You can use the following methods to strip whitespace from columns in a pandas DataFrame:
Method 1: Strip Whitespace from One Column
df['my_column'] = df['my_column'].str.strip()
Method 2: Strip Whitespace from All String Columns
df = df.apply(lambda x: x.str.strip() if x.dtype == 'object' else x)
The following examples show how to use each method in practice with the following pandas DataFrame:
import pandas as pd #create DataFrame df = pd.DataFrame({'team': ['Mavs', ' Heat', ' Nets ', 'Cavs', 'Hawks', 'Jazz '], 'position': ['Point Guard', ' Small Forward', 'Center ', 'Power Forward', ' Point Guard ', 'Center'], 'points': [11, 8, 10, 6, 22, 29]}) #view DataFrame print(df) team position points 0 Mavs Point Guard 11 1 Heat Small Forward 8 2 Nets Center 10 3 Cavs Power Forward 6 4 Hawks Point Guard 22 5 Jazz Center 29
Example 1: Strip Whitespace from One Column
The following code shows how to strip whitespace from every string in the position column:
#strip whitespace from position column
df['position'] = df['position'].str.strip()
#view updated DataFrame
print(df)
team position points
0 Mavs Point Guard 11
1 Heat Small Forward 8
2 Nets Center 10
3 Cavs Power Forward 6
4 Hawks Point Guard 22
5 Jazz Center 29
Notice that all whitespace has been stripped from each string that had whitespace in the position column.
Example 2: Strip Whitespace from All String Columns
The following code shows how to strip whitespace from each string in all string columns of the DataFrame:
#strip whitespace from all string columns
df = df.apply(lambda x: x.str.strip() if x.dtype == 'object' else x)
#view updated DataFrame
print(df)
team position points
0 Mavs Point Guard 11
1 Heat Small Forward 8
2 Nets Center 10
3 Cavs Power Forward 6
4 Hawks Point Guard 22
5 Jazz Center 29
Notice that all whitespace has been stripped from both the team and position columns, which are the two string columns in the DataFrame.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in pandas:
Pandas: How to Select Columns Containing a Specific String
Pandas: How to Filter Rows Based on String Length
How to Create Pandas DataFrame from a String