Python | Pandas DataFrame.fillna() to replace Null values in dataframe

Last Updated : 21 Aug, 2024

Python is a great language for doing data analysis, primarily because of the fantastic ecosystem of data-centric Python packages. Pandas is one of those packages and makes importing and analyzing data much easier. Sometimes csv file has null values, which are later displayed as NaN in Data Frame. Just like the pandas dropna() method manages and remove Null values from a data frame, fillna() manages and let the user replace NaN values with some value of their own.

Pandas DataFrame.fillna() Syntax

Syntax: DataFrame.fillna(value=None, method=None, axis=None, inplace=False, limit=None, downcast=None, **kwargs)

Parameters:

value : Static, dictionary, array, series or dataframe to fill instead of NaN.
method : Method is used if user doesn’t pass any value. Pandas have different methods like bfill, backfill, or ffill which fills the place with value in the Forward index or Previous/Back respectively.
axis: axis takes int or string value for rows/columns. Input can be 0 or 1 for Integer and ‘index’ or ‘columns’ for String
inplace: It is a boolean which makes the changes in data frame itself if True.
limit : This is an integer value which specifies maximum number of consecutive forward/backward NaN value fills.
downcast : It takes a dict which specifies what dtype to downcast to which one. Like Float64 to int64.
**kwargs : Any other Keyword arguments

Python Pandas DataFrame.fillna() to Replace Null values in Dataframe

Below are the ways by which we can replace null values in Dataframe in Python:

Replace NaN Values with String | Pandas
Before Replacing
- After Replacing
Using method parameter
Using Limit

Pandas: How to Replace NaN Values with String

Example 1: Replacing NaN values with a Static value Before Replacing

In this example, we are using pandas library to import the “nba.csv” file and create a DataFrame named “nba” containing the data from the CSV file, which is then displayed using the nba variable.

Python

# importing pandas module import pandas as pd # making data frame from csv file nba = pd.read_csv("nba.csv") nba

Output

Example 2: Replacing NaN values with a Static value After replacing

In the following example, all the null values in College column has been replaced with “No college” string. Firstly, the data frame is imported from CSV and then College column is selected and fillna() method is used on it.

Python

# importing pandas module import pandas as pd  # making data frame from csv file nba = pd.read_csv("nba.csv")  # replacing na values in college with No college nba["College"].fillna("No College", inplace = True)  nba

Output:

Replacing Null Values Using method Parameter

In the following example, method is set as ffill and hence the value in the same column replaces the null value. In this case Georgia State replaced null value in college column of row 4 and 5. Similarly, bfill, backfill and pad methods can also be used.

Python

# importing pandas module import pandas as pd  # making data frame from csv file nba = pd.read_csv("nba.csv")  # replacing na values in college with No college nba["College"].fillna( method ='ffill', inplace = True)  nba

Output

Replacing Null Values Using Limit

In this example, a limit of 1 is set in the fillna() method to check if the function stops replacing after one successful replacement of NaN value or not.

Python

# importing pandas module import pandas as pd  # making data frame from csv file nba = pd.read_csv("nba.csv")  # replacing na values in college with No college nba["College"].fillna( method ='ffill', limit = 1, inplace = True)  nba

Output:

As shown in the output, The college column of 4th row was replaced but 5th one wasn’t since the limit was set 1.

Python | Pandas dataframe.clip()

Kartikaybhutani

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Python | Pandas DataFrame.fillna() to replace Null values in dataframe

Pandas DataFrame.fillna() Syntax

Python Pandas DataFrame.fillna() to Replace Null values in Dataframe

Pandas: How to Replace NaN Values with String

Example 1: Replacing NaN values with a Static value Before Replacing

Example 2: Replacing NaN values with a Static value After replacing

Replacing Null Values Using method Parameter

Replacing Null Values Using Limit

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