Pandas dataframe boolean mask on multiple columns

Question

I have a dataframe (df) containing several columns with an actual measure and corresponding number of columns (A,B,...) with an uncertainty (dA, dB, ...) for each of these columns:

   A    B    dA      dB
0 -1    3    0.31    0.08
1  2   -4    0.263   0.357
2  5    5    0.382   0.397
3 -4   -0.5  0.33    0.115

I apply a function to find values in the measurement columns that are valid according to my definition

df[["A","B"]].apply(lambda x: x.abs()-5*df['d'+x.name] > 0)

This will return a boolean array:

     A          B 
0    False      True
1    True       True
2    True       True
3    True       False

I would like to use this array to select rows in dataframe for which the condition is true within a single column, e.g. A -> row 1-3, and also find rows where the condition is true for all the input columns, e.g. row 1 and 2. Is there an efficient way to do this with pandas?

Answer 1

You can use the results of your apply statement to boolean index select from the original dataframe:

results = df[["A","B"]].apply(lambda x: x.abs()-5*df['d'+x.name] > 0)

Which returns your boolean array above:

       A      B
0  False   True
1   True   True
2   True   True
3   True  False

Now, you can use this array to select rows from your original datafame as follows:

Select where A is True:

df[results.A]

   A    B     dA     dB
1  2 -4.0  0.263  0.357
2  5  5.0  0.382  0.397
3 -4 -0.5  0.330  0.115

Select where either A or B are true:

df[results.any(axis=1)]

   A    B     dA     dB
0 -1  3.0  0.310  0.080
1  2 -4.0  0.263  0.357
2  5  5.0  0.382  0.397
3 -4 -0.5  0.330  0.115

Select where all the columns true:

df[results.all(axis=1)]

   A    B     dA     dB
1  2 -4.0  0.263  0.357
2  5  5.0  0.382  0.397