AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'contains' when applying a function to a df column using Lambda

Question

I am trying to create a new column based on the following logic by using a function as below. When I apply this function to a df using lambda, I am seeing the following error. I tried to remove the "str" in front of "contains" but it did not work. Could anyone assist or advice. Thanks.

def new_col(x):
    if pd.isna(x):
        return ''
    elif x.str.contains('Watch',case=False):
        return 'Product A'
    elif x.str.contains('Glasses',case=False):
        return 'Product B'
    elif x.str.contians('Table',case=False):
        return 'Product C'
    elif x.str.contains('Computer',case=False):
        return 'Product D'
    elif x.str.contains('Beauty',case=False):
        return 'Product E'
    elif x.str.contains(','):
        return x.split(',')[0]
    else:
        return x

df['new column'] = df.apply(lambda x: new_col(x['product']),axis=1)

AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'contains'

Asked By: user032020

||

Source

Answer 1

Use the in operator with str.casefold() to perform a case-insensitive substring search:

def new_col(x):
    if pd.isna(x):
        return ''
    elif 'Watch'.casefold() in x.str.casefold():
        return 'Product A'
    elif 'Glasses'.casefold() in x.str.casefold():
        return 'Product B'
    elif 'Table'.casefold() in x.str.casefold():
        return 'Product C'
    elif 'Computer'.casefold() in x.str.casefold():
        return 'Product D'
    elif 'Beauty'.casefold() in x.str.casefold():
        return 'Product E'
    elif ',' in x.str:
        return x.split(',')[0]
    else:
        return x

Answered By: Mathias R. Jessen

Answer 2

str.contains is a function applicable to a series as a whole. In your case, instead of using Pandas functions, you can use a simple for loop to do the trick.

result = []

for i in df['product']:
    if pd.isna(i):
        result.append('')
    elif 'watch' in i.lower():
        result.append('Product A')
    elif 'glasses' in i.lower():
        result.append('Product B')
    elif 'table' in i.lower():
        result.append('Product C')
    elif 'computer' in i.lower():
        result.append('Product D')
    elif 'beauty' in i.lower():
        result.append('Product E')
    elif ',' in i:
        result.append(i.split(',')[0])
    else:
        result.append(i)

df['new column'] = result

Answered By: Kevin Choon Liang Yew

AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'contains' when applying a function to a df column using Lambda

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