Select by partial string from a pandas DataFrame
I have a DataFrame with 4 columns of which 2 contain string values. I was wondering if there was a way to select rows based on a partial string match against a particular column?
In other words, a function or lambda function that would do something like
re.search(pattern, cell_in_question)
returning a boolean. I am familiar with the syntax of df[df['A'] == "hello world"] but can't seem to find a way to do the same with a partial string match say 'hello'.
Would someone be able to point me in the right direction?
Answer
Based on github issue #620, it looks like you'll soon be able to do the following:
df[df['A'].str.contains("hello")]
Update: vectorized string methods (i.e., Series.str) are available in pandas 0.8.1 and up.