Find the consecutive zeros in a DataFrame and do a conditional replacement I have a dataset like this:

Sample Dataframe

import pandas as pd

df = pd.DataFrame({
    'names': ['A','B','C','D','E','F','G','H','I','J','K','L'],
    'col1': [0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0],
    'col2': [0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0]})


I'd like to replace some of the 0's in col1 and col2 with 1's, but not replace the 0's if three or more 0's are consecutive in the same column.  How can this be done with pandas?

Original Dataset:

names   col1    col2
A   0   0
B   1   0
C   0   0
D   1   0
E   1   1
F   1   0
G   0   1
H   0   0
I   0   1
J   1   0
K   0   0
L   0   0


Desired Dataset:

names   col1    col2
A   1   0
B   1   0
C   1   0
D   1   0
E   1   1
F   1   1
G   0   1
H   0   1
I   0   1
J   1   0
K   1   0
L   1   0
Consider the following approach:

def f(col, threshold=3):
    mask = col.groupby((col != col.shift()).cumsum()).transform('count').lt(threshold)
    mask &amp;= col.eq(0)
    col.update(col.loc[mask].replace(0,1))
    return col

In [79]: df.apply(f, threshold=3)
Out[79]:
       col1  col2
names
A         1     0
B         1     0
C         1     0
D         1     0
E         1     1
F         1     1
G         0     1
H         0     1
I         0     1
J         1     0
K         1     0
L         1     0


Step by step:

In [84]: col = df['col2']

In [85]: col
Out[85]:
names
A    0
B    0
C    0
D    0
E    1
F    0
G    1
H    0
I    1
J    0
K    0
L    0
Name: col2, dtype: int64

In [86]: (col != col.shift()).cumsum()
Out[86]:
names
A    1
B    1
C    1
D    1
E    2
F    3
G    4
H    5
I    6
J    7
K    7
L    7
Name: col2, dtype: int32

In [87]: col.groupby((col != col.shift()).cumsum()).transform('count')
Out[87]:
names
A    4
B    4
C    4
D    4
E    1
F    1
G    1
H    1
I    1
J    3
K    3
L    3
Name: col2, dtype: int64

In [88]: col.groupby((col != col.shift()).cumsum()).transform('count').lt(3)
Out[88]:
names
A    False
B    False
C    False
D    False
E     True
F     True
G     True
H     True
I     True
J    False
K    False
L    False
Name: col2, dtype: bool

In [89]: col.groupby((col != col.shift()).cumsum()).transform('count').lt(3) &amp; col.eq(0)
Out[89]:
names
A    False
B    False
C    False
D    False
E    False
F     True
G    False
H     True
I    False
J    False
K    False
L    False
Name: col2, dtype: bool