1  ┆ -1.0       ┆ (-inf, -1] │
│ 0   ┆ 1.0        ┆ (-1, 1]    │
│ 1   ┆ 1.0        ┆ (-1, 1]    │
│ 2   ┆ inf        ┆ (1, inf]   │
└─────┴────────────┴────────────┘