str.split() for splitting in Pandas - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Splitting Text Data Using str.split() in pandas

📖 Scenario: You work in a small company that keeps customer information in a spreadsheet. One column contains full names, but you want to separate the first and last names into two columns for easier analysis.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to use pandas str.split() to split a column of full names into separate first and last name columns.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a pandas DataFrame with a column of full names

Create a variable for the separator character

Use str.split() with the separator to split the full names into two columns

Print the resulting DataFrame with the new columns

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Splitting full names into first and last names is common in customer data cleaning and preparation for analysis or mailing.

💼 Career

Data analysts and data scientists often need to clean and transform text data using pandas string methods like <code>str.split()</code>.

1

Create a pandas DataFrame with full names

Import pandas as pd and create a DataFrame called df with one column named 'FullName' containing these exact values: 'Alice Johnson', 'Bob Smith', 'Charlie Brown'.

Pandas

# Import pandas and create the DataFrame df with the FullName column
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use pd.DataFrame() with a dictionary where the key is 'FullName' and the value is a list of the full names.

2

Create a separator variable

Create a variable called separator and set it to a single space character ' ' to use for splitting the full names.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({'FullName': ['Alice Johnson', 'Bob Smith', 'Charlie Brown']})

# Create the separator variable with a space character
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The separator is a string with one space: ' '.

3

Split the FullName column into FirstName and LastName

Use df['FullName'].str.split(separator, expand=True) to split the full names into two columns. Assign the result to two new columns in df called 'FirstName' and 'LastName'.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({'FullName': ['Alice Johnson', 'Bob Smith', 'Charlie Brown']})

separator = ' '

# Split FullName into FirstName and LastName columns
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use expand=True to get two separate columns from the split.

4

Print the DataFrame with split names

Write a print(df) statement to display the DataFrame with the new 'FirstName' and 'LastName' columns.

Pandas

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({'FullName': ['Alice Johnson', 'Bob Smith', 'Charlie Brown']})

separator = ' '

df[['FirstName', 'LastName']] = df['FullName'].str.split(separator, expand=True)

# Print the DataFrame df
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The output should show the original FullName column plus the new FirstName and LastName columns.