Changing column value by finding substring in string values

Question

I'm trying to change the values in a single column using pandas apply(). My function partially worked, but I'm stuck on how to fix this other half.

Data Column:

County Name Riverside County San Diego County SanFrancisco County/city

I'm trying to get rid of " County" so I'm left with just the name of the county. I successfully got rid of the " County" with the function but I'm having trouble removing the " County/city" from San Francisco.

Code:

def modify_county(countyname):
  if "/city" in countyname:
    return countyname.replace(" County/city","")
  return countyname.replace(" County","")

lfd["CountyName"] = lfd["CountyName"].apply(modify_county)

Output:

CountyName
Riverside
San Diego
San Francisco County/city

Is something wrong with the conditional in the function?

Why have an if statement at all? If "/city" isn't in the string, then countyname.replace(" County/city", "") just won't do anything — Noam
– Noam, Commented Apr 20, 2018 at 21:53

jpp · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-20 21:56:32Z

1

This is an alternative way. It works with the data you have provided.

import pandas as pd

s = pd.Series(['Riverside County', 'San Diego County', 'SanFrancisco County/city'])

res = s.apply(lambda x: ' '.join([w for w in x.split() if not 'County' in w]))

print(res)

# 0       Riverside
# 1       San Diego
# 2    SanFrancisco
# dtype: object

answered Apr 20, 2018 at 21:56

jpp

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Comments

WillMonge · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-20 22:08:16Z

1

@jpp's answer is the literal way of doing what you asked for. But in this case I would use pandas.Series.replace and some regex to substitute the entire thing in one go:

import pandas as pd

s = pd.Series(['Riverside County', 'San Diego County', 'SanFrancisco County/city'])

res = s.replace(' County(/city)?', '', regex=True)

answered Apr 20, 2018 at 22:08

WillMonge

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Comments

Glenn G. · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-21 22:18:18Z

0

@jpp, used suggestion to apply to entire column. Not sure if this is the best way, but it worked.

lfd["CountyName"] = pd.Series(lfd["CountyName"])

lfd["CountyName"] = lfd["CountyName"].apply(lambda x: ' '.join([w for w in x.split() if not 'County' in w]))

answered Apr 21, 2018 at 22:18

Glenn G.

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