Merging Pandas Dataframe with no duplicated columns on one key

Question

I am new to Pandas and have tried reviewing different solutions on here but I am having some issues with joining two data frames. They are joining ok, however for some for some columns I would like it to to remain as NULL instead of duplicating

Sample DF1

employee	year
x12345	2023
x12345	2022
z12345	2015
z12345	2013

Sample DF2

employee	status
x12345	active
z12345	active
m12345	inactive
q12345	active

What I have tried

merged = pd.merge(DF1, DF2, how="outer", on=["employee"]

What I currently have

employee	year	status
x12345	2023	active
x12345	2022	active
z12345	2015	active
z12345	2013	active

What I need

employee	year	status
x12345	2023	active
x12345	2022	NULL
z12345	2015	active
z12345	2013	NULL

What I have tried

merged = pd.merge(DF1, DF2, how="outer", on=["employee"]

Answer 1

Code

df1.assign(key=df1.groupby('employee').cumcount())\
   .merge(df2.assign(key=df2.groupby('employee').cumcount()), how='left')\
   .drop('key', axis=1)

out:

employee    year    status
0   x12345  2023    active
1   x12345  2022    NaN
2   z12345  2015    active
3   z12345  2013    NaN