In [2]: df = pd.DataFrame(-1, index=pd.MultiIndex.from_product([[1,2], ['a', 'b'], ['i', 'ii']]), columns=['A', 'B']) In [3]: df.loc[[1]] # works Out[3]: A B 1 a i -1 -1 ii -1 -1 b i -1 -1 ii -1 -1 In [4]: df.loc[[(1, 'a')]] # misbehaves (acts as if labels were missing) Out[4]: A B 1 a NaN NaN In [5]: df.loc[[(1,)]] # raises --------------------------------------------------------------------------- AttributeError Traceback (most recent call last) /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/indexing.py in _getitem_iterable(self, key, axis) 1100 try: -> 1101 return self.obj.reindex_axis(keyarr, axis=axis) 1102 except AttributeError: /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/frame.py in reindex_axis(self, labels, axis, method, level, copy, limit, fill_value) 2836 method=method, level=level, copy=copy, -> 2837 limit=limit, fill_value=fill_value) 2838 /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/generic.py in reindex_axis(self, labels, axis, method, level, copy, limit, fill_value) 2509 new_index, indexer = axis_values.reindex(labels, method, level, -> 2510 limit=limit) 2511 return self._reindex_with_indexers({axis: [new_index, indexer]}, /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/indexes/multi.py in reindex(self, target, method, level, limit, tolerance) 1845 limit=limit, -> 1846 tolerance=tolerance) 1847 else: /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/indexes/multi.py in get_indexer(self, target, method, limit, tolerance) 1791 # don't have the same dtypes -> 1792 if self._inferred_type_levels != target._inferred_type_levels: 1793 return Index(self.values).get_indexer(target.values) AttributeError: 'Int64Index' object has no attribute '_inferred_type_levels' During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred: AttributeError Traceback (most recent call last) <ipython-input-5-e5c902934a28> in <module>() ----> 1 df.loc[[(1,)]] /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/indexing.py in __getitem__(self, key) 1326 else: 1327 key = com._apply_if_callable(key, self.obj) -> 1328 return self._getitem_axis(key, axis=0) 1329 1330 def _is_scalar_access(self, key): /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/indexing.py in _getitem_axis(self, key, axis) 1539 raise ValueError('Cannot index with multidimensional key') 1540 -> 1541 return self._getitem_iterable(key, axis=axis) 1542 1543 # nested tuple slicing /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/indexing.py in _getitem_iterable(self, key, axis) 1105 if axis != 0: 1106 raise AssertionError('axis must be 0') -> 1107 return self.obj.reindex(keyarr) 1108 1109 # existing labels are non-unique /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/frame.py in reindex(self, index, columns, **kwargs) 2827 def reindex(self, index=None, columns=None, **kwargs): 2828 return super(DataFrame, self).reindex(index=index, columns=columns, -> 2829 **kwargs) 2830 2831 @Appender(_shared_docs['reindex_axis'] % _shared_doc_kwargs) /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/generic.py in reindex(self, *args, **kwargs) 2421 # perform the reindex on the axes 2422 return self._reindex_axes(axes, level, limit, tolerance, method, -> 2423 fill_value, copy).__finalize__(self) 2424 2425 def _reindex_axes(self, axes, level, limit, tolerance, method, fill_value, /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/frame.py in _reindex_axes(self, axes, level, limit, tolerance, method, fill_value, copy) 2773 if index is not None: 2774 frame = frame._reindex_index(index, method, copy, level, -> 2775 fill_value, limit, tolerance) 2776 2777 return frame /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/frame.py in _reindex_index(self, new_index, method, copy, level, fill_value, limit, tolerance) 2781 new_index, indexer = self.index.reindex(new_index, method=method, 2782 level=level, limit=limit, -> 2783 tolerance=tolerance) 2784 return self._reindex_with_indexers({0: [new_index, indexer]}, 2785 copy=copy, fill_value=fill_value, /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/indexes/multi.py in reindex(self, target, method, level, limit, tolerance) 1844 indexer = self.get_indexer(target, method=method, 1845 limit=limit, -> 1846 tolerance=tolerance) 1847 else: 1848 raise Exception("cannot handle a non-unique multi-index!") /home/pietro/nobackup/repo/pandas/pandas/core/indexes/multi.py in get_indexer(self, target, method, limit, tolerance) 1790 # we may not compare equally because of hashing if we 1791 # don't have the same dtypes -> 1792 if self._inferred_type_levels != target._inferred_type_levels: 1793 return Index(self.values).get_indexer(target.values) 1794 AttributeError: 'Int64Index' object has no attribute '_inferred_type_levels'