How to convert strings of decimal values from excel to float [duplicate]

Question

The system of notation of decimal numbers in the Excel files I am dealing with is (I think) the European system (like French and German). So I have numbers like:

'23,4588'
'78,056888'

Note that they are in the form of strings. When I try to convert them to float python raises an exception:

>>> float('78,056888')
Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ValueError: could not convert string to float: '78,056888'

Here's how I solve the problem:

 try:
     decim = int(excel_value)
 except ValueError:
     remap = {ord(','): '.'}
     decim = float(excel_value.translate(remap))

It seems to work as I want.

So my question is: is there a more appropriate python method for solving these kinds of problems?

this one looks interesting: stackoverflow.com/a/7106835/11610186 (and the one below, in case if you specifically deal with pandas) — Georgina Skibinski
– Georgina Skibinski, Commented Oct 11, 2019 at 21:24

Kevin · Accepted Answer · 2019-10-11 21:40:11Z

2

You can do this more succinctly with str.replace:

decim = float(excel_value.replace(',', '.'))

edited Oct 11, 2019 at 21:40

Kevin

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answered Oct 11, 2019 at 21:20

Rafael Castillo

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2 Comments

JavierCastro Over a year ago

This throws an error. You forgot a closing parenthesis at the end.

Rafael Castillo Over a year ago

You're right, thanks

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