Get first non-null value per row

Question

I have a sample dataframe show as below. For each line, I want to check the c1 first, if it is not null, then check c2. By this way, find the first notnull column and store that value to column result.

ID  c1  c2  c3  c4  result
1   a   b           a
2       cc  dd      cc
3           ee  ff  ee
4               gg  gg

I am using this way for now. but I would like to know if there is a better method.(The column name do not have any pattern, this is just sample)

df["result"] = np.where(df["c1"].notnull(), df["c1"], None)
df["result"] = np.where(df["result"].notnull(), df["result"], df["c2"])
df["result"] = np.where(df["result"].notnull(), df["result"], df["c3"])
df["result"] = np.where(df["result"].notnull(), df["result"], df["c4"])
df["result"] = np.where(df["result"].notnull(), df["result"], "unknown)

When there are lots of columns, this method looks not good.

Answer 1

Use back filling NaNs first and then select first column by iloc:

df['result'] = df[['c1','c2','c3','c4']].bfill(axis=1).iloc[:, 0].fillna('unknown')

Or:

df['result'] = df.iloc[:, 1:].bfill(axis=1).iloc[:, 0].fillna('unknown')

---

print (df)
   ID   c1   c2  c3   c4 result
0   1    a    b   a  NaN      a
1   2  NaN   cc  dd   cc     cc
2   3  NaN   ee  ff   ee     ee
3   4  NaN  NaN  gg   gg     gg

Performance:

df = pd.concat([df] * 1000, ignore_index=True)


In [220]: %timeit df['result'] = df[['c1','c2','c3','c4']].bfill(axis=1).iloc[:, 0].fillna('unknown')
100 loops, best of 3: 2.78 ms per loop

In [221]: %timeit df['result'] = df.iloc[:, 1:].bfill(axis=1).iloc[:, 0].fillna('unknown')
100 loops, best of 3: 2.7 ms per loop

#jpp solution
In [222]: %%timeit
     ...: cols = df.iloc[:, 1:].T.apply(pd.Series.first_valid_index)
     ...: 
     ...: df['result'] = [df.loc[i, cols[i]] for i in range(len(df.index))]
     ...: 
1 loop, best of 3: 180 ms per loop

#cᴏʟᴅsᴘᴇᴇᴅ'  s solution
In [223]: %timeit df['result'] = df.stack().groupby(level=0).first()
1 loop, best of 3: 606 ms per loop

Answer 2

Setup

df = df.set_index('ID') # if necessary
df
     c1   c2  c3   c4
ID                   
1     a    b   a  NaN
2   NaN   cc  dd   cc
3   NaN   ee  ff   ee
4   NaN  NaN  gg   gg

Solution
stack + groupby + first
stack implicitly drops NaNs, so groupby.first is guarantee to give you the first non-null value if it exists. Assigning the result back will expose any NaNs at missing indices which you can fillna with a subsequent call.

df['result'] = df.stack().groupby(level=0).first()
# df['result'] = df['result'].fillna('unknown') # if necessary 
df
     c1   c2  c3   c4 result
ID                          
1     a    b   a  NaN      a
2   NaN   cc  dd   cc     cc
3   NaN   ee  ff   ee     ee
4   NaN  NaN  gg   gg     gg

(beware, this is slow for larger dataframes, for performance you may use @jezrael's solution)