🔥Limited Offer: Get 50% OFFon AI & Full Stack Courses🔥
Back to Pandas Notes
Topic #11

Cleaning Wrong Format


Data of Wrong Format

Cells with data of wrong format can make it difficult, or even impossible, to analyze data.

To fix it, you have two options: remove the rows, or convert all cells in the columns into the same format.


Convert Into a Correct Format

In our Data Frame, we have two cells with the wrong format. Check out row 22 and 26, the 'Date' column should be a string that represents a date:

    Duration          Date  Pulse  Maxpulse  Calories
0         60  '2020/12/01'    110       130     409.1
1         60  '2020/12/02'    117       145     479.0
2         60  '2020/12/03'    103       135     340.0
3         45  '2020/12/04'    109       175     282.4
4         45  '2020/12/05'    117       148     406.0
5         60  '2020/12/06'    102       127     300.0
6         60  '2020/12/07'    110       136     374.0
7        450  '2020/12/08'    104       134     253.3
8         30  '2020/12/09'    109       133     195.1
9         60  '2020/12/10'     98       124     269.0
10        60  '2020/12/11'    103       147     329.3
11        60  '2020/12/12'    100       120     250.7
12        60  '2020/12/12'    100       120     250.7
13        60  '2020/12/13'    106       128     345.3
14        60  '2020/12/14'    104       132     379.3
15        60  '2020/12/15'     98       123     275.0
16        60  '2020/12/16'     98       120     215.2
17        60  '2020/12/17'    100       120     300.0
18        45  '2020/12/18'     90       112       NaN
19        60  '2020/12/19'    103       123     323.0
20        45  '2020/12/20'     97       125     243.0
21        60  '2020/12/21'    108       131     364.2
22        45           NaN    100       119     282.0
23        60  '2020/12/23'    130       101     300.0
24        45  '2020/12/24'    105       132     246.0
25        60  '2020/12/25'    102       126     334.5
26        60      20201226    100       120     250.0
27        60  '2020/12/27'     92       118     241.0
28        60  '2020/12/28'    103       132       NaN
29        60  '2020/12/29'    100       132     280.0
30        60  '2020/12/30'    102       129     380.3
31        60  '2020/12/31'     92       115     243.0

Let's try to convert all cells in the 'Date' column into dates.

Pandas has a to_datetime() method for this:

Example

    import pandas as pd

    df = pd.read_csv('data.csv')

df['Date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Date'],
    format='mixed')

    print(df.to_string())

As you can see from the result, the date in row 26 was fixed, but the empty date in row 22 got a NaT (Not a Time) value, in other words an empty value. One way to deal with empty values is simply removing the entire row.


Removing Rows

The result from the converting in the example above gave us a NaT value, which can be handled as a NULL value, and we can remove the row by using the dropna() method.

Example

df.dropna(subset=['Date'], inplace = True)

Want to go beyond the notes?

Join CodingNow 2.0's Pandas course — live mentorship, real projects, and 100% placement support.

Enroll Now — Free Demo Available

Cleaning Wrong Format – FAQs

Quick answers about learning Cleaning Wrong Format in Pandas.

This free note from CodingNow 2.0 explains Cleaning Wrong Format in Pandas — concept, syntax and worked code examples you can copy, run and revise before interviews.
Yes. Every Pandas topic on CodingNow 2.0, including Cleaning Wrong Format, is 100% free with no signup required.
With focused practice, most students grasp Cleaning Wrong Format in 1–3 days from these notes; pairing it with CodingNow 2.0's mentor-led course takes you to job-ready depth faster.
Use the code examples in this note, then ask doubts for free on the CodingNow 2.0 Community (/community) — expert instructors answer within 24 hours.
WhatsApp
Call NowEnroll Now