Convert check mark in Python

Question

I have a dataframe which has, in a certain column, a check mark (unicode: '\u2714'). I have been trying to replace it with the following coomand:

import unicodedata
df['Column'].str.replace(unicodedata.lookup("\u2714"), '')

But, i keep on reading this error: KeyError: "undefined character name '✔'".

Do you have an idea how to solve this?

Answer 1

check mark (unicode: '\u2714')

No. This is SMALL ROMAN NUMERAL FIVE. unicodedata.lookup should be feed with Unicode name of character, not character itself. You might use .str.replace with Unicode characters directly, so rather than

import unicodedata
df['Column'].str.replace(unicodedata.lookup("\u2714"), '')

you might do

df['Column'].str.replace("\u2714", '')

simple example

import pandas as pd
df = pd.DataFrame({'col':['YES\u2714']})
print(df["col"].str.replace("\u2714", ''))

output

0    YES
Name: col, dtype: object