Given a sample MultiIndex:
idx = pd.MultiIndex.from_product([[0, 1, 2], ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']])
df = pd.DataFrame({'value' : np.arange(12)}, index=idx)
df
value
0 a 0
b 1
c 2
d 3
1 a 4
b 5
c 6
d 7
2 a 8
b 9
c 10
d 11
How can I efficiently convert this to a tabular format like so?
a b c d
0 0 1 2 3
1 4 5 6 7
2 8 9 10 11
Furthermore, given the dataframe above, how can I bring it back to its original multi-indexed state?
What I've tried:
pd.DataFrame(df.values.reshape(-1, df.index.levels[1].size),
index=df.index.levels[0], columns=df.index.levels[1])
Which works for the first problem, but I'm not sure how to bring it back to its original from there.