Make a list of the column headers in a Python Pandas DataFrame

The Problem

How can I create a list of the column headers in a Python Pandas DataFrame?

The Solution

The simplest way to do this is by directly casting the DataFrame to a list:

import pandas

data = {
    "A": [1, 2, 3],
    "B": [4, 5, 6],
    "C": [7, 8, 9]
}
df = pandas.DataFrame(data)
column_names = list(df)

print(column_names) # will print ['A', 'B', 'C']

A more explicit and performant method would be to use df.columns.values and its tolist method:

import pandas

data = {
    "A": [1, 2, 3],
    "B": [4, 5, 6],
    "C": [7, 8, 9]
}
df = pandas.DataFrame(data)

column_names = df.columns.values.tolist()

print(column_names) # will print ['A', 'B', 'C']