python pandas replacing strings in dataframe with numbers

Question

Is there anyway to use the mapping function or something better to replace values in an entire dataframe?

I only know how to perform the mapping on series.

I

Answer 1

To convert Strings like 'volvo','bmw' into integers first convert it to a dataframe then pass it to pandas.get_dummies()

  df  = DataFrame.from_csv("myFile.csv")
  df_transform = pd.get_dummies( df )
  print( df_transform )

Better alternative: passing a dictionary to map() of a pandas series (df.myCol) (by specifying the column brand for example)

df.brand = df.brand.map( {'volvo':0 , 'bmw':1, 'audi':2} )