I have a dataframe with column names, and I want to find the one that contains a certain string, but does not exactly match it. I'm searching for 'spike'
in column names like 'spike-2'
, 'hey spike'
, 'spiked-in'
(the 'spike'
part is always continuous).
I want the column name to be returned as a string or a variable, so I access the column later with df['name']
or df[name]
as normal. I've tried to find ways to do this, to no avail. Any tips?
This question is related to
python
python-3.x
string
pandas
dataframe
Just iterate over DataFrame.columns
, now this is an example in which you will end up with a list of column names that match:
import pandas as pd
data = {'spike-2': [1,2,3], 'hey spke': [4,5,6], 'spiked-in': [7,8,9], 'no': [10,11,12]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)
spike_cols = [col for col in df.columns if 'spike' in col]
print(list(df.columns))
print(spike_cols)
Output:
['hey spke', 'no', 'spike-2', 'spiked-in']
['spike-2', 'spiked-in']
Explanation:
df.columns
returns a list of column names[col for col in df.columns if 'spike' in col]
iterates over the list df.columns
with the variable col
and adds it to the resulting list if col
contains 'spike'
. This syntax is list comprehension. If you only want the resulting data set with the columns that match you can do this:
df2 = df.filter(regex='spike')
print(df2)
Output:
spike-2 spiked-in
0 1 7
1 2 8
2 3 9
Getting name and subsetting based on Start, Contains, and Ends:
# from: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21285380/find-column-whose-name-contains-a-specific-string
# from: https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/reference/api/pandas.Series.str.contains.html
# from: https://cmdlinetips.com/2019/04/how-to-select-columns-using-prefix-suffix-of-column-names-in-pandas/
# from: https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/reference/api/pandas.DataFrame.filter.html
import pandas as pd
data = {'spike_starts': [1,2,3], 'ends_spike_starts': [4,5,6], 'ends_spike': [7,8,9], 'not': [10,11,12]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)
print("\n")
print("----------------------------------------")
colNames_contains = df.columns[df.columns.str.contains(pat = 'spike')].tolist()
print("Contains")
print(colNames_contains)
print("\n")
print("----------------------------------------")
colNames_starts = df.columns[df.columns.str.contains(pat = '^spike')].tolist()
print("Starts")
print(colNames_starts)
print("\n")
print("----------------------------------------")
colNames_ends = df.columns[df.columns.str.contains(pat = 'spike$')].tolist()
print("Ends")
print(colNames_ends)
print("\n")
print("----------------------------------------")
df_subset_start = df.filter(regex='^spike',axis=1)
print("Starts")
print(df_subset_start)
print("\n")
print("----------------------------------------")
df_subset_contains = df.filter(regex='spike',axis=1)
print("Contains")
print(df_subset_contains)
print("\n")
print("----------------------------------------")
df_subset_ends = df.filter(regex='spike$',axis=1)
print("Ends")
print(df_subset_ends)
This answer uses the DataFrame.filter method to do this without list comprehension:
import pandas as pd
data = {'spike-2': [1,2,3], 'hey spke': [4,5,6]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)
print(df.filter(like='spike').columns)
Will output just 'spike-2'. You can also use regex, as some people suggested in comments above:
print(df.filter(regex='spike|spke').columns)
Will output both columns: ['spike-2', 'hey spke']
You can also use df.columns[df.columns.str.contains(pat = 'spike')]
data = {'spike-2': [1,2,3], 'hey spke': [4,5,6], 'spiked-in': [7,8,9], 'no': [10,11,12]}
df = pd.DataFrame(data)
colNames = df.columns[df.columns.str.contains(pat = 'spike')]
print(colNames)
This will output the column names: 'spike-2', 'spiked-in'
More about pandas.Series.str.contains.
You also can use this code:
spike_cols =[x for x in df.columns[df.columns.str.contains('spike')]]
# select columns containing 'spike'
df.filter(like='spike', axis=1)
You can also select by name, regular expression. Refer to: pandas.DataFrame.filter
df.loc[:,df.columns.str.contains("spike")]
Source: Stackoverflow.com