Common column names among data sets in Python - python-3.x

Question

I have 6 data sets. Their names are: e10_all, e11_all, e12_all, e13_all, e14_all, and e19_all.
All have different numbers of columns and rows, but with some common columns. I need to append the rows of these columns together. First, I want to determine the columns that are common to all of the data sets, so I know which columns to select in my SQL query.
In R, I am able to do this using:
# Create list of dts
list_df = list(e10_all, e11_all, e12_all, e13_all, e14_all, e19_all)
col_common = colnames(list_df[[1]])
# Write for loop
for (i in 2:length(list_df)){
col_common = intersect(col_common, colnames(list_df[[i]]))
}
# View the common columns
col_common
# Get as a comma-separated list
cat(noquote(paste(col_common, collapse = ',')))
I want to do the same thing, but in Python. Does anyone happen to know a way?
Thank you

Answer 1

It's not that different in pandas. Making some dummy dataframes:
>>> import pandas as pd
>>> e10_all = pd.DataFrame({"A": [1,2], "B": [2,3], "C": [2,3]})
>>> e11_all = pd.DataFrame({"B": [4,5], "C": [5,6]})
>>> e12_all = pd.DataFrame({"B": [1,2], "C": [3,4], "M": [8,9]})
Then your code would translate to something like
>>> list_df = [e10_all, e11_all, e12_all]
>>> col_common = set.intersection(*(set(df.columns) for df in list_df))
>>> col_common
{'C', 'B'}
>>> ','.join(sorted(col_common))
'B,C'
That second line turns each of the frames' columns into a set and then takes the intersection of all of them. A more literal translation of your code would work too, although we tend to avoid writing loops where we can avoid it, and we tend to loop over elements directly (for df in list_df[1:]:) rather than going via index. Still,
col_common = set(list_df[0].columns)
for i in range(1, len(list_df)):
col_common = col_common.intersection(list_df[i].columns)
would get the job done.