Combining Text in Pandas Dataframe

Question

I have multiple columns that I want to merge together, but I want it driven by a table. So a user can specify let's say fields: 'A', 'B', 'C' and another use can say they want 'A', 'B', 'E', 'Z', etc...

So I want this to be dynamic in a sense. In addition between each row value, I need to insert a \n value to have a new line character.

So in my field description, given the first example, I need the string to be formatted as:

'A: ' + df['A'] + "\n" + 'B: ' + df['B'] + '\n' + 'C: ' + df['C'] + '\n'

When working with string data in python, you can leverage the += operation to append text to an existing string, so I thought I could create a column called description on my Pandas dataframe object and then use the += operation to push everything together.

df['description'] = ""
for f in fields:
    df['description'] += f + ": " + df[f] + '\n'

But this raises a typeerror:

TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'numpy.ndarray' and 'str'

Any ideas on how I can do this?

I am using Pandas 0.16.1

Thanks

Does df['description'] = df['description'] + ... work? If so, that's what you should use. — IanS
– IanS, Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 13:18
What is your fields variable in the line for f in fields:? — 3novak
– 3novak, Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 13:22
Can you provide a larger example? What comes after the df['description]? — code base 5000
– code base 5000, Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 13:22

Daniel F · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-05 13:43:25Z

1

Use this:

df['description'] += f + ": " + df[f].str.cat(sep=' ') + '\n'

answered Dec 5, 2016 at 13:43

Daniel F

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1 Comment

IanS Over a year ago

I don't think that's what the OP wants.

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