Split list values to rows on pandas enforcing output type

split_list_to_row.py

def split_data_frame_list(df, 
                       target_column,
                      output_type=float):
    ''' 
    Accepts a column with multiple types and splits list variables to several rows.

    df: dataframe to split
    target_column: the column containing the values to split
    output_type: type of all outputs
    returns: a dataframe with each entry for the target column separated, with each element moved into a new row. 
    The values in the other columns are duplicated across the newly divided rows.
    '''
    row_accumulator = []

    def split_list_to_rows(row):
        split_row = row[target_column]
        if isinstance(split_row, list):
          for s in split_row:
              new_row = row.to_dict()
              new_row[target_column] = output_type(s)
              row_accumulator.append(new_row)
        else:
          new_row = row.to_dict()
          new_row[target_column] = output_type(split_row)
          row_accumulator.append(new_row)
  
    df.apply(split_list_to_rows, axis=1)
    new_df = pd.DataFrame(row_accumulator)
  
    return new_df