How to split a column of strings, and create rows from the separate elements?

Question

I'm unable to split a text document into multiple sentences in a data frame and create rows for each sentence while other column values should be the same. Let me explain it a little:

Initially

A | B     | C | D
-------------
x | A.B   | x | x
y | C.D.E | y | y

What I would like to have (after splitting text in B column)

A | B | C | D
-------------
x | A | x | x
x | B | x | x
y | C | y | y
y | D | y | y
y | E | y | y

What I have done so far?

I've managed to split the text document into different sentences using split() method. Now I'm stuck on the second part.

Help would be highly appreciated.

Since you have managed to split the strings, they should now be lists. Just use `df = df.explode('B')` — Trenton McKinney, Sep 22 '20 at 20:06

David Erickson · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-22T20:11:02.460

4

use str.split('.') and explode():

str.split('.') returns a list in preparation for explode. Explode requires list format in a column in order for that to work.

df['B'] = df['B'].str.split('.')
df
Out[10]: 
   A          B  C  D
0  x     [A, B]  x  x
1  y  [C, D, E]  y  y

Then explode the list, passing the column as a parameter, indicating that you want to explode the dataframe according to that column:

df['B'] = df['B'].str.split('.')
df = df.explode('B')
df
Out[11]: 
   A  B  C  D
0  x  A  x  x
0  x  B  x  x
1  y  C  y  y
1  y  D  y  y
1  y  E  y  y

edited Sep 22 '20 at 20:11

answered Sep 22 '20 at 20:06

David Erickson

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You are amazing, man. Thank you so much. I'll accept the answer in a minute. – Qasim Khan Sep 22 '20 at 20:10

How to split a column of strings, and create rows from the separate elements?

Initially

What I would like to have (after splitting text in B column)

What I have done so far?

1 Answers1