You can select the unicode emojis with a regex range:
df2 = df[df['sentence'].str.contains(r'[\u263a-\U0001f645]')]
output:
sentence
0
2 +1
This is however much more ambiguous for the ASCII "emojis" as there is no standard definition and probably endless combinations. If you limit it to the smiley faces that contain eyes ';:' and a mouth ')(' you could use:
df[df['sentence'].str.contains(r'[\u263a-\U0001f645]|(?:[:;]\S?[\)\(])')]
output:
sentence
0
2 +1
3 One :-) :)
But you would be missing plenty of potential ASCII possibilities: :O
, :P
, 8D
, etc.