avoid writing df['column'] twice when doing df['column'] = df['column']

Question

I don't even know how to phrase this but is there a way in Python to reference the text before the equals without having to actually write it again?

** EDIT - I'm using python3 in Jupyter

I seem to spend half my life writing:

df['column'] = df['column'].some_changes

Is there a way to tell Python that I'm referencing the part before the equals sign?

For example, I would write the following, where <% is just to represent the reference to the text before the = (df['column'])

df['column'] = <%.replace(np.nan)

user_17481049 · Answer

you are looking for in place methods. I believe you can pass inplace=True as an argument to most methods in pandas

so it would be something just like

df['column'].replace(np.nan, inplace=True)

edit

You could also do

df["computed_column"] = df["original_column"].many_operations

so you still have access to the original data down the line. And do all the needed operations at once instead of saving each step.

One of the advantages of inplace not being the default is if you are doing a batch of operations and it fails midway your data is not mangled.