How can I loop over rows in my DataFrame, calculate a value and put that value in a new column with this lambda function - python-3.x

Question

./test.csv looks like:
price datetime
1 100 2019-10-10
2 150 2019-11-10
...
import pandas as pd
import datetime as date
import datetime as time
from datetime import datetime
from datetime import timedelta
csv_df = pd.read_csv('./test.csv')
today = datetime.today()
csv_df['datetime'] = csv_df['expiration_date'].apply(lambda x: pd.to_datetime(x)) #convert `expiration_date` to datetime Series
def days_until_exp(expiration_date, today):
diff = (expiration_date - today)
return [diff]
csv_df['days_until_expiration'] = csv_df['datetime'].apply(lambda x: days_until_exp(csv_df['datetime'], today))
I am trying to iterate over a specific column in my DateFrame labeled csv_df['datetime'] which in each cell has just one value, a date, and do a calcation defined by diff.
Then I want the single value diff to be put into the new Series csv_df['days_until_expiration'].
The problem is, it's calculating values for every row (673 rows) and putting all those values in a list in each row of csv_df['days_until_expiration. I realize it may be due to the brackets around [diff], but without them I get an error.
In Excel, I would just do something like =SUM(datetime - price) and click and drag down the rows to have it populate a new column. However, I want to do this in Pandas as it's part of a bigger application.

Answer 1

csv_df['datetime'] is series, so x of apply is each cell of series. You call apply with lambda and days_until_exp(), but you doesn't passing x to it. Therefore, the result is wrong.
Anyway, Without your sample data, I guess that you want to find sum of csv_df['datetime'] - today(). To do this, you don't need apply. Just do direct vectorized operation on series and sum.
I make 2 columns dataframe for sample:
csv_df:
datetime days_until_expiration
0 2019-09-01 NaN
1 2019-09-02 NaN
2 2019-09-03 NaN
Do the following return series of delta between csv_df['datetime'] and today(). I guess you want this::
td = datetime.datetime.today()
csv_df['days_until_expiration'] = (csv_df['datetime'] - td).dt.days
csv_df:
datetime days_until_expiration
0 2019-09-01 115
1 2019-09-02 116
2 2019-09-03 117
OR:
To find sum of all deltas and assign the same sum value to csv_df['days_until_expiration']
csv_df['days_until_expiration'] = (csv_df['datetime'] - td).dt.days.sum()
csv_df:
datetime days_until_expiration
0 2019-09-01 348
1 2019-09-02 348
2 2019-09-03 348