convert pandas series (with strings) to python list

Question

It's probably a silly thing but I can't seem to correctly convert a pandas series originally got from an excel sheet to a list.

dfCI is created by importing data from an excel sheet and looks like this:

tab      var             val
MsrData  sortfield       DetailID
MsrData  strow           4
MsrData  inputneeded     "MeasDescriptionTest", "SiteLocTest", "SavingsCalcsProvided","BiMonthlyTest"     

# get list of cols for which input is needed
cols = dfCI[((dfCI['var'] == 'inputneeded') & (dfCI['tab'] == 'MsrData'))]['val'].values.tolist()
print(cols)

>> ['"MeasDescriptionTest", "SiteLocTest", "SavingsCalcsProvided", "BiMonthlyTest"']

# replace null text with text
invalid = 'Input Needed'
for col in cols:
   dfMSR[col] = np.where((dfMSR[col].isnull()), invalid, dfMSR[col])

However the second set of (single) quotes added when I converted cols from series to list, makes all the columns a single value so that

col = '"MeasDescriptionTest", "SiteLocTest", "SavingsCalcsProvided", "BiMonthlyTest"'

The desired output for cols is

cols = ["MeasDescriptionTest", "SiteLocTest", "SavingsCalcsProvided", "BiMonthlyTest"]

What am I doing wrong?

Mayank Porwal · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-12 17:14:58Z

2

Once you've got col, you can convert it to your expected output:

In [1109]: col = '"MeasDescriptionTest", "SiteLocTest", "SavingsCalcsProvided", "BiMonthlyTest"'

In [1114]: cols = [i.strip() for i in col.replace('"', '').split(',')]

In [1115]: cols
Out[1115]: ['MeasDescriptionTest', 'SiteLocTest', 'SavingsCalcsProvided', 'BiMonthlyTest']

answered Jan 12, 2021 at 17:14

Mayank Porwal

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SModi Over a year ago

Thanks Mayank, this worked. However, can the single quotes be avoided so that I don't have to do this extra step? I have control on how I enter the data in excel. Currently it's entered as: "MeasDescriptionTest", "SiteLocTest", "SavingsCalcsProvided", "BiMonthlyTest"

David · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-12 17:25:24Z

1

Another possible solution that comes to mind given the structure of cols is:

list(eval(cols[0]))  # ['MeasDescriptionTest', 'SiteLocTest', 'SavingsCalcsProvided', 'BiMonthlyTest']

Although this is valid, it's less safe and I would go with list-comprehension as @MayankPorwal suggested.

answered Jan 12, 2021 at 17:25

David

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