Question

Explain the difference between pivot() and pivot_ table() function?

Answer 1

Feature/Criteria	pivot() Function	pivot_table() Function
Duplicate Entries	Cannot handle duplicates. It will crash and throw a ValueError if multiple rows have the same index/column identifier [pydata.org].	Handles duplicates smoothly. It aggregates matching data points together without crashing [pydata.org].
Data Aggregation	Does not support aggregation [pydata.org].	Supports calculations using the aggfunc parameter (e.g., sum, mean, count) [pydata.org].
Default Calculation	None (It simply reshapes the existing layout) [pydata.org].	Automatically computes the average (mean) of duplicate records [pydata.org].
Missing Values	Has no built-in parameter to fill missing cells [pydata.org].	Includes the fill_value parameter to automatically replace empty cells (e.g., with 0) [pydata.org].
Grand Totals	Cannot add row or column summary totals [pydata.org].	Includes the margins=True parameter to add custom row/column grand totals [pydata.org].