def get_first_non_null_value(self, ind_name, col_name):
        """
        For a given index and column, find the first non-null value.

        Parameters
        ----------
        self : MagicDataFrame
        ind_name : str
            index name for indexing
        col_name : str
            column name for indexing

        Returns
        ---------
        single value of str, float, or int
        """
        short_df = self.df.loc[ind_name, col_name]
        mask = pd.notnull(short_df)
        print(short_df[mask])
        try:
            val = short_df[mask].unique()[0]
        except IndexError:
            val = None
        return val