Unexpected behaviour using `Date` as a dataframe column

What seems to cause the problem in the following situation (using Pandas 1.4.1)?

Given a dataframe with Date as a name of one of the columns:

In [9]: df = pd.DataFrame(dict(Date=[0], x=[1]))

In [10]: df
Out[10]:
   Date  x
0     0  1

It is possible to index that column

In [12]: df['Date']
Out[12]:
0    0
Name: Date, dtype: int64

Although that column cannot be dropped

In [11]: df.drop('Date')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
KeyError                                  Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-11-0e8ebf6dc639> in <module>
----> 1 df.drop('Date')

~\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\util\_decorators.py in wrapper(*args, **kwargs)
    309                     stacklevel=stacklevel,
    310                 )
--> 311             return func(*args, **kwargs)
    312
    313         return wrapper

~\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\core\frame.py in drop(self, labels, axis, index, columns, level, inplace, errors)
   4946                 weight  1.0     0.8
   4947         """
-> 4948         return super().drop(
   4949             labels=labels,
   4950             axis=axis,

~\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\core\generic.py in drop(self, labels, axis, index, columns, level, inplace, errors)
   4277         for axis, labels in axes.items():
   4278             if labels is not None:
-> 4279                 obj = obj._drop_axis(labels, axis, level=level, errors=errors)
   4280
   4281         if inplace:

~\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\core\generic.py in _drop_axis(self, labels, axis, level, errors, consolidate, only_slice)
   4321                 new_axis = axis.drop(labels, level=level, errors=errors)
   4322             else:
-> 4323                 new_axis = axis.drop(labels, errors=errors)
   4324             indexer = axis.get_indexer(new_axis)
   4325

~\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\core\indexes\base.py in drop(self, labels, errors)
   6642         if mask.any():
   6643             if errors != "ignore":
-> 6644                 raise KeyError(f"{list(labels[mask])} not found in axis")
   6645             indexer = indexer[~mask]
   6646         return self.delete(indexer)

KeyError: "['Date'] not found in axis"

And that column cannot be renamed

In [22]: df.rename({'Date':'y'}, errors='raise')
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
KeyError                                  Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-22-7277fb5b8ca6> in <module>
----> 1 df.rename({'Date':'y'}, errors='raise')

~\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\core\frame.py in rename(self, mapper, index, columns, axis, copy, inplace, level, errors)
   5075         4  3  6
   5076         """
-> 5077         return super()._rename(
   5078             mapper=mapper,
   5079             index=index,

~\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\pandas\core\generic.py in _rename(self, mapper, index, columns, axis, copy, inplace, level, errors)
   1159                         if indexer[index] == -1
   1160                     ]
-> 1161                     raise KeyError(f"{missing_labels} not found in axis")
   1162
   1163             new_index = ax._transform_index(f, level=level)

KeyError: "['Date'] not found in axis"

>Solution :

You have to specify that you’re dropping a column and renaming a column. You can do so using the columns keyword or axis=1 parameter. The following should work:

df.drop(columns=['Date']) 

or

df.drop('Date', axis=1)

and

df.rename(columns={'Date':'y'})

or

df.rename({'Date':'y'}, axis=1)