Pandas Change Datatype

Last Updated : 13 Jan, 2025

In data analysis, ensuring that each column in a Pandas DataFrame has the correct data type is crucial for accurate computations and analyses. The most common way to change the data type of a column in a Pandas DataFrame is by using the astype() method. This method allows you to convert a specific column to a desired data type. Here's the example:

Using astype() method

Python

import pandas as pd  data = {'Name': ['John', 'Alice', 'Bob', 'Eve', 'Charlie'],          'Age': [25, 30, 22, 35, 28],          'Gender': ['Male', 'Female', 'Male', 'Female', 'Male'],          'Salary': [50000, 55000, 40000, 70000, 48000]}  df = pd.DataFrame(data)  # Convert 'Age' column to float type df['Age'] = df['Age'].astype(float) print(df.dtypes)

Output

Name       object Age       float64 Gender     object Salary      int64 dtype: object

Converting a Column to a DateTime Type

Sometimes, a column that contains date information may be stored as a string. You can convert it to the datetime type using the pd.to_datetime() function.

Python

# Example: Create a 'Join Date' column as a string df['Join Date'] = ['2021-01-01', '2020-05-22', '2022-03-15', '2021-07-30', '2020-11-11']  # Convert 'Join Date' to datetime type df['Join Date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Join Date']) print(df.dtypes)

Output

Name                 object Age                   int64 Gender               object Salary                int64 Join Date    datetime64[ns] dtype: object

Changing Multiple Columns' Data Types

If you need to change the data types of multiple columns at once, you can pass a dictionary to the astype() method, where keys are column names and values are the desired data types.

Python

# Convert 'Age' to float and 'Salary' to string df = df.astype({'Age': 'float64', 'Salary': 'str'}) print(df.dtypes)

Output

Name       object Age       float64 Gender     object Salary     object dtype: object

Pandas Change Datatype

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Article Tags :

Pandas Change Datatype

Using astype() method

Converting a Column to a DateTime Type

Changing Multiple Columns' Data Types

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