I have a df with two columns and I want to combine both columns ignoring the NaN values. The catch is that sometimes both columns have NaN values in which case I want the new column to also have NaN. Here's the example:

df = pd.DataFrame({'foodstuff':['apple-martini', 'apple-pie', None, None, None], 'type':[None, None, 'strawberry-tart', 'dessert', None]})df
Out[10]:
foodstuff   type
0   apple-martini   None
1   apple-pie   None
2   None    strawberry-tart
3   None    dessert
4   None    None

I tried to use fillna and solve this :

df['foodstuff'].fillna('') + df['type'].fillna('')

and I got :

0      apple-martini
1          apple-pie
2    strawberry-tart
3            dessert
4                   
dtype: object

The row 4 has become a blank value. What I want in this situation is a NaN value since both the combining columns are NaNs.

0      apple-martini
1          apple-pie
2    strawberry-tart
3            dessert
4            None       
dtype: object

Use fillna on one column with the fill values being the other column:

df['foodstuff'].fillna(df['type'])

The resulting output:

0      apple-martini
1          apple-pie
2    strawberry-tart
3            dessert
4               None