How to replace NaNs by preceding values in pandas DataFrame?

Question

Suppose I have a DataFrame with some NaNs:

>>> import pandas as pd
>>> df = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2, 3], [4, None, None], [None, N         


        

Answer 1

Just agreeing with ffill method, but one extra info is that you can limit the forward fill with keyword argument limit.

>>> import pandas as pd    
>>> df = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2, 3], [None, None, 6], [None, None, 9]])

>>> df
     0    1   2
0  1.0  2.0   3
1  NaN  NaN   6
2  NaN  NaN   9

>>> df[1].fillna(method='ffill', inplace=True)
>>> df
     0    1    2
0  1.0  2.0    3
1  NaN  2.0    6
2  NaN  2.0    9

Now with limit keyword argument

>>> df[0].fillna(method='ffill', limit=1, inplace=True)

>>> df
     0    1  2
0  1.0  2.0  3
1  1.0  2.0  6
2  NaN  2.0  9

Answer 2

The accepted answer is perfect. I had a related but slightly different situation where I had to fill in forward but only within groups. In case someone has the same need, know that fillna works on a DataFrameGroupBy object.

>>> example = pd.DataFrame({'number':[0,1,2,nan,4,nan,6,7,8,9],'name':list('aaabbbcccc')})
>>> example
  name  number
0    a     0.0
1    a     1.0
2    a     2.0
3    b     NaN
4    b     4.0
5    b     NaN
6    c     6.0
7    c     7.0
8    c     8.0
9    c     9.0
>>> example.groupby('name')['number'].fillna(method='ffill') # fill in row 5 but not row 3
0    0.0
1    1.0
2    2.0
3    NaN
4    4.0
5    4.0
6    6.0
7    7.0
8    8.0
9    9.0
Name: number, dtype: float64

Answer 3

You can use pandas.DataFrame.fillna with the method='ffill' option. 'ffill' stands for 'forward fill' and will propagate last valid observation forward. The alternative is 'bfill' which works the same way, but backwards.

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2, 3], [4, None, None], [None, None, 9]])
df = df.fillna(method='ffill')

print(df)
#   0  1  2
#0  1  2  3
#1  4  2  3
#2  4  2  9

There is also a direct synonym function for this, pandas.DataFrame.ffill, to make things simpler.