How to transform a sparse pandas dataframe to a 2d numpy array

Often the fastest way to populate a NumPy array is simply to allocate an array and then assign values to it using a vectorized operator or function. In this case, np.put seems ideal since it allows you to assign values using a (flat) array of indices and an array of values.

nrows, ncols = df['x'].max() + 1, df['y'].max() +1
img = np.full((nrows, ncols), np.nan)
ind = df['x']*ncols + df['y']
np.put(img, ind, df['value'])

Here is a benchmark which shows using np.put can be 82x faster than alt (the unstacking method) for making a (100, 100)-shaped resultant array:

In [184]: df = make_df(100,100)

In [185]: %timeit orig(df)
161 ms ± 753 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10 loops each)

In [186]: %timeit alt(df)
31.2 ms ± 235 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 10 loops each)

In [187]: %timeit using_put(df)
378 µs ± 1.56 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1000 loops each)

In [188]: 31200/378
Out[188]: 82.53968253968254

This is the setup used for the benchmark:

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

def make_df(nrows, ncols):
    df = pd.DataFrame(np.arange(nrows*ncols).reshape(nrows, ncols))
    df.index.name = 'x'
    df.columns.name = 'y'
    ind_x = np.random.choice(np.arange(nrows), replace=False, size=nrows//2)
    ind_y = np.random.choice(np.arange(ncols), replace=False, size=ncols//2)
    df = df.drop(ind_x, axis=0).drop(ind_y, axis=1).stack().reset_index().rename(columns={0:'value'})
    return df

def orig(df):
    img = np.full((df.x.max() + 1, df.y.max() +1 ), np.nan)
    col = 'value'
    for ind, line in df.iterrows():
        img[line.x, line.y] = line['value']
    return img

def alt(df):
    ind = pd.MultiIndex.from_product((range(df.x.max() + 1), range(df.y.max() +1 )), names=['x', 'y'])
    s_img = pd.Series([np.nan]*len(ind), index=ind, name='value')
    # temp = df.loc[readout].set_index(['x', 'y'])['value']
    temp = df.set_index(['x', 'y'])['value']
    s_img.loc[temp.index] = temp
    img = s_img.unstack().values
    return img

def using_put(df):
    nrows, ncols = df['x'].max() + 1, df['y'].max() +1
    img = np.full((nrows, ncols), np.nan)
    ind = df['x']*ncols + df['y']
    np.put(img, ind, df['value'])
    return img

Alternatively, since your DataFrame is sparse, you might be interested in creating a sparse matrix:

import scipy.sparse as sparse

def using_coo(df):
    nrows, ncols = df['x'].max() + 1, df['y'].max() +1    
    result = sparse.coo_matrix(
        (df['value'], (df['x'], df['y'])), shape=(nrows, ncols), dtype='float64')
    return result

As one would expect, making sparse matrices (from sparse data) is even faster (and requires less memory) than creating dense NumPy arrays:

In [237]: df = make_df(100,100)

In [238]: %timeit using_put(df)
381 µs ± 2.63 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1000 loops each)

In [239]: %timeit using_coo(df)
196 µs ± 1.26 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1000 loops each)

In [240]: 381/196
Out[240]: 1.9438775510204083