I’m working with a large csv file and the next to last column has a string of text that I want to split by a specific delimiter. I was wondering if there is a simple way to do this using pandas or python?

CustNum  CustomerName     ItemQty  Item   Seatblocks                 ItemExt
32363    McCartney, Paul      3     F04    2:218:10:4,6                   60
31316    Lennon, John        25     F01    1:13:36:1,12 1:13:37:1,13     300

I want to split by the space(' ') and then the colon(':') in the Seatblocks column, but each cell would result in a different number of columns. I have a function to rearrange the columns so the Seatblocks column is at the end of the sheet, but I’m not sure what to do from there. I can do it in excel with the built in text-to-columns function and a quick macro, but my dataset has too many records for excel to handle.

Ultimately, I want to take records such John Lennon’s and create multiple lines, with the info from each set of seats on a separate line.

This splits the Seatblocks by space and gives each its own row.

In [43]: df
Out[43]: 
   CustNum     CustomerName  ItemQty Item                 Seatblocks  ItemExt
0    32363  McCartney, Paul        3  F04               2:218:10:4,6       60
1    31316     Lennon, John       25  F01  1:13:36:1,12 1:13:37:1,13      300

In [44]: s = df['Seatblocks'].str.split(' ').apply(Series, 1).stack()

In [45]: s.index = s.index.droplevel(-1) # to line up with df's index

In [46]: s.name = 'Seatblocks' # needs a name to join

In [47]: s
Out[47]: 
0    2:218:10:4,6
1    1:13:36:1,12
1    1:13:37:1,13
Name: Seatblocks, dtype: object

In [48]: del df['Seatblocks']

In [49]: df.join(s)
Out[49]: 
   CustNum     CustomerName  ItemQty Item  ItemExt    Seatblocks
0    32363  McCartney, Paul        3  F04       60  2:218:10:4,6
1    31316     Lennon, John       25  F01      300  1:13:36:1,12
1    31316     Lennon, John       25  F01      300  1:13:37:1,13

Or, to give each colon-separated string in its own column:

In [50]: df.join(s.apply(lambda x: Series(x.split(':'))))
Out[50]: 
   CustNum     CustomerName  ItemQty Item  ItemExt  0    1   2     3
0    32363  McCartney, Paul        3  F04       60  2  218  10   4,6
1    31316     Lennon, John       25  F01      300  1   13  36  1,12
1    31316     Lennon, John       25  F01      300  1   13  37  1,13

This is a little ugly, but maybe someone will chime in with a prettier solution.

Differently from Dan, I consider his answer quite elegant… but unfortunately it is also very very inefficient. So, since the question mentioned “a large csv file”, let me suggest to try in a shell Dan’s solution:

time python -c "import pandas as pd;
df = pd.DataFrame(['a b c']*100000, columns=['col']);
print df['col'].apply(lambda x : pd.Series(x.split(' '))).head()"

… compared to this alternative:

time python -c "import pandas as pd;
from scipy import array, concatenate;
df = pd.DataFrame(['a b c']*100000, columns=['col']);
print pd.DataFrame(concatenate(df['col'].apply( lambda x : [x.split(' ')]))).head()"

… and this:

time python -c "import pandas as pd;
df = pd.DataFrame(['a b c']*100000, columns=['col']);
print pd.DataFrame(dict(zip(range(3), [df['col'].apply(lambda x : x.split(' ')[i]) for i in range(3)]))).head()"

The second simply refrains from allocating 100 000 Series, and this is enough to make it around 10 times faster. But the third solution, which somewhat ironically wastes a lot of calls to str.split() (it is called once per column per row, so three times more than for the others two solutions), is around 40 times faster than the first, because it even avoids to instance the 100 000 lists. And yes, it is certainly a little ugly…

EDIT: this answer suggests how to use “to_list()” and to avoid the need for a lambda. The result is something like

time python -c "import pandas as pd;
df = pd.DataFrame(['a b c']*100000, columns=['col']);
print pd.DataFrame(df.col.str.split().tolist()).head()"

which is even more efficient than the third solution, and certainly much more elegant.

EDIT: the even simpler

time python -c "import pandas as pd;
df = pd.DataFrame(['a b c']*100000, columns=['col']);
print pd.DataFrame(list(df.col.str.split())).head()"

works too, and is almost as efficient.

EDIT: even simpler! And handles NaNs (but less efficient):

time python -c "import pandas as pd;
df = pd.DataFrame(['a b c']*100000, columns=['col']);
print df.col.str.split(expand=True).head()"

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

df = pd.DataFrame({'ItemQty': {0: 3, 1: 25}, 
                   'Seatblocks': {0: '2:218:10:4,6', 1: '1:13:36:1,12 1:13:37:1,13'}, 
                   'ItemExt': {0: 60, 1: 300}, 
                   'CustomerName': {0: 'McCartney, Paul', 1: 'Lennon, John'}, 
                   'CustNum': {0: 32363, 1: 31316}, 
                   'Item': {0: 'F04', 1: 'F01'}}, 
                    columns=['CustNum','CustomerName','ItemQty','Item','Seatblocks','ItemExt'])

print (df)
   CustNum     CustomerName  ItemQty Item                 Seatblocks  ItemExt
0    32363  McCartney, Paul        3  F04               2:218:10:4,6       60
1    31316     Lennon, John       25  F01  1:13:36:1,12 1:13:37:1,13      300

Another similar solution with chaining is use reset_index and rename:

print (df.drop('Seatblocks', axis=1)
             .join
             (
             df.Seatblocks
             .str
             .split(expand=True)
             .stack()
             .reset_index(drop=True, level=1)
             .rename('Seatblocks')           
             ))

   CustNum     CustomerName  ItemQty Item  ItemExt    Seatblocks
0    32363  McCartney, Paul        3  F04       60  2:218:10:4,6
1    31316     Lennon, John       25  F01      300  1:13:36:1,12
1    31316     Lennon, John       25  F01      300  1:13:37:1,13

If in column are NOT NaN values, the fastest solution is use list comprehension with DataFrame constructor:

df = pd.DataFrame(['a b c']*100000, columns=['col'])

In [141]: %timeit (pd.DataFrame(dict(zip(range(3), [df['col'].apply(lambda x : x.split(' ')[i]) for i in range(3)]))))
1 loop, best of 3: 211 ms per loop

In [142]: %timeit (pd.DataFrame(df.col.str.split().tolist()))
10 loops, best of 3: 87.8 ms per loop

In [143]: %timeit (pd.DataFrame(list(df.col.str.split())))
10 loops, best of 3: 86.1 ms per loop

In [144]: %timeit (df.col.str.split(expand=True))
10 loops, best of 3: 156 ms per loop

In [145]: %timeit (pd.DataFrame([ x.split() for x in df['col'].tolist()]))
10 loops, best of 3: 54.1 ms per loop

But if column contains NaN only works str.split with parameter expand=True which return DataFrame (documentation), and it explain why it is slowier:

df = pd.DataFrame(['a b c']*10, columns=['col'])
df.loc[0] = np.nan
print (df.head())
     col
0    NaN
1  a b c
2  a b c
3  a b c
4  a b c

print (df.col.str.split(expand=True))
     0     1     2
0  NaN  None  None
1    a     b     c
2    a     b     c
3    a     b     c
4    a     b     c
5    a     b     c
6    a     b     c
7    a     b     c
8    a     b     c
9    a     b     c

Another approach would be like this:

temp = df['Seatblocks'].str.split(' ')
data = data.reindex(data.index.repeat(temp.apply(len)))
data['new_Seatblocks'] = np.hstack(temp)

Can also use groupby() with no need to join and stack().

Use above example data:

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np


df = pd.DataFrame({'ItemQty': {0: 3, 1: 25}, 
                   'Seatblocks': {0: '2:218:10:4,6', 1: '1:13:36:1,12 1:13:37:1,13'}, 
                   'ItemExt': {0: 60, 1: 300}, 
                   'CustomerName': {0: 'McCartney, Paul', 1: 'Lennon, John'}, 
                   'CustNum': {0: 32363, 1: 31316}, 
                   'Item': {0: 'F04', 1: 'F01'}}, 
                    columns=['CustNum','CustomerName','ItemQty','Item','Seatblocks','ItemExt']) 
print(df)

   CustNum     CustomerName  ItemQty Item                 Seatblocks  ItemExt
0  32363    McCartney, Paul  3        F04  2:218:10:4,6               60     
1  31316    Lennon, John     25       F01  1:13:36:1,12 1:13:37:1,13  300  


#first define a function: given a Series of string, split each element into a new series
def split_series(ser,sep):
    return pd.Series(ser.str.cat(sep=sep).split(sep=sep)) 
#test the function, 
split_series(pd.Series(['a b','c']),sep=' ')
0    a
1    b
2    c
dtype: object

df2=(df.groupby(df.columns.drop('Seatblocks').tolist()) #group by all but one column
          ['Seatblocks'] #select the column to be split
          .apply(split_series,sep=' ') # split 'Seatblocks' in each group
         .reset_index(drop=True,level=-1).reset_index()) #remove extra index created

print(df2)
   CustNum     CustomerName  ItemQty Item  ItemExt    Seatblocks
0    31316     Lennon, John       25  F01      300  1:13:36:1,12
1    31316     Lennon, John       25  F01      300  1:13:37:1,13
2    32363  McCartney, Paul        3  F04       60  2:218:10:4,6

This seems a far easier method than those suggested elsewhere in this thread.

split rows in pandas dataframe