How to connect to in-memory data in a Pandas dataframe
This guide will help you connect to your data that is an in-memory Pandas dataframe. This will allow you to validate and explore your data.
Prerequisites: This how-to guide assumes you have:
- Completed the Getting Started Tutorial
- Have a working installation of Great Expectations
- Have access to data in a Pandas dataframe
Steps#
1. Choose how to run the code in this guide#
Get an environment to run the code in this guide. Please choose an option below.
- CLI + filesystem
- No CLI + filesystem
- No CLI + no filesystem
If you use the Great Expectations CLI, run this command to automatically generate a pre-configured Jupyter Notebook. Then you can follow along in the YAML-based workflow below:
great_expectations --v3-api datasource newIf you use Great Expectations in an environment that has filesystem access, and prefer not to use the CLI, run the code in this guide in a notebook or other Python script.
If you use Great Expectations in an environment that has no filesystem (such as Databricks or AWS EMR), run the code in this guide in that system's preferred way.
2. Instantiate your project's DataContext#
Import these necessary packages and modules.
import pandas as pdfrom ruamel import yaml
import great_expectations as gefrom great_expectations.core.batch import RuntimeBatchRequestLoad your DataContext into memory using the get_context() method.
context = ge.get_context()3. Configure your Datasource#
Using this example configuration we configure a RuntimeDataConnector as part of our Datasource, which will take in our in-memory frame.:
- YAML
- Python
datasource_yaml = f"""name: example_datasourceclass_name: Datasourcemodule_name: great_expectations.datasourceexecution_engine:  module_name: great_expectations.execution_engine  class_name: PandasExecutionEnginedata_connectors:    default_runtime_data_connector_name:        class_name: RuntimeDataConnector        batch_identifiers:            - default_identifier_name"""Run this code to test your configuration.
context.test_yaml_config(datasource_yaml)Note: Since the Datasource does not have data passed-in until later, the output will show that no data_asset_names are currently available. This is to be expected.
datasource_config = {    "name": "example_datasource",    "class_name": "Datasource",    "module_name": "great_expectations.datasource",    "execution_engine": {        "module_name": "great_expectations.execution_engine",        "class_name": "PandasExecutionEngine",    },    "data_connectors": {        "default_runtime_data_connector_name": {            "class_name": "RuntimeDataConnector",            "module_name": "great_expectations.datasource.data_connector",            "batch_identifiers": ["default_identifier_name"],        },    },}Run this code to test your configuration.
context.test_yaml_config(yaml.dump(datasource_config))Note: Since the Datasource does not have data passed-in until later, the output will show that no data_asset_names are currently available. This is to be expected.
4. Save the Datasource configuration to your DataContext#
Save the configuration into your DataContext by using the add_datasource() function.
- YAML
- Python
context.add_datasource(**yaml.load(datasource_yaml))context.add_datasource(**datasource_config)6. Test your new Datasource#
Verify your new Datasource by loading data from it into a Validator using a RuntimeBatchRequest.
The dataframe we are using in this example looks like the following
Please feel free to substitute your data.
df = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6], [7, 8, 9]], columns=["a", "b", "c"])Add the variable containing your dataframe (df in this example) to the batch_data key under runtime_parameters in your RuntimeBatchRequest.
batch_request = RuntimeBatchRequest(    datasource_name="example_datasource",    data_connector_name="default_runtime_data_connector_name",    data_asset_name="<YOUR_MEANINGFUL_NAME>",  # This can be anything that identifies this data_asset for you    runtime_parameters={"batch_data": df},  # df is your dataframe    batch_identifiers={"default_identifier_name": "default_identifier"},)Then load data into the Validator.
context.create_expectation_suite(    expectation_suite_name="test_suite", overwrite_existing=True)validator = context.get_validator(    batch_request=batch_request, expectation_suite_name="test_suite")print(validator.head())ππ Congratulations! ππ You successfully connected Great Expectations with your data.
Additional Notes#
To view the full scripts used in this page, see them on GitHub:
Next Steps#
Now that you've connected to your data, you'll want to work on these core skills: