title: Converting String Expression to Float
body: <p>I am sorry if this question has been answered already, I just couldn't find it.
  I have scraped a table with <code>pandas.read_html</code>. In the table, I have a couple of expressions I am interested in the format of &quot;20.15 X 200&quot;, where the type is a string. I want to convert them to floats in order to make the multiplication and later compare the values. The issue I have is that the expressions are with the &quot;X&quot; sign for multiplication and I am not able to find any information ho to convert such an expression.</p>
  <p>When I try the function to <code>float()</code> I get - <code>ValueError: could not convert string to float</code>.</p>