gistfile1.py

def column_cleaner(df, inplace=False):
    """
    Clean up column names where white spaces are trimmed and replaced. 
    All column names are lowercased for sanity. 
    """
    orig_cols = df.columns
    new_cols = []
    
    for col in orig_cols:
        new_cols.append("".join([c if c.isalnum() else "_" for c in col.strip()]).lower())
    
    record = dict(zip(orig_cols, new_cols))
    
    if not inplace:
        df = df.rename(columns=record, inplace=inplace)
        return df
    
    else:
        df.rename(columns=record, inplace=inplace)