# In hail 0.1, is it possible to export variants table with selected columns into a pandas dataframe?

**URL:** <https://discuss.hail.is/t/in-hail-0-1-is-it-possible-to-export-variants-table-with-selected-columns-into-a-pandas-dataframe/464>\
**Category:** Help \[0.1\]\
**Created:** [April 13, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/in-hail-0-1-is-it-possible-to-export-variants-table-with-selected-columns-into-a-pandas-dataframe/464 "2018-04-13T17:48:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wei\_Zhang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Wei\_Zhang](https://discuss.hail.is/u/Wei_Zhang)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 5:48pm UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/in-hail-0-1-is-it-possible-to-export-variants-table-with-selected-columns-into-a-pandas-dataframe/464/1 "2018-04-13T17:48:17Z")

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Hi everyone,

I’m new to hail. I’m looking for some function like the following one:

> vds.export\_variants(‘output/file.tsv’, ‘variant = v, QC = va.qc.\*’)

However, instead of saving it into a file, I’d like to receive a pandas dataframe for downstream analysis. Could anyone please let me know the correct function to use? Thank you!

Best regards,  
Wei

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**Author:** ![jbloom](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discuss.hail.is/jbloom/32/109_2.png) [@jbloom](https://discuss.hail.is/u/jbloom)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/in-hail-0-1-is-it-possible-to-export-variants-table-with-selected-columns-into-a-pandas-dataframe/464/2 "2018-04-13T18:11:19Z")

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Hi Wei, yes, you can first use [variants\_table](https://hail.is/docs/stable/hail.VariantDataset.html#hail.VariantDataset.variants_table) to get a `KeyTable`, select your fields of interest, and go [to\_pandas](https://hail.is/docs/stable/hail.KeyTable.html#hail.KeyTable.to_pandas).

However, especially as you’re new to Hail, I’d recommend you [upgrade](https://hail.is/docs/devel/getting_started.html) to `0.2 beta` now. There the first command is [rows](https://hail.is/docs/devel/hail.MatrixTable.html#hail.MatrixTable.rows).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Wei\_Zhang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Wei\_Zhang](https://discuss.hail.is/u/Wei_Zhang)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2018, 6:25pm UTC](https://discuss.hail.is/t/in-hail-0-1-is-it-possible-to-export-variants-table-with-selected-columns-into-a-pandas-dataframe/464/3 "2018-04-13T18:25:02Z")

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Thank you @jbloom! I tried “variants\_table” but it seems that I can only select “v” and “va” but not something like “va.qc.\*”, right?

Anyway, thanks for suggesting the migration to v0.2. I’ll definitely look into it.

Wei