I want to filter out rows containing empty lists in columns no_te_ins and te_ins.
Here is part of the input df te_filter:

             chr       family      start        end   P1-6  P1-12  P1-22  P1-25  P1-26  P1-28  P1-88  P1-89  P1-90  P1-92  P1-93  P1-95                    no_te_ins                       te_ins
16   NC_064017.1        uc|28   133586.0   133683.0  0.411  0.386  0.322  0.416  0.319  0.364  0.184  0.407  0.328  0.254  0.663  0.437         [P1-88, P1-92]                     []
493  NC_064017.1   Stowaway|1  2182670.0  2182719.0  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.682  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.791                     []                     []
494  NC_064017.1        uc|31  2187699.0  2188215.0  0.978  0.986  1.000  1.000  0.936  0.968  1.000  0.962  0.853  0.922  1.000  0.891                     []  [P1-12, P1-22, P1-25]
495  NC_064017.1         uc|9  2194130.0  2194325.0  0.981  1.000  0.000  0.224  0.868  0.895  0.850  0.784  0.932  0.000  0.265  0.893         [P1-25, P1-93]  [P1-12, P1-26, P1-28]

Here is the part of the code:

te_filter['te_ins'] = te_filter['te_ins'].astype(str)
te_filter['no_te_ins'] = te_filter['no_te_ins'].astype(str)

te_filter_final = te_filter[te_filter['no_te_ins'] != '[]']
print(te_filter_final.to_string)

te_filter_final_2 = te_filter[te_filter['te_ins'] != '[]']
print(te_filter_final_2.to_string)

It works good for no_te_ins column an the output for te_filter_final is:

             chr       family      start        end   P1-6  P1-12  P1-22  P1-25  P1-26  P1-28  P1-88  P1-89  P1-90  P1-92  P1-93  P1-95                    no_te_ins                       te_ins
16   NC_064017.1        uc|28   133586.0   133683.0  0.411  0.386  0.322  0.416  0.319  0.364  0.184  0.407  0.328  0.254  0.663  0.437         ['P1-88', 'P1-92']                     ['']
495  NC_064017.1         uc|9  2194130.0  2194325.0  0.981  1.000  0.000  0.224  0.868  0.895  0.850  0.784  0.932  0.000  0.265  0.893         ['P1-25', 'P1-93']  ['P1-12', 'P1-26', 'P1-28']

but for te_ins it doesn’t remove the desired row (there is no effect) and the output for te_filter_final_2 is the same as the input (only the values in te_ins column is changed from [] to [”] (?):

             chr       family      start        end   P1-6  P1-12  P1-22  P1-25  P1-26  P1-28  P1-88  P1-89  P1-90  P1-92  P1-93  P1-95                    no_te_ins                       te_ins
16   NC_064017.1        uc|28   133586.0   133683.0  0.411  0.386  0.322  0.416  0.319  0.364  0.184  0.407  0.328  0.254  0.663  0.437         ['P1-88', 'P1-92']            ['']
493  NC_064017.1   Stowaway|1  2182670.0  2182719.0  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.682  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.000  0.791                     []                ['']
494  NC_064017.1        uc|31  2187699.0  2188215.0  0.978  0.986  1.000  1.000  0.936  0.968  1.000  0.962  0.853  0.922  1.000  0.891                     []       ['P1-12', 'P1-22', 'P1-25']
495  NC_064017.1         uc|9  2194130.0  2194325.0  0.981  1.000  0.000  0.224  0.868  0.895  0.850  0.784  0.932  0.000  0.265  0.893         ['P1-25', 'P1-93']   ['P1-12', 'P1-26', 'P1-28']

Any idea what’s going on? Is there something wrong with the data type and how to fix it?