Iterate over pandas column values

Question

I have a dataset with a column of string variables (~6000) describing types of baths (ie 1 Private bath, 2 shared baths etc), is there a way for me to 'find and replace' these to simplify into simply the numeric, 1 private bath replaced with an integer 1, and so on).

Currently my attempt to use the.replace function is a longwinded and inefficient method.

db["bathrooms_text"]= db["bathrooms_text"].replace("0 baths", 0)

db["bathrooms_text"]= db["bathrooms_text"].replace("1.5 baths", 1.5)

db["bathrooms_text"]= db["bathrooms_text"].replace("2 baths", 2)

Answer 1

Use str.extract :

db['bathrooms_text'] = db['bathrooms_text'].str.extract('(\d+\.?\d*)')
print(db)

# Output
  bathrooms_text
0              0
1            1.5
2              2