Efficiently split Pandas Dataframe cells containing lists into multiple rows, duplicating the other column's values.

separator.py

def splitDataFrameList(df,target_column,separator):
    ''' df = dataframe to split,
    target_column = the column containing the values to split
    separator = the symbol used to perform the split

    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.
    '''
    def splitListToRows(row,row_accumulator,target_column,separator):
        split_row = row[target_column].split(separator)
        for s in split_row:
            new_row = row.to_dict()
            new_row[target_column] = s
            row_accumulator.append(new_row)
    new_rows = []
    df.apply(splitListToRows,axis=1,args = (new_rows,target_column,separator))
    new_df = pandas.DataFrame(new_rows)
    return new_df

Thanks A lot For this code

Thanks! Very useful!

You could use 'pd.' instead of 'pandas.' :)

From pandas 0.25 on, one can use explode

Thank you !

very helpful!

Need some help. I am unable to run script provided by @namanjh and others above. I am using the same input data file separated by commas. Script errors due to new_df not being defined. Please help. Thanks.

Input data:

Contact	Email	email2	phone	notes
adam,bob	adam.con, bob.com, john.com	adam.com2, bob.com2, john.com2	adamphone, bobphone, johnphone	should be same for everyone
other contact	don’t touch this	asdf	asdf	don’t touch this
rachael, simone, snake	rachael.com, simone.com	rachael.com2, simone.com2, snake.com2	rachaelphone, simonephone	should be same for everyone
other contact	don’t touch this	asdf	asdf	don’t touch this

Script:
#import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
from IPython.display import display

df = pd.DataFrame(pd.read_excel("file_path.xlsx"))
column_selectors = list(df)
row_delimiters = ','
#new_df = []
display(df)
display(column_selectors)

def split_dataframe_rows(df, column_selectors, row_delimiters):
def _split_list_to_rows(row, row_accumulator, column_selector, row_delimiter):
split_rows = {}
max_split = 0
for column_selector in column_selectors:
split_row = row[column_selector].split(row_delimiter)
split_rows[column_selector] = split_row
if len(split_row) > max_split:
max_split = len(split_row)

    for i in range(max_split):
        new_row = row.to_dict()
        for column_selector in column_selectors:
            try:
                new_row[column_selector] = split_rows[column_selector].pop(0)
            except IndexError:
                new_row[column_selector] = ''
        row_accumulator.append(new_row)
    
new_rows = []
df.apply(_split_list_to_rows, axis=1, args = (new_rows, column_selectors, row_delimiter))
new_df = pd.DataFrame(new_rows, column=df.columns)
return new_df

df2 = new_df
display(df2)

Super excited, this is my first time commenting with something I made, be gentle. I needed something similar when a number and a string were in one column separated by a comma (blanks as well). I modified my code a bit to hopefully work a little more universally.

The code checks how many times a delimiter is used in each column row, then repeats that line for each one.

import pandas as pd
from itertools import chain
import numpy as np

def chainer(df,col,sep,dtype):
  df = df.astype({col:dtype})
  lens = df[col].str.split(sep).map(len)
  dicts = {}
  for cols in df.columns:
    if cols == col:
      dicts[cols] = list(chain.from_iterable(df[cols].str.split(sep)))
    else:
      dicts[cols] = np.repeat(df[cols],lens)
  return pd.DataFrame.from_dict(dicts)

df = chainer(df,'Combined Column',',','str')

Added the astype because my column wouldn't convert a float or NaN, after using str worked like a champ.