How to check if any value is NaN in a Pandas DataFrame

Question

In Python Pandas, what's the best way to check whether a DataFrame has one (or more) NaN values?

I know about the function pd.isnan, but this returns a DataFrame of booleans for each element. This post right here doesn't exactly answer my question either.

Answer 1

jwilner's response is spot on. I was exploring to see if there's a faster option, since in my experience, summing flat arrays is (strangely) faster than counting. This code seems faster:

df.isnull().values.any()

import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import perfplot


def setup(n):
    df = pd.DataFrame(np.random.randn(n))
    df[df > 0.9] = np.nan
    return df


def isnull_any(df):
    return df.isnull().any()


def isnull_values_sum(df):
    return df.isnull().values.sum() > 0


def isnull_sum(df):
    return df.isnull().sum() > 0


def isnull_values_any(df):
    return df.isnull().values.any()


perfplot.save(
    "out.png",
    setup=setup,
    kernels=[isnull_any, isnull_values_sum, isnull_sum, isnull_values_any],
    n_range=[2 ** k for k in range(25)],
)

df.isnull().sum().sum() is a bit slower, but of course, has additional information -- the number of NaNs.