Create a function that can remove commas from a column of objects/strings-CodePudding

Create a function that can remove a comma from any given column illustrated.

Essentially I need a piece of code that removes a comma from all the values within a column, and in addition, the code also becomes a function that means the end-user can identify different column names to run this command for.

My code so far:

df = df.apply(lambda x: x.replace(',', ''))
print (df)

The code above is how far I have gotten. Python seems to accept this piece of code, however when I print the df, the commas still show.

Once I get this to work, my next battle is understanding how I can target just one specific column rather than the whole dataset, and make this an interchangeable function for the end-user.

Baring in mind that I am very new to Python coding, any explanations would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

CodePudding user response：

Assuming this toy example:

df = pd.DataFrame([['123,2', 'ab,c', 'd', ',']], columns=list('ABCD'))

       A     B  C  D
0  123,2  ab,c  d  ,

You can use str.replace (replace would only replace if the full content of the cell is ,):

df = df.apply(lambda col: col.str.replace(',', ''))

output:

      A    B  C D
0  1232  abc  d

To target only one column:

df['A'] = df['A'].str.replace(',', '')

output:

      A     B  C  D
0  1232  ab,c  d  ,