title: pandas - How to extract a value(s) from a list stored in rows of a dataframe
body: <p>I feel that the solution to this problem is really simple, but I am unable to figure it out.
  So, I have a Pandas DataFrame, a screenshot of which is as below:
  <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/PcG2C.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/PcG2C.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
  <p>Column names do not matter, so I just excluded them from the pic. What is important though, is that I have a list of values in the first column. Now, if you look at the lower part of the image, it has a list with the values: <code>[Bolivia , Plurinational State of)]</code>. I am trying to take the first value from that list i.e. <code>Bolivia</code> and save it in the same row instead of that list. If I use something like energy["Country"][0] (The name of the concerned column is "Country"), I can extract the value, and it will also extract the required values from other rows, since there is only one value in that list. But for some reason I get an error.</p>
  
  <p>Here is what I tried:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import numpy as np
  import pandas as pd
  
  def answer_one():
  
      energy = pd.read_excel('Energy Indicators.xls',
                    sheet_name='Energy',
                    skiprows=[10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17],
                    skipfooter=38,
                    header=9, 
                    parse_cols=[2,3,4,5], na_values = "...")
  
      energy.columns = ['Country', 'Energy Supply', 'Energy Supply per Capita', '% Renewable']
      energy["Energy Supply"] = energy["Energy Supply"].mul(1000000)
      energy["Country"] = energy["Country"].str.split("(")[0]
  
      return energy
  
  answer_one()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It is the trailing <code>[0]</code> at the end of <code>energy["Country"] = energy["Country"].str.split("(")</code> which is making the trouble. The error I get is as follows: </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>ValueError: Length of values does not match length of index</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Is there a way around this?</p>
  
  <p>Also, a little another query: Is there a way to expand the width of the second column so that values like 1.430000e+08 could be displayed in their natural form?</p>
  
  <p>(The full file "Energy Indicator.xls" can be found <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=17Pb50j1RlghSspsjcQV3_RVG-nCIB9lg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>)</p>