Efficient way to clean a csv? - pandas

I am parsing and modifying large files (about a gig per month) which contain a record of every interaction. These files are sent to me by our client, so I am stuck with what they contain. I am using pandas to clean them up a bit, add some information, etc.
I keep running into issues where, out of 1 million+ rows, 1 to 10 values in the datetime column are not a date. A value meant for another column is in the date column due to some issue with comma separation (this is from the client's query, not mine) so it might say the word 'Closed' or something.
How do I drop these rows? I can see the ones with errors when I use df.sort('Datetime'). I just want a way to drop these quickly.
Here are my ideas:
There is a column called 'TransID' which ALWAYS begins with the
letter 'H' (and it always is 9 digits) UNLESS there is an error when another column value has shifted into this column
The date column should always have a value (notnull)
Can someone help think of a way to solve this problem? (I think this date thing is the key issue because I have formulas which subtract StartDate from EndDate.. if one of those contains a word then it messes up the entire process. Maybe I can create some error exception or drop error rows?)

Use the H column to filter out the error rows using a boolean index and the vectorized string methods.
good_rows_mask = df.TransID.str[0] == 'H'
df = df[good_rows_mask]

Related

"Numeric value '' is not recognized" - what column?

I am trying to insert data from a staging table into the master table. The table has nearly 300 columns, and is a mix of data-typed Varchars, Integers, Decimals, Dates, etc.
Snowflake gives the unhelpful error message of "Numeric value '' is not recognized"
I have gone through and cut out various parts of the query to try and isolate where it is coming from. After several hours and cutting every column, it is still happening.
Does anyone know of a Snowflake diagnostic query (like Redshift has) which can tell me a specific column where the issue is occurring?
Unfortunately not at the point you're at. If you went back to the COPY INTO that loaded the data, you'd be able to use VALIDATE() function to get better information to the record and byte-offset level.
I would query your staging table for just the numeric fields and look for blanks, or you can wrap all of your fields destined for numeric fields with try_to_number() functions. A bit tedious, but might not be too bad if you don't have a lot of numbers.
https://docs.snowflake.com/en/sql-reference/functions/try_to_decimal.html
As a note, when you stage, you should try and use the NULL_IF options to get rid of bad characters and/or try to load them into stage using the actual datatypes in your stage table, so you can leverage the VALIDATE() function to make sure the data types are correct before loading into Snowflake.
Query your staging using try_to_number() and/or try_to_decimal() for number and decimal fields of the table and the use the minus to get the difference
Select $1,$2,...$300 from #stage
minus
Select $1,try_to_number($2)...$300 from#stage
If any number field has a string that cannot be converted then it will be null and then minus should return those rows which have a problem..Once you get the rows then try to analyze the columns in the result set for errors.

Split multiple points in text format and switch coordinates in postgres column

I have a PostgreSQL column of type text that contains data like shown below
(32.85563, -117.25624)(32.855470000000004, -117.25648000000001)(32.85567, -117.25710000000001)(32.85544, -117.2556)
(37.75363, -121.44142000000001)(37.75292, -121.4414)
I want to convert this into another column of type text like shown below
(-117.25624, 32.85563)(-117.25648000000001,32.855470000000004 )(-117.25710000000001,32.85567 )(-117.2556,32.85544 )
(-121.44142000000001,37.75363 )(-121.4414,37.75292 )
As you can see, the values inside the parentheses have switched around. Also note that I have shown two records here to indicate that not all fields have same number of parenthesized figures.
What I've tried
I tried extracting the column to Java and performing my operations there. But due to sheer amount of records I have, I will run out of memory. I also cannot do this method in batched due to time constraints.
What I want
A SQL query or a sequence of SQL queries that will achieve the result that I have mentioned above.
I am using PostgreSQL9.4 with PGAdmin III as the client
this is a type of problem that should not be solved by sql, but you are lucky to use Postgres.
I suggest the following steps in defining your algorithm.
First part will be turning your strings into a structured data, second will transform structured data back to string in a format that you require.
From string to data
First, you need to turn your bracketed values into an array, which can be done with string_to_array function.
Now you can turn this array into rows with unnest function, which will return a row per bracketed value.
Finally you need to slit values in each row into two fields.
From data to string
You need to group results of the first query with results wrapped in string_agg function that will combine all numbers in rows into string.
You will need to experiment with brackets to achieve exactly what you want.
PS. I am not providing query here. Once you have some code that you tried, let me know.
Assuming you also have a PK or some unique column, and possibly other columns, you can do as follows:
SELECT id, (...), string_agg(point(pt[1], pt[0])::text, '') AS col_reversed
FROM (
SELECT id, (...), unnest(string_to_array(replace(col, ')(', ');('), ';'))::point AS pt
FROM my_table) sub
GROUP BY id; -- assuming id is PK or no other columns
PostgreSQL has the point type which you can use here. First you need to make sure you can properly divide the long string into individual points (insert ';' between the parentheses), then turn that into an array of individual points in text format, unnest the array into individual rows, and finally cast those rows to the point data type:
unnest(string_to_array(replace(col, ')(', ');('), ';'))::point AS pt
You can then create a new point from the point you just created, but with the coordinates reversed, turn that into a string and aggregate into your desired output:
string_agg(point(pt[1], pt[0])::text, '') AS col_reversed
But you might also move away from the text format and make an array of point values as that will be easier and faster to work with:
array_agg(point(pt[1], pt[0])) AS pt_reversed
As I put in the question, I tried extracting the column to Java and performing my operations there. But due to sheer amount of records I have, I will run out of memory. I also cannot do this method in batched due to time constraints.
I ran out of memory here as I was putting everything in a Hashmap of
< my_primary_key,the_newly_formatted_text >. As the text was very long sometimes and due to the sheer number of records that I had, it wasnt surprising that I got an OOM.
Solution that I used:
As suggested my many folks here, this solution was better solved with a code. I wrote a small script that formatted the text as per my liking and wrote the primary key and the newly formatted text to a file in tsv format. Then I imported the tsv in a new table and updated the original table from the new one.

I have an issue trying to UNION All in SQL Server 2008

I am having to create a second header line and am using the first record of the Query to do this. I am using a UNION All to create this header record and the second part of the UNION to extract the Data required.
I have one issue on one column.
,'Active Energy kWh'
UNION ALL
,SUM(cast(invc.UNITS as Decimal (15,0)))
Each side are 11 lines before and after the Union and I have tried all sorts of combinations but it always results in an error message.
The above gives me "Error converting data type varchar to numeric."
Any help would be much appreciated.
The error message indicates that one of your values in the INVC table UNITS column is non-numeric. I would hazard a guess that it's either a string (VARCHAR or similar) column or something else - and one of the values has ended up in a state where it cannot be parsed.
Unfortunately there is no way other than checking small ranges of the table to gradually locate the 'bad' row (i.e. Try running the query for a few million rows at a time, then reducing the number until you home in on the bad data). SQL 2014 if you can get a database restored to it has the TRY_CONVERT function which will permit conversions to fail, enabling a more direct check - but you'll need to play with this on another system
(I'm assuming that an upgrade to 2014 for this feature is out of the question - your best bet is likely just looking for the bad row).
The problem is that you are trying to mix header information with data information in a single query.
Obviously, all your header columns will be strings. But not all your data columns will be strings, and SQL Server is unhappy when you mix data types this way.
What you are doing is equivalent to this:
select 'header1' as col1 -- string
union all
select 123.5 -- decimal
The above query produces the following error:
Error converting data type varchar to numeric.
...which makes sense, because you are trying to mix both a string (the header) with a decimal field.
So you have 2 options:
Remove the header columns from your query, and deal with header information outside your query.
Accept the fact that you'll need to convert the data type of every column to a string type. So when you have numeric data, you'll need to cast the column to varchar(n) explicitly.
In your case, it would mean adding the cast like this:
,'Active Energy kWh'
UNION ALL
,CAST(SUM(cast(invc.UNITS as Decimal (15,0))) AS VARCHAR(50)) -- Change 50 to appropriate value for your case
EDIT: Based on comment feedback, changed the cast to varchar to have an explicit length (varchar(n)) to avoid relying on the default length, which may or may not be long enough. OP knows the data, so OP needs to pick the right length.

Why am I getting a "[SQL0802] Data conversion of data mapping error" exception?

I am not very familiar with iseries/DB2. However, I work on a website that uses it as its primary database.
A new column was recently added to an existing table. When I view it via AS400, I see the following data type:
Type: S
Length: 9
Dec: 2
This tells me it's a numeric field with 6 digits before the decimal point, and 2 digits after the decimal point.
When I query the data with a simple SELECT (SELECT MYCOL FROM MYTABLE), I get back all the records without a problem. However, when I try using a DISTINCT, GROUP BY, or ORDER BY on that same column I get the following exception:
[SQL0802] Data conversion of data mapping error
I've deduced that at least one record has invalid data - what my DBA calls "blanks" or "4 O". How is this possible though? Shouldn't the database throw an exception when invalid data is attempted to be added to that column?
Is there any way I can get around this, such as filtering out those bad records in my query?
"4 O" means 0x40 which is the EBCDIC code for a space or blank character and is the default value placed into any new space in a record.
Legacy programs / operations can introduce the decimal data error. For example if the new file was created and filled using the CPYF command with the FMTOPT(*NOCHK) option.
The easiest way to fix it is to write an HLL program (RPG) to read the file and correct the records.
The only solution I could find was to write a script that checks for blank values in the column and then updates them to zero when they are found.
If the file has record format level checking turned off [ie. LVLCHK(*NO)] or is overridden to that, then an HLL program. (ex. RPG, COBOL, etc) that was not recompiled with the new record might write out records with invalid data in this column, especially if the new column is not at the end of the record.
Make sure that all programs that use native I/O to write or update records on this file are recompiled.
I was able to solve this error by force-casting the key columns to integer. I changed the join from this...
FROM DAILYV INNER JOIN BXV ON DAILYV.DAITEM=BXV.BXPACK
...to this...
FROM DAILYV INNER JOIN BXV ON CAST(DAILYV.DAITEM AS INT)=CAST(BXV.BXPACK AS INT)
...and I didn't have to make any corrections to the tables. This is a very old, very messy database with lots of junk in it. I've made many corrections, but it's a work in progress.

RIGHT function, not returning whats expected?

Query:
SELECT StartDate, EndDate, RIGHT(Sector, 1 )
FROM Table1
ORDER BY Right(Sector, 1), StartDate
By looking at this, the query should order everything by sector, followed by the start date. This query has worked for quiet awhile until yesterday where it did not order it properly, for some reason, Sector 2 came before Sector 1.
The data type for Sector is of type int, not null. After inserting a TRIM function into Sector it seems to work fine afterwards.
New Query:
SELECT StartDate, EndDate, RIGHT(Sector, 1 )
FROM Table1
ORDER BY Right(TRIM(Sector), 1), StartDate
Which I found really weird since it's suppose to only pick out one character, so why is there leading spaces?
Is there an issue with using RIGHT function on a int before converting the type? Or is it something else?
Thanks for the help everyone!
-Edit- The RIGHT function should return either 1,2,3 or 4 however when ordering it, 2 comes before 1.
To clarify, the column Sector contains an int value, we can determine it's location by obtaining the last digit (Which is why the previous coder did)
MS Access 2003 has a curious little feature (I can't speak for the other versions):
Make a simple query. Sort by Column A Ascending. Save the query.
Run the query. When you see the output, sort by Column A Descending using the toolbar option (see pic below). Save & close.
Run the query again. Your new sort will have overridden the sort that you saved in the query.
I think you or someone else probably just opened the query out of curiosity, sorted by Sector Descending, and when prompted to save Design Changes, you chose Yes (even though technically you didn't make any). The easiest way I found to restore the original sort is to edit the query and save it.
You've got your data stored wrong if you need to sort on a subcharacter of a numeric field.
That said, in certain context, VBA functions reserve a space in string representations of numbers for the sign. A nonsensical example of this would be:
?Len("12345")
5
Notice the space at the beginning (where the - would be if the number returned by Len() could be negative). I thought this was a result of coercing a number to a string value, but that's not it, and I couldn't replicate the problem. But that would likely be the source of the problem, and, of course, trimming off the leading space would take care of the issue.
But that's two function calls for each line, and then you're sorting by it, and that means no use of indexes, so it's going to be slow relative to a SORT BY that can use indexes. So, I'd conclude you have a schema error, in that you're giving meaning to a subpart of the data stored in the field.
It seems pretty obvious that you have a blank space at the end of the Sector field that the trim is removing.