convert an IP address into a string python

Question

I have the following df and i would like to convert each ip address into a string ie "207.46.13.187"

I have tried the following, but it didn't work. I am not sure if the decimals have anything to do with it.

df['IP'] = df['IP'].astype(str)

current dataframe:

    IP            date  year   month
0   207.46.13.187   24  2020    6
1   207.46.13.187   24  2020    6
2   40.77.167.144   24  2020    6
3   40.77.167.144   24  2020    6
4   207.46.13.146   23  2020    6
... ... ... ... ...
4512    82.145.221.171  14  2015    5
4513    82.145.209.120  13  2015    5
4514    82.145.221.232  13  2015    5
4515    82.145.221.232  13  2015    5
4516    82.145.222.238  13  2015    5

Goal:

       IP          date year   month
0   "207.46.13.187" 24  2020    6
1   "207.46.13.187" 24  2020    6
2   "40.77.167.144" 24  2020    6
3   "40.77.167.144" 24  2020    6
4   "207.46.13.146" 23  2020    6

Thank you!

Answer 1

Try using:

df['IP'] = df['IP'].apply(lambda x: str(x))

Below is a quick example I have compiled. I will be looking at whole integers only, but hopefully this clarifies some confusion with data types in Pandas.

I will create a dataframe

df = pd.DataFrame({'IP': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]})

Let's check the type, it should return integers:

df.dtypes

IP    int64
dtype: object

Let's check this with a list

df['IP'].values.tolist()
[1, 2, 3, 4, 5] # we have a list of integers!

Now, let's convert it to a string:

df['IP'] = df['IP'].apply(lambda x: str(x))

Let's check the type again, it should return object :

df.dtypes

IP    object
dtype: object

Let's check this with a list again:

df['IP'].values.tolist()
['1', '2', '3', '4', '5']