Getting "AttributeError: 'float' object has no attribute 'replace'" error while replacing string

Question

I have a column which has text in it. I have to replace (':',' ').

When I am running this code:

df["text"] = [x.replace(':',' ') for x in df["text"]]

I am facing the this error:

AttributeError: 'float' object has no attribute 'replace'

AttributeError                            Traceback (most recent call 
last)
<ipython-input-13-3c116e6f21e2> in <module>
  1 #df["text"] = df["text"].astype(str)
----> 2 df["text"] = [x.replace(':',' ') for x in df["text"]]

<ipython-input-13-3c116e6f21e2> in <listcomp>(.0)
  1 #df["text"] = data["NOTES_ENT"].astype(str)
----> 2 df["text"] = [x.replace(':',' ') for x in df["text"]]

AttributeError: 'float' object has no attribute 'replace'

It seems that you have a float type in the field of "test" in the data frame — Shaked Eyal
– Shaked Eyal, Commented Apr 7, 2019 at 8:28

jonathan · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-07 08:28:41Z

8

The error is pretty clear. you are trying to replace characters in a float. x probably is a float. you might want to do str(x) which gets you

f["text"] = [str(x).replace(':',' ') for x in df["text"]]

but i can't see a situation where a float contains a :

answered Apr 7, 2019 at 8:28

jonathan

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jezrael · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-07 08:33:46Z

4

In my opinion problem is missing value in column, so use pandas methods Series.str.replace or Series.replace instead list comprehension:

df["text"] = df["text"].str.replace(':',' ')

Or:

df["text"] = df["text"].str.replace(':',' ', regex=True)

Solution with list comprehension is possible, only need if-else statement for test strings:

df["text"] = [x.replace(':',' ') if isinstance(x, str) else x for x in df["text"]]

Sample:

df = pd.DataFrame({'text':['qq:ww','e:', np.nan]})
df["text"] = df["text"].str.replace(':',' ')

print (df)
    text
0  qq ww
1     e 
2    NaN

edited Apr 7, 2019 at 8:33

answered Apr 7, 2019 at 8:30

jezrael

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Abhishek Singh · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-07 08:28:20Z

3

Please try writing adding above line to your code and let me know if that works for you.

df["text"] = df["text"].astype(str)
df["text"] = [x.replace(':',' ') for x in df["text"]]

answered Apr 7, 2019 at 8:28

Abhishek Singh

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Comments

fuat · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-07 08:32:01Z

2

As the indicated in the error message, text must be string. You may try changing data type:

text = str(text)

answered Apr 7, 2019 at 8:32

fuat

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