How to merge/combine columns in pandas?

Question

I have a (example-) dataframe with 4 columns:

data = {\'A\': [\'a\', \'b\', \'c\', \'d\', \'e\', \'f\'],
    \'B\': [42, 52, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan],         


        

Answer 1

Option 1
Using assign and drop

In [644]: cols = ['B', 'C', 'D']

In [645]: df.assign(E=df[cols].sum(1)).drop(cols, 1)
Out[645]:
   A     E
0  a  42.0
1  b  52.0
2  c  31.0
3  d   2.0
4  e  62.0
5  f  70.0

---

Option 2
Using assignment and drop

In [648]: df['E'] = df[cols].sum(1)

In [649]: df = df.drop(cols, 1)

In [650]: df
Out[650]:
   A     E
0  a  42.0
1  b  52.0
2  c  31.0
3  d   2.0
4  e  62.0
5  f  70.0

---

Option 3 Lately, I like the 3rd option.
Using groupby

In [660]: df.groupby(np.where(df.columns == 'A', 'A', 'E'), axis=1).first() #or sum max min
Out[660]:
   A     E
0  a  42.0
1  b  52.0
2  c  31.0
3  d   2.0
4  e  62.0
5  f  70.0

In [661]: df.columns == 'A'
Out[661]: array([ True, False, False, False], dtype=bool)

In [662]: np.where(df.columns == 'A', 'A', 'E')
Out[662]:
array(['A', 'E', 'E', 'E'],
      dtype='|S1')