Given a pandas dataframe containing possible NaN values scattered here and there:
Question: How do I determine which columns contain NaN values? In particular, can I get a list of the column names containing NaNs?
UPDATE: using Pandas 0.22.0
Newer Pandas versions have new methods 'DataFrame.isna()' and 'DataFrame.notna()'
In [71]: df
Out[71]:
a b c
0 NaN 7.0 0
1 0.0 NaN 4
2 2.0 NaN 4
3 1.0 7.0 0
4 1.0 3.0 9
5 7.0 4.0 9
6 2.0 6.0 9
7 9.0 6.0 4
8 3.0 0.0 9
9 9.0 0.0 1
In [72]: df.isna().any()
Out[72]:
a True
b True
c False
dtype: bool
as list of columns:
In [74]: df.columns[df.isna().any()].tolist()
Out[74]: ['a', 'b']
to select those columns (containing at least one NaN value):
In [73]: df.loc[:, df.isna().any()]
Out[73]:
a b
0 NaN 7.0
1 0.0 NaN
2 2.0 NaN
3 1.0 7.0
4 1.0 3.0
5 7.0 4.0
6 2.0 6.0
7 9.0 6.0
8 3.0 0.0
9 9.0 0.0
OLD answer:
Try to use isnull():
In [97]: df
Out[97]:
a b c
0 NaN 7.0 0
1 0.0 NaN 4
2 2.0 NaN 4
3 1.0 7.0 0
4 1.0 3.0 9
5 7.0 4.0 9
6 2.0 6.0 9
7 9.0 6.0 4
8 3.0 0.0 9
9 9.0 0.0 1
In [98]: pd.isnull(df).sum() > 0
Out[98]:
a True
b True
c False
dtype: bool
or as @root proposed clearer version:
In [5]: df.isnull().any()
Out[5]:
a True
b True
c False
dtype: bool
In [7]: df.columns[df.isnull().any()].tolist()
Out[7]: ['a', 'b']
to select a subset - all columns containing at least one NaN value:
In [31]: df.loc[:, df.isnull().any()]
Out[31]:
a b
0 NaN 7.0
1 0.0 NaN
2 2.0 NaN
3 1.0 7.0
4 1.0 3.0
5 7.0 4.0
6 2.0 6.0
7 9.0 6.0
8 3.0 0.0
9 9.0 0.0