DataFrame.
diff
(periods=1, axis=0)
>>> df = pd.DataFrame({'a': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6],
... 'b': [1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8],
... 'c': [1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36]})
>>> df
a b c
0 1 1 1
1 2 1 4
2 3 2 9
3 4 3 16
4 5 5 25
5 6 8 36
>>> df.diff()
a b c
0 NaN NaN NaN
1 1.0 0.0 3.0
2 1.0 1.0 5.0
3 1.0 1.0 7.0
4 1.0 2.0 9.0
5 1.0 3.0 11.0
Difference with previous column
>>> df.diff(axis=1)
a b c
0 NaN 0.0 0.0
1 NaN -1.0 3.0
2 NaN -1.0 7.0
3 NaN -1.0 13.0
4 NaN 0.0 20.0
5 NaN 2.0 28.0
Difference with 3rd previous row
>>> df.diff(periods=3)
a b c
0 NaN NaN NaN
1 NaN NaN NaN
2 NaN NaN NaN
3 3.0 2.0 15.0
4 3.0 4.0 21.0
5 3.0 6.0 27.0
Difference with following row
>>> df.diff(periods=-1)
a b c
0 -1.0 0.0 -3.0
1 -1.0 -1.0 -5.0
2 -1.0 -1.0 -7.0
3 -1.0 -2.0 -9.0
4 -1.0 -3.0 -11.0
5 NaN NaN NaN