I have 2 columns of strings and I'd like to match the strings based on the first 3 characters in each string. Basically code that goes over every character of column 1 row 1 and compares it with rows in column 2 to find the best match.
IE: Row 1 Column 1 scans "p""a""s" and looks in Col2 for strings starting with "p""a""s" and so on for Row 2 Column 1.
I'm fairly new to python; my apologies.
Original Table (unsorted):
+-------------+---------+----------+
| Row Index | Col1 | Col2 |
+-------------+---------+----------+
| 1 | pasta | sauce |
| 2 | sauce | orange |
| 3 | orange | pasta |
+-------------+---------+----------+
Expected Table (after matching)
+-------------+---------+----------+
| Row Index | Col1 | Col2 |
+-------------+---------+----------+
| 1 | pasta | pasta |
| 2 | sauce | sauce |
| 3 | orange | orange |
+-------------+---------+----------+
I don't have any code to show as I'm not sure how to start this. Thanks.
Probably not the fastest and cleanest solution, but will return what you're asking for: