:`DataFrame` (still experimental). Behaviour is as follows: * ``"numpy_nullable"``: returns nullable-dtype-backed :class:`DataFrame` (default). * ``"pyarrow"``: returns pyarrow-backed nullable :class:`ArrowDtype` DataFrame. .. versionadded:: 2.0 Returns ------- ret Numeric if parsing succeeded. Return type depends on input. Series if Series, otherwise ndarray. See Also -------- DataFrame.astype : Cast argument to a specified dtype. to_datetime : Convert argument to datetime. to_timedelta : Convert argument to timedelta. numpy.ndarray.astype : Cast a numpy array to a specified type. DataFrame.convert_dtypes : Convert dtypes. Examples -------- Take separate series and convert to numeric, coercing when told to >>> s = pd.Series(['1.0', '2', -3]) >>> pd.to_numeric(s) 0 1.0 1 2.0 2 -3.0 dtype: float64 >>> pd.to_numeric(s, downcast='float') 0 1.0 1 2.0 2 -3.0 dtype: float32 >>> pd.to_numeric(s, downcast='signed') 0 1 1 2 2 -3 dtype: int8 >>> s = pd.Series(['apple', '1.0', '2', -3]) >>> pd.to_numeric(s, errors='ignore') 0 apple 1 1.0 2 2 3 -3 dtype: object >>> pd.to_numeric(s, errors='coerce') 0 NaN 1 1.0 2 2.0 3 -3.0 dtype: float64 Downcasting of nullable integer and floating dtypes is supported: >>> s = pd.Series([1, 2, 3], dtype="Int64") >>> pd.to_numeric(s, downcast="integer") 0 1 1 2 2 3 dtype: Int8 >>> s = pd.Series([1.0, 2.1, 3.0], dtype="Float64") >>> pd.to_numeric(s, downcast="float") 0 1.0 1 2.1 2 3.0 dtype: Float32 )