title: Python: using lambda with startswith
body: <p>I need to writing my dataframe to csv, and some of the series start with "+-= ", so I need to remove them first.</p>
  
  <p>I tried to test by using a string:</p>
  
  <pre><code>test="+++++-= I love Mercedes-Benz"
  while True:
      if test.startswith('+') or test.startswith('-') or test.startswith('=') or test.startswith(' '):
          test=test[1:]
          continue
  
      else:
          print(test)
          break
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Output looks perfect:</p>
  
  <pre><code>I love Mercedes-Benz.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now when I want to do the same while using lambda in my dataframe:</p>
  
  <pre><code>import pandas as pd
  
  col_names =  ['A', 'B', 'C']
  my_df  = pd.DataFrame(columns = col_names)
  my_df.loc[len(my_df)] = ["++++-= I love Mercedes-Benz", 4, "Love this"]
  my_df.loc[len(my_df)] = ["=Looks so good!", 2, "5-year-old"]
  my_df
  
  my_df["A"]=my_df["A"].map(lambda x: x[1:] if x.startswith('=') else x)
  print(my_df["A"])
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I am not sure how to put 4 startswith "-","=","+"," " together and loop them until they meet the first alphabet or character(sometimes it might be in Japanese or Chinese.)</p>
  
  <p>expected final my_df:</p>
  
  <pre><code>         A                    B          C
  0   I love Mercedes-Benz      4       Love this
  1   Looks so good!            2       5-year-old
  </code></pre>