The str() and map() function is really useful when working with strings in a pandas data frame.

Import the library:

import pandas as pd

Customer dataset:

Customers.csv

Read the dataset:

df = pd.read_csv('Customers.csv')
print(df.head(20))

Output:

      FirstName  LastName  Gender  ...     Profession  Work Experience  Family Size
0         Uriah   Bridges    Male  ...     Healthcare                1            4
1         Paula     Small  Female  ...       Engineer                3            3
2        Edward      Buck  Female  ...       Engineer                1            1
3       Michael   Riordan    Male  ...         Lawyer                0            2
4       Jasmine     Onque  Female  ...  Entertainment                2            6
5         Maruk    Fraval  Female  ...         Artist                0            2
6         Latia     Costa  Female  ...     Healthcare                1            3
7      Sharlene     Terry  Female  ...     Healthcare                1            3
8           Jac  McKinzie    Male  ...       Engineer                0            3
9        Joseph   Martins  Female  ...         Artist                1            4
10       Myriam    Givens    Male  ...       Engineer                1            3
11       Dheepa    Nguyen  Female  ...     Healthcare                4            4
12  Bartholemew  Khemmich  Female  ...      Executive                0            5
13         Xana     Potts  Female  ...         Lawyer                1            1
14       Prater    Jeremy    Male  ...         Doctor                0            1
15       Kaylah      Moon    Male  ...     Healthcare                1            2
16      Kristen      Tate  Female  ...      Homemaker                9            5
17        Bobby   Rodgers    Male  ...     Healthcare                1            6
18         Reid      Park    Male  ...  Entertainment                1            4
19       Hector    Dalton  Female  ...         Artist                0            1

[20 rows x 9 columns]

• Create a new column called Initials using the initial first name and the initial last name

# New column Initials
df['Initials'] = df['FirstName'].str[0] + df['LastName'].str[0]
print(df[['FirstName', 'LastName', 'Initials']])

Output:

    FirstName  LastName Initials
0       Uriah   Bridges       UB
1       Paula     Small       PS
2      Edward      Buck       EB
3     Michael   Riordan       MR
4     Jasmine     Onque       JO
..        ...       ...      ...
195    Danika   Fleming       DF
196   Jocelyn     Kline       JK
197     Cesar   Higgins       CH
198   Gabriel    Dodson       GD
199   Raphael  Sandoval       RS

[200 rows x 3 columns]

• This line also returns the same as above (use map() and lambda function):

df['Initials'] = df['FirstName'].map(lambda s: s[0]) + df['LastName'].map(lambda s: s[0])
print(df['Initials'])