Pandas: How to Check if Column Contains String

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You can use the following methods to check if a column of a pandas DataFrame contains a string:

Method 1: Check if Exact String Exists in Column

(df['col'].eq('exact_string')).any()

Method 2: Check if Partial String Exists in Column

df['col'].str.contains('partial_string').any()

Method 3: Count Occurrences of Partial String in Column

df['col'].str.contains('partial_string').sum()

This tutorial explains how to use each method in practice with the following DataFrame:

import pandas as pd

#create DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame({'team': ['A', 'A', 'A', 'B', 'B', 'C'],
                   'conference': ['East', 'East', 'South', 'West', 'West', 'East'],
                   'points': [11, 8, 10, 6, 6, 5]})

#view DataFrame
df

        team	conference   points
0	A	East         11
1	A	East	     8
2	A	South        10
3	B	West         6
4	B	West         6
5	C	East         5

Example 1: Check if Exact String Exists in Column

The following code shows how to check if the exact string ‘Eas’ exists in the conference column of the DataFrame:

#check if exact string 'Eas' exists in conference column
(df['conference'].eq('Eas')).any()

False

The output returns False, which tells us that the exact string ‘Eas’ does not exist in the conference column of the DataFrame.

Example 2: Check if Partial String Exists in Column

The following code shows how to check if the partial string ‘Eas’ exists in the conference column of the DataFrame:

#check if partial string 'Eas' exists in conference column
df['conference'].str.contains('Eas').any()

True

The output returns True, which tells us that the partial string ‘Eas’ does exist in the conference column of the DataFrame.

Example 3: Count Occurrences of Partial String in Column

The following code shows how to count the number of times the partial string ‘Eas’ occurs in the conference column of the DataFrame:

#count occurrences of partial string 'Eas' in conference column
df['conference'].str.contains('East').sum()

3

The output returns 3, which tells us that the partial string ‘Eas’ occurs 3 times in the conference column of the DataFrame.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in pandas:

How to Drop Rows in Pandas DataFrame Based on Condition
How to Filter a Pandas DataFrame on Multiple Conditions
How to Use “NOT IN” Filter in Pandas DataFrame