python - what the advantage of using zip function df['full_name']=zip(df['name'],df['last name'])

Question

i am trying to understand.

what the advantage of using zip function

df['full_name']=zip(df['name'],df['last name'])

instead of

df['full_name']=df['name']+ " " + df['last name']

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65933866/what-the-advantage-of-using-zip-function-dffull-name-zipdfname-dflast

Answer 1

In my opinion it's not zip that matters.

df['full_name']=zip(df['name'],df['last name'])

The element in the column full_name are tuples.

df['full_name']=df['name']+ " " + df['last name']

If you write this, the element in the column full_name are strings.

Strings are better for showing and printing, but some information about its structure is lost.

For example, if name is "A" and last name is "B C", if join them with a space, it will be "A B C". It's OK for human, but for machines, it can not tell if it was "A" "B C" or "A B" "C", as "structure info" is lost as I said.

So which one to choose depends on your purpose.