Delete rows based on multiple conditions within a column (using Python)

Question

I have a dataset, df, where I wish to remove the rows from if the column contains a certain value(s)

  value   pod

  1       hi
  2       ok
  3       no
  4       sure

Desired output:

  value   pod

  2       ok
  4       sure

I wish to remove the row if the pod column contains the word 'hi' or the word 'no'

This is what I am doing

df1 = df.drop(df.index[df['pod'] == 'hi', 'no'], inplace = True)

I keep getting this error:

A value is trying to be set on a copy of a slice from a DataFrame

I am still researching this, any suggestion is appreciated

Quang Hoang · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-06 18:35:44Z

2

I believe you should use isin:

df1 = df[~df['pod'].isin(['hi','no']) ]

print(df1)

Output:

   value   pod
1      2    ok
3      4  sure

On the other note, look at the following:

df.drop(df.index[df['pod'] == 'hi', 'no'], inplace = True)

if it were to work, inplace=True forces the drop command to work inplace, and return None. So

df1 = df.drop(df.index[df['pod'] == 'hi', 'no'], inplace = True)

would mean that df1 is None, not a dataframe.

answered Nov 6, 2020 at 18:35

Quang Hoang

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7 Comments

Lynn Over a year ago

ok, thank you. I just tried the first suggestion and still have the same number of rows. Let me try the latter- Does it matter that I have multiple columns?

Quang Hoang Over a year ago

It wouldn't matter if you have more columns. It does matter, if you have other stuff in the cell. For example 'hi ' cannot be detected with isin(['hi','no']).

Lynn Over a year ago

ok @quang, does it matter if my datatype is showing Object and not string?

Lynn Over a year ago

I will accept because it works with my sample dataset, but it is not working with my full dataset for some reason. I have only 3 columns in the full dataset. The values I wish to remove resemble this: SJ4, IA9 etc - not sure why it would not work

Quang Hoang Over a year ago

@Lynnette like I said 'hi ', with a trailing space, cannot be detected with isin, which finds the exact value. str.contains searches for a substring and would work.

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