How to get the cell at a location in pandas dataframe using a column as the index

Question

Example dataframe:

class   fred    bill
0   a   23  35
1   b   123 45
2   c   34  45
3   d   4   45

(pandas adds the index (0->3) which isn't needed)

What i want is to say something like:

fred_b_class = df.at['fred','b'] 
>>> 123

I tried setting the column 'class' as the index by pd.set_index('class')

However when calling df.index.name it returned none

Answer 1

I think you need set_index from column class and then swap arguments in at, because first argument is index and second column name:

df = df.set_index('class')
#df.set_index('class', inplace=True)
print (df)
       fred  bill
class            
a        23    35
b       123    45
c        34    45
d         4    45

print (df.at['b','fred'] )
123