Is there a Python function that removes characters (with a digit) from a string? - python-3.x

Question

I am working on a project about gentrification. My teammates pulled data from the census and cleaned it to get the values we need. The issue is, the zip code values won't print 0's (i.e. "2322" when it should be "02322"). We managed to find the tact value that prints the full zip code with the tact codes("ZCTA5 02322"). I want to remove "ZCTA5" to get the zip code alone.
I've tried the below code but it only gets rid of the "ZCTA" instead of "ZCTA5" (i.e. "502322"). I'm also concerned that if I manage to remove the 5 with the characters, it will remove all 5's in the zip codes as well.
From there I will be pulling from pgeocode to access the respective lat & lng values to create the heatmap. Please help?
I've tried the .replace(), .translate(), functions. Replace still prints the zip codes with 5. Translate gets an attribute error.
Sample data
Zipcode | Name | Change_In_Value | Change_In_Income | Change_In_Degree | Change_In_Rent
2322 | ZCTA5 02322 | -0.050242 | -0.010953 | 0.528509 | -0.013263
2324 | ZCTA5 02324 | 0.012279 | -0.022949 | -0.040456 | 0.210664
2330 | ZCTA5 02330 | 0.020438 | 0.087415 | -0.095076 | -0.147382
2332 | ZCTA5 02332 | 0.035024 | 0.054745 | 0.044315 | 1.273772
2333 | ZCTA5 02333 | -0.012588 | 0.079819 | 0.182517 | 0.156093
Translate
zipcode = []
test2 = gent_df['Name'] = gent_df['Name'].astype(str).translate({ord('ZCTA5'): None}).astype(int)
zipcode.append(test2)
test2.head()
Replace
zipcode = []
test2 = gent_df['Name'] = gent_df['Name'].astype(str).replace(r'\D', '').astype(int)
zipcode.append(test2)
test2.head()
Replace
Expected:
24093
26039
34785
38944
29826
Actual:
524093
526039
534785
538944
529826
Translate
Expected:
24093
26039
34785
38944
29826
Actual:
AttributeError Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-71-0e5ff4660e45> in <module>
3 zipcode = []
4
----> 5 test2 = gent_df['Name'] = gent_df['Name'].astype(str).translate({ord('ZCTA5'): None}).astype(int)
6 # zipcode.append(test2)
7 test2.head()
~\Anaconda3\envs\MyPyEnv\lib\site-packages\pandas\core\generic.py in __getattr__(self, name)
5178 if self._info_axis._can_hold_identifiers_and_holds_name(name):
5179 return self[name]
-> 5180 return object.__getattribute__(self, name)
5181
5182 def __setattr__(self, name, value):
AttributeError: 'Series' object has no attribute 'translate'

Answer 1

It looks like you are using pandas so you should be able to use the .lstrip() method. I tried this on a sample df and it worked for me:
gent_df.Name = gent_df.Name.str.lstrip(to_strip='ZCTA5')
Here is a link to the library page for .strip(), .lstrip(), and .rstrip()
I hope this helps!

Answer 2

There are many ways to do this. I can think of 2 off the top of my head.
If you want to keep the last 5 characters of the zipcode string, regardless of whether they are digits or not:
gent_df['Name'] = gent_df['Name'].str[-5:]
If want to get the last 5 digits of the zipcode string:
gent_df['Name'] = gent_df['Name'].str.extract(r'(\d{5})$')[0]
Include some sample data for more specific answer.