DOC: Reshaping Improvement

[mcp292]

Pandas version checks

• I have checked that the issue still exists on the latest versions of the docs on main here

Location of the documentation

https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/user_guide/reshaping.html

Documentation problem

The reshaping section starts off with:

Data is often stored in so-called “stacked” or “record” format

but never goes on to specify which is which, and this is not discussed elsewhere in the documentation.

Suggested fix for documentation

I think it'd be clearer to discuss in terms of long vs wide form, which is well documented elsewhere, and/or point to which picture above is stacked and which is record. This would set the reader up to properly visualize the operations and discussions to come.

Also, the section should be renamed: "Reshaping and pivot tables" -> "Reshaping and pivoting tables".

[mcp292]

It might also be worth mentioning that melt() is analogous to pivot().

[TravisGibbs]

Hi, I'm new and I would like to take this if it is approved. I mocked an image with labels that would help with the suggested fix. I agree that it would also be helpful to have some mention of the synonymous terms of wide and long in the text below the first image.