I cannot change the values of a column using python pandas

Question

I am working with the [UCI adult dataset][1]. I have added a row as a header to facilitate operation. I need to change the last column, which can take two values, '<=50k' and '>50k' and whose name is 'etiquette'. I have tried the following

num_datos.loc[num_datos.loc[:,"etiquette"]=="<=50K", "etiquette"]=1 
num_datos.loc[num_datos.loc[:,"etiquette"]==">50K", "etiquette"]=0

and the following

num_datos['etiquette'].replace(['<=50K'], 1)
num_datos['etiquette'].replace(['>50K'], 0)

However, this seems to do nothing, since if I then execute

print(num_datos.etiquette[0])

I still get a value of <=50K. Is there a way for me to replace the values of the column in question?

Vivian · Accepted Answer · 2022-12-11 17:15:16Z

1

Your second try, using df.replace(), should work when you remove the square brackets from your string. So instead use:

    num_datos['etiquette'].replace('<=50K', 1)
    num_datos['etiquette'].replace('>50K', 0)

The function currently interprets ['<=50K'] as a list with one element, and cannot find any values in your dataframe that are a list with that element. Instead, you want it to look for the string.

Hope this helps!

answered Dec 11, 2022 at 17:15

Vivian

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2 Comments

slow_learner Over a year ago

Hello. Thanks for the answer. However, I am afraid I have copied your suggested solution, but I still have the problem.

Vivian Over a year ago

Thanks for your feedback. A different question then, did you assign the result back to num_datos? As in: num_datos = num_datos['etiquette'].replace('<=50K', 1)

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