Pandas error cannot convert String to Float setting a value at index

Question

that I know this was working for me last time I ran my script. but it looks like is not anymore. I have a scraping module which returns a dict, at my main script im running the scraping and assigning values . but now im getting this error about cannot convert a the string value to a float ( should i set the column to string from the very beginning ? )

This is the error

dataset.at[index,'UserPhotoUrl'] = scrapedData['usernamePhotoLink']

ValueError: could not convert string to float: 'https://instagram.fhex4-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t51.2885-19/s150x150/81572390_579207132636171_1735861275205828608_n.jpg?_nc_ht=instagram.fhex4-1.fna.fbcdn.net&_nc_ohc=EfweZRX7mn8AX8kKx7e&oh=b7cb7aaf3ee583604e4a40cd7b23447f&oe=5EA1B8F7'

It might be worth taking a look at [How to make good pandas examples](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20109391/how-to-make-good-reproducible-pandas-examples) and providing a [mcve] with sample input, sample output, and a reproducible amount of code — G. Anderson, Jan 15 '20 at 22:25

Shenanigator · Answer 1 · 2020-01-15T22:42:32.073

0

did you try setting the scrapedData explicitly to a string?

dataset = pd.read_csv(openFilename, delimiter = ',',encoding = my_encoding, dtype={'UserPhotoUrl': str, 'PostPhotoUrl': str})

edited Jan 15 '20 at 22:42

answered Jan 15 '20 at 21:16

Shenanigator

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Hey thanks for answering! yeah it didn't work.. I get dataset.at[index,'UserPhotoUrl'] = scrapedData['usernamePhotoLink'].astype('str') AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'astype' – lorenzo gonzalez Jan 15 '20 at 21:28
also tried.. dataset.at[index,'UserPhotoUrl'] = "hello".astype('str') – lorenzo gonzalez Jan 15 '20 at 21:31
could it be pandas version, I don't know If I was on a version and maybe I got an update or something.... – lorenzo gonzalez Jan 15 '20 at 21:32
well that says the scrapedData is already a string then. so I would try setting `df.astype({'UserPhotoUrl': 'str'})` – Shenanigator Jan 15 '20 at 21:33
dataset.at[index,'UserPhotoUrl'] = "hello" also not working , lol – lorenzo gonzalez Jan 15 '20 at 21:34
let me check! im setting this columns at the beginning before processing, scrapping.. dataset = pd.read_csv(openFilename, delimiter = ',',encoding = my_encoding) dataset.astype({'UserPhotoUrl': 'str'}) dataset.astype({'postPhotoLink': 'str'}) – lorenzo gonzalez Jan 15 '20 at 21:36
now that I have more code from your answer; see if that works. – Shenanigator Jan 15 '20 at 22:43

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 15 '20 at 22:37

Well guys, I did find the solution. doesn't look as elegant though .

dataset = pd.read_csv(openFilename, delimiter = ',',encoding = my_encoding)
dataset['UserPhotoUrl'] = " "
dataset['PostPhotoUrl'] = " "
dataset.astype({'UserPhotoUrl': 'str'})
dataset.astype({'PostPhotoUrl': 'str'})

Had to set at the very beginning forcing to str.

Pandas error cannot convert String to Float setting a value at index

2 Answers2