Write dictionary inside a DataFrame as an element

Is it possible to write a dictionary into Data Frame? I have created the following DataFrame with my structure:

df =pd.DataFrame({'name': ['L1', 'L2'], 'DEF': [None, None]})

df
Out[70]: 
  name   DEF
0   L1  None
1   L2  None

I also have a dictionary

dict1={'DEF120':50}

If try to write dictionary into df as

df.loc[df.name=='L2', 'DEF'] = dict1

I am getting NaN as

df
Out[76]: 
  name   DEF
0   L1  None
1   L2   NaN

But! If I write a random number, then it works!

df.loc[df.name=='L2', 'DEF'] = 1323213

df
Out[78]: 
  name      DEF
0   L1     None
1   L2  1323213

Can someone please explain what is the problem here? Why does writing dictionary not work?

Thanks!

>Solution :

Dictionaries/lists have a special meaning when assigned using loc. Pandas will try to expand them to Series.

You need to cheat a bit and use at:

s = df.name=='L2'
idx = s[s].index[0]
df.at[idx, 'DEF'] = dict1

updated dataframe:

  name             DEF
0   L1            None
1   L2  {'DEF120': 50}