Convert object data type to string issue in python

Question

How can I convert an object dtype structure to a string dtype? The method below is not working and the column remains object after converting to a string with <

Answer 1

object is the default container capable of holding strings, or any combination of dtypes.

If you are using a version of pandas < '1.0.0' this is your only option. If you are using pd.__version__ >= '1.0.0' then you can use the new experimental pd.StringDtype() dtype. Being experimental, the behavior is subject to change in future versions, so use at your own risk.

df.dtypes
#country    object

# .astype(str) and .astype('str') keep the column as object. 
df['country'] = df['country'].astype(str)
df.dtypes
#country    object

df['country'] = df['country'].astype(pd.StringDtype())
df.dtypes
#country    string

Answer 2

I got it to work using 'string' instead of str

df['country'] = df['country'].astype('string')
df.dtypes
#country    string

Answer 3

You are converting it to a str. non-null object is how pandas handles str in some cases.

Check out this article on pandas data types.

Check out the most recent official docs on dtypes.