Return multiple columns from pandas apply()

Question

I have a pandas DataFrame, df_test. It contains a column \'size\' which represents size in bytes. I\'ve calculated KB, MB, and GB using the following code:

Answer 1

Use apply and zip will 3 times fast than Series way.

def sizes(s):    
    return locale.format("%.1f", s / 1024.0, grouping=True) + ' KB', \
        locale.format("%.1f", s / 1024.0 ** 2, grouping=True) + ' MB', \
        locale.format("%.1f", s / 1024.0 ** 3, grouping=True) + ' GB'
df_test['size_kb'],  df_test['size_mb'], df_test['size_gb'] = zip(*df_test['size'].apply(sizes))

Test result are:

Separate df.apply(): 

    100 loops, best of 3: 1.43 ms per loop

Return Series: 

    100 loops, best of 3: 2.61 ms per loop

Return tuple:

    1000 loops, best of 3: 819 µs per loop