title: How can I retrieve the k highest values in a data frame in pandas?
body: <p>How can I retrieve the k highest values in a data frame in pandas?</p>
  
  <p>For example, given the DataFrame:</p>
  
  <pre><code>               b         d         e
  Utah    1.624345 -0.611756 -0.528172
  Ohio   -1.072969  0.865408 -2.301539
  Texas   1.744812 -0.761207  0.319039
  Oregon -0.249370  1.462108 -2.060141
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Generated with:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import numpy as np
  import pandas as pd
  np.random.seed(1)
  frame = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(4, 3), columns=list('bde'), 
                       index=['Utah', 'Ohio', 'Texas', 'Oregon'])
  print(frame)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The 3  highest values in the data frame are:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>1.744812 </li>
  <li>1.624345 </li>
  <li>1.462108 </li>
  </ol>