[minor edit] edit definitions of some parameters with correct idiomatic English for better legibility (#61366)

kirisakow · mroeschke · web-flow · commit d692ddd260a9 · 2025-04-28T09:39:26.000-07:00
* edit definitions of some parameters with correct idiomatic English for better legibility (e.g. you don't *append* a prefix, you can only *prepend* it) * strip trailing space, as suggested by @mroeschke Co-authored-by: Matthew Roeschke <10647082+mroeschke@users.noreply.github.com> --------- Co-authored-by: Matthew Roeschke <10647082+mroeschke@users.noreply.github.com>
diff --git a/pandas/core/reshape/encoding.py b/pandas/core/reshape/encoding.py
@@ -60,13 +60,15 @@ def get_dummies(
     data : array-like, Series, or DataFrame
         Data of which to get dummy indicators.
     prefix : str, list of str, or dict of str, default None
-        String to append DataFrame column names.
+        A string to be prepended to DataFrame column names.
         Pass a list with length equal to the number of columns
         when calling get_dummies on a DataFrame. Alternatively, `prefix`
         can be a dictionary mapping column names to prefixes.
-    prefix_sep : str, default '_'
-        If appending prefix, separator/delimiter to use. Or pass a
-        list or dictionary as with `prefix`.
+    prefix_sep : str, list of str, or dict of str, default '_'
+        Should you choose to prepend DataFrame column names with a prefix, this
+        is the separator/delimiter to use between the two. Alternatively,
+        `prefix_sep` can be a list with length equal to the number of columns,
+        or a dictionary mapping column names to separators.
     dummy_na : bool, default False
         If True, a NaN indicator column will be added even if no NaN values are present.
         If False, NA values are encoded as all zero.
