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pythonpandasdataframefractions

Converting Fractions in a Dataframe Series to Float

In Python 3.x, how can I convert a Dataframe column containing fraction strings and NaN values into floats? I've tried a few things but haven't found an adequate solution.

So if I have a dataframe, "df", that looks like:

     a      b
0   John   20/1
1   Bob    NaN
2   Tim    9/2

How can I end up with df looking like:

      a      b
0   John   20.0
1   Bob    1000.0
2   Tim    4.5

Thank you for any guidance you're willing to provide!

Solution

  • Magic of eval from pandas 

    df.b=pd.eval(df.b.fillna(1000))
df
Out[25]: 
      a     b
0  John    20
1   Bob  1000
2   Tim   4.5