I'm wondering if there's any way to change the default display options for pandas. I'd like to change the display formatting as well as the display width each time I run python, eg:

pandas.options.display.width = 150

I see the defaults are hard-coded in pandas.core.config_init. Is there some way in pandas to do this properly? Or if not, is there some way to set up ipython at least to change the config each time I import pandas? Only thing I can think of is making my own mypandas library that wraps pandas with some extra commands issued each time it's loaded. Any better ideas?

Have a look at the docs:

Using startup scripts for the python/ipython environment to importpandas and set options makes working with pandas more efficient. To dothis, create a .py or .ipy script in the startup directory of thedesired profile. An example where the startup folder is in a defaultipython profile can be found at:

$IPYTHONDIR/profile_default/startup

More information can be found in the ipython documentation. An examplestartup script for pandas is displayed below:

import pandas as pd
pd.set_option('display.max_rows', 999)
pd.set_option('precision', 5)

(or use the new form pd.options.display.max_rows = 999).

You also asked:

-- is there any way to only run the pandas code when I import pandas from within ipython? it takes quite a while to import pandas, so I'd rather not do it every time I launch a new ipython instance

As a workaround, you could import pandas in the background. See Import python modules in the background in REPL.