You can use the following basic syntax to split a string column in a pandas DataFrame into multiple columns:
#split column A into two columns: column A and column B df[['A', 'B']] = df['A'].str.split(',', 1, expand=True)
The following examples show how to use this syntax in practice.
Example 1: Split Column by Comma
The following code shows how to split a column in a pandas DataFrame, based on a comma, into two separate columns:
import pandas as pd #create DataFrame df = pd.DataFrame({'team': ['Mavs, West', 'Spurs, West', 'Nets, East'], 'points': [112, 104, 127]}) #view DataFrame df team points 0 Mavs, West 112 1 Spurs, West 104 2 Nets, East 127 #split team column into two columns df[['team', 'conference']] = df['team'].str.split(',', 1, expand=True) #view updated DataFrame df team points conference 0 Mavs 112 West 1 Spurs 104 West 2 Nets 127 East
Note that you can also reorder the columns after performing the split if you’d like:
#reorder columns
df = df[['team', 'conference', 'points']]
#view DataFrame
df
team conference points
0 Mavs West 112
1 Spurs West 104
2 Nets East 127
Example 2: Split Column by Other Delimiters
We can use the same syntax to split a column by other delimiters.
For example, we can split a column by a space:
import pandas as pd #create DataFrame df = pd.DataFrame({'team': ['Mavs West', 'Spurs West', 'Nets East'], 'points': [112, 104, 127]}) #split team column into two columns df[['team', 'conference']] = df['team'].str.split(' ', 1, expand=True) #view updated DataFrame df team conference points 0 Mavs West 112 1 Spurs West 104 2 Nets East 127
We can also split a column by a slash:
import pandas as pd #create DataFrame df = pd.DataFrame({'team': ['Mavs/West', 'Spurs/West', 'Nets/East'], 'points': [112, 104, 127]}) #split team column into two columns df[['team', 'conference']] = df['team'].str.split('/', 1, expand=True) #view updated DataFrame df team conference points 0 Mavs West 112 1 Spurs West 104 2 Nets East 127
Using this syntax, we can split a column by any delimiter we’d like.
Additional Resources
How to Add Rows to a Pandas DataFrame
How to Add a Numpy Array to a Pandas DataFrame
How to Count Number of Rows in Pandas DataFrame