Why isn't this removing non-alphanumerical characters?

Question

import pandas as pd

df = pd.read_csv('911.csv')

df['desc'].str.replace('[^a-zA-Z0-9]','').head()

0    REINDEER CT & DEAD END;  NEW HANOVER; Station ...
1    BRIAR PATH & WHITEMARSH LN;  HATFIELD TOWNSHIP...
2    HAWS AVE; NORRISTOWN; 2015-12-10 @ 14:39:21-St...
3    AIRY ST & SWEDE ST;  NORRISTOWN; Station 308A;...
4    CHERRYWOOD CT & DEAD END;  LOWER POTTSGROVE; S...
Name: desc, dtype: object

I'm trying to remove all non-alphanumerical characters in the desc column. I tried the same code with other columns but it doesn't seem to be working.

Keep in mind that [^a-zA-Z0-9] will also match for non-ASCII alphabetic characters for example this could turn Düsseldorf into Dsseldorf. If you want to preserve non-ASCII alphabetic character consider using \w rather than a-zA-Z. — Daweo
– Daweo, Commented Jul 24 at 12:15

furas · Accepted Answer · 2025-07-24 01:18:26Z

2

It needs regex=True, That's all. Doc: Series.str.replace

.replace('[^a-zA-Z0-9]', '', regex=True)

BTW: it will remove also spaces between words, so maybe you should add also space.

answered Jul 24 at 1:18

furas

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