Python: How to sort row wise strings in columns of a df?

Question

I have a df containing a column with strings separated by commas which i try to sort alphabetically.

For a simple list like

data = ['B', 'C', 'A', 'D']

I would use something like

', '.join(sorted(data))

which works fine. However, for my df which Looks like

d = {'col1': [1, 2], 'col2': ['D, D, A, C', 'B, A, B, A']}
df = pd.DataFrame(data=d)

I am not able to sort row wise the col2 alphabetically. I tried so far

print ', '.join(sorted(df['col2']))

which returns a complete sorting but not row wise. My expected result is:

res = {'col1': [1, 2], 'col2': ['A, C, D, D', 'A, A, B, B']}
result = pd.DataFrame(data=res)

Thanks, for your ideas!

Mohamed Ali JAMAOUI · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-21 09:43:53Z

1

You can use apply as follows:

df["col2"] = df.col2.apply(lambda x: ", ".join(sorted(x.split(", "))))

Explanation:

df.col2.apply(..) iterates through the rows of df.col2
For each row, it splits the string into a list using x.split(", ")
Each list is then sorted, using sorted(x.split(", "))
The sorted list is then concatenated to a string and assigned back to the row using
```
", ".join(sorted(x.split(", ")))
```

output:

   col1        col2
0     1  A, C, D, D
1     2  A, A, B, B

edited Mar 21, 2019 at 9:43

answered Mar 21, 2019 at 9:37

Mohamed Ali JAMAOUI

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Mohamed Thasin ah · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-21 09:54:56Z

0

another way would be,

Method -1

df['col2'] = [', '.join(sorted (val )) for val in df.col2.str.split(', ').values] # split the value by , sort the values and combined it with `, `
print(df)

Method -2:

df['col2'] = [', '.join(sorted(x.split(', '))) for x in df['col2']]
print(df) # for each value in cell split the value by `, ` sort the value and join by `, `

O/P:

   col1        col2
0     1  A, C, D, D
1     2  A, A, B, B

answered Mar 21, 2019 at 9:54

Mohamed Thasin ah

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