How to merge/combine columns in pandas?

Question

I have a (example-) dataframe with 4 columns:

data = {'A': ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'],
    'B': [42, 52, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan],  
    'C': [np.nan, np.nan, 31, 2, np.nan, np.nan],
    'D': [np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, 62, 70]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data, columns = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'])

    A   B       C       D
0   a   42.0    NaN     NaN
1   b   52.0    NaN     NaN
2   c   NaN     31.0    NaN
3   d   NaN     2.0     NaN
4   e   NaN     NaN     62.0
5   f   NaN     NaN     70.0

I would now like to merge/combine columns B, C, and D to a new column E like in this example:

data2 = {'A': ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'],
    'E': [42, 52, 31, 2, 62, 70]}
df2 = pd.DataFrame(data2, columns = ['A', 'E'])

    A   E
0   a   42
1   b   52
2   c   31
3   d   2
4   e   62
5   f   70

I found a quite similar question here but this adds the merged colums B, C, and D at the end of column A:

0      a
1      b
2      c
3      d
4      e
5      f
6     42
7     52
8     31
9      2
10    62
11    70
dtype: object

Thanks for help.

What happens if both B and C have values in them? Which one do you intend to retain in E? — ShreyasG, Oct 04 '17 at 11:37
Good question - the second option of jezrael further down accounts for this problem. — mati, Oct 04 '17 at 12:26

Zero · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-04T11:57:09.397

Option 1
Using assign and drop

In [644]: cols = ['B', 'C', 'D']

In [645]: df.assign(E=df[cols].sum(1)).drop(cols, 1)
Out[645]:
   A     E
0  a  42.0
1  b  52.0
2  c  31.0
3  d   2.0
4  e  62.0
5  f  70.0

Option 2
Using assignment and drop

In [648]: df['E'] = df[cols].sum(1)

In [649]: df = df.drop(cols, 1)

In [650]: df
Out[650]:
   A     E
0  a  42.0
1  b  52.0
2  c  31.0
3  d   2.0
4  e  62.0
5  f  70.0

Option 3 Lately, I like the 3rd option.
Using groupby

In [660]: df.groupby(np.where(df.columns == 'A', 'A', 'E'), axis=1).first() #or sum max min
Out[660]:
   A     E
0  a  42.0
1  b  52.0
2  c  31.0
3  d   2.0
4  e  62.0
5  f  70.0

In [661]: df.columns == 'A'
Out[661]: array([ True, False, False, False], dtype=bool)

In [662]: np.where(df.columns == 'A', 'A', 'E')
Out[662]:
array(['A', 'E', 'E', 'E'],
      dtype='|S1')

Option 1 worked perfectly. I would tend to prefer opt. 1 and opt. 2, most likely because of their simplicity... Thanks! — mati, Oct 04 '17 at 19:02

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 06 '18 at 16:49

The question as written asks for merge/combine as opposed to sum, so posting this to help folks who find this answer looking for help on coalescing with combine_first, which can be a bit tricky.

df2 = pd.concat([df["A"], 
             df["B"].combine_first(df["C"]).combine_first(df["D"])], 
            axis=1)
df2.rename(columns={"B":"E"}, inplace=True)
   A     E
0  a  42.0
1  b  52.0
2  c  31.0
3  d  2.0 
4  e  62.0
5  f  70.0

What's so tricky about that? in this case there's no problem - but let's say you were pulling the B, C and D values from different dataframes, in which the a,b,c,d,e,f labels were present, but not necessarily in the same order. combine_first() aligns on the index, so you'd need to tack a set_index() on to each of your df references.

df2 = pd.concat([df.set_index("A", drop=False)["A"], 
             df.set_index("A")["B"]\
             .combine_first(df.set_index("A")["C"])\
             .combine_first(df.set_index("A")["D"]).astype(int)], 
            axis=1).reset_index(drop=True)
df2.rename(columns={"B":"E"}, inplace=True)

   A   E
0  a  42
1  b  52
2  c  31
3  d  2 
4  e  62
5  f  70

This answer works for strings, not just numbers (unlike those using `sum()`). — Paul Coccoli, Mar 10 '20 at 12:20

jezrael · Answer 3 · 2017-10-04T11:42:46.800

Use difference for columns names without A and then get sum or max:

cols = df.columns.difference(['A'])
df['E'] = df[cols].sum(axis=1).astype(int)
# df['E'] = df[cols].max(axis=1).astype(int)
df = df.drop(cols, axis=1)
print (df)
   A   E
0  a  42
1  b  52
2  c  31
3  d   2
4  e  62
5  f  70

If multiple values per rows:

data = {'A': ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f'],
    'B': [42, 52, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan],  
    'C': [np.nan, np.nan, 31, 2, np.nan, np.nan],
    'D': [10, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, 62, 70]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data, columns = ['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'])

print (df)
   A     B     C     D
0  a  42.0   NaN  10.0
1  b  52.0   NaN   NaN
2  c   NaN  31.0   NaN
3  d   NaN   2.0   NaN
4  e   NaN   NaN  62.0
5  f   NaN   NaN  70.0

cols = df.columns.difference(['A'])
df['E'] = df[cols].apply(lambda x: ', '.join(x.dropna().astype(int).astype(str)), 1)
df = df.drop(cols, axis=1)
print (df)
   A       E
0  a  42, 10
1  b      52
2  c      31
3  d       2
4  e      62
5  f      70

thanks @jezrael helpful indeed! – najmieh sadat safarabadi Jul 19 '23 at 19:10 — najmieh sadat safarabadi, Jul 19 '23 at 19:10

shortorian · Answer 4 · 2021-05-24T17:11:09.510

Zero's third option using groupby requires a numpy import and only handles one column outside the set of columns to collapse, while jpp's answer using ffill requires you know how columns are ordered. Here's a solution that has no extra dependencies, takes an arbitrary input dataframe, and only collapses columns if all rows in those columns are single-valued:

import pandas as pd

data = [{'A':'a', 'B':42, 'messy':'z'},
    {'A':'b', 'B':52, 'messy':'y'},
    {'A':'c', 'C':31},
    {'A':'d', 'C':2, 'messy':'w'},
    {'A':'e', 'D':62, 'messy':'v'},
    {'A':'f', 'D':70, 'messy':['z']}]
df = pd.DataFrame(data)

cols = ['B', 'C', 'D']
new_col = 'E'
if df[cols].apply(lambda x: len(x.notna().value_counts()) == 1, axis=1).all():
    df[new_col] = df[cols].ffill(axis=1).dropna(axis=1)

df2 = df.drop(columns=cols)

print(df, '\n\n', df2)

Output:

   A     B messy     C     D
0  a  42.0     z   NaN   NaN
1  b  52.0     y   NaN   NaN
2  c   NaN   NaN  31.0   NaN
3  d   NaN     w   2.0   NaN
4  e   NaN     v   NaN  62.0
5  f   NaN   [z]   NaN  70.0

   A messy     E
0  a     z  42.0
1  b     y  52.0
2  c   NaN  31.0
3  d     w   2.0
4  e     v  62.0
5  f   [z]  70.0

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 21 '18 at 13:16

0

You can also use ffill with iloc:

df['E'] = df.iloc[:, 1:].ffill(1).iloc[:, -1].astype(int)
df = df.iloc[:, [0, -1]]

print(df)

   A   E
0  a  42
1  b  52
2  c  31
3  d   2
4  e  62
5  f  70

answered Oct 21 '18 at 13:16

jpp

159,742
34
281
339

How to merge/combine columns in pandas?

5 Answers5

Linked

Related