How to check if Pandas value is null or zero using Python

Question

I have a data frame created with Pandas that contains numbers. I need to check if the values that I extract from this data frame are nulls or zeros. So I am trying the following:

a = df.ix[[0], ['Column Title']].values  
if a != 0 or not math.isnan(float(a)):
    print "It is neither a zero nor null"

While it does appear to work, sometimes I get the following error:

TypeError: don't know how to convert scalar number to float

What am I doing wrong?

That looks like an XY problem, please post what you want to accomplish. — akuiper
– akuiper, Commented Jul 25, 2017 at 0:53
I'm incredibly new to pandas, so I could be completely wrong here, but to extract the not null values couldn't you do df[df['Column Title'] is not None]? — Cory Madden
– Cory Madden, Commented Jul 25, 2017 at 0:58
@CoryMadden null values are represented as np.nan by default in pandas — maxymoo
– maxymoo, Commented Jul 25, 2017 at 1:02

Geetha Ponnusamy · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-25 03:50:46Z

6

your code to extract a single value from a series will return list of list format with a single value:

For Example: [[1]]

so try changing your code

 a = df.ix[[0], ['Column Title']].values

to

 a = df.ix[0, 'Column Title']

then try

math.isnan(float(a))

this will work!!

answered Jul 25, 2017 at 3:50

Geetha Ponnusamy

4973 silver badges15 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

cs95 Over a year ago

ix is deprecated in 0.20. Use iloc for index based addressing or loc otherwise.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to check if Pandas value is null or zero using Python

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

1 Comment

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related