How to merge pandas on string contains?

Question

I have 2 dataframes that I would like to merge on a common column. However the column I would like to merge on are not of the same string, but rather a string from one is co

Answer 1

My solution involves applying a function to the common column. I can't imagine it holds up well when df2 is large but perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I can suggest an improvement.

def strmerge(strcolumn):
    for i in df2['column_common']:
        if strcolumn in i:
            return df2[df2['column_common'] == i]['column_b'].values[0]
            break
        else:
            pass

df1['column_b'] = df1.apply(lambda x: strmerge(x['column_common']),axis=1)

df1
    column_a    column_common   column_b
0   John        code            Moore
1   Michael     other           Cohen
2   Dan         ome             Smith
3   George      no match        None
4   Adam        word            Faber