If you only have two choices to select from then use np.where:

df['color'] = np.where(df['Set']=='Z', 'green', 'red')

For example,

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

df = pd.DataFrame({'Type':list('ABBC'), 'Set':list('ZZXY')})
df['color'] = np.where(df['Set']=='Z', 'green', 'red')
print(df)

yields

  Set Type  color
0   Z    A  green
1   Z    B  green
2   X    B    red
3   Y    C    red

If you have more than two conditions then use np.select. For example, if you want color to be

• yellow when (df['Set'] == 'Z') & (df['Type'] == 'A')
• otherwise blue when (df['Set'] == 'Z') & (df['Type'] == 'B')
• otherwise purple when (df['Type'] == 'B')
• otherwise black,

then use

df = pd.DataFrame({'Type':list('ABBC'), 'Set':list('ZZXY')})
conditions = [
    (df['Set'] == 'Z') & (df['Type'] == 'A'),
    (df['Set'] == 'Z') & (df['Type'] == 'B'),
    (df['Type'] == 'B')]
choices = ['yellow', 'blue', 'purple']
df['color'] = np.select(conditions, choices, default='black')
print(df)

which yields

  Set Type   color
0   Z    A  yellow
1   Z    B    blue
2   X    B  purple
3   Y    C   black

You can use numpy.where:

def my_fun (var1,var2,var3):
    df[var3]= np.where((df[var1]-df[var2])>0, df[var1]-df[var2], 0)
    return df

df1 = my_fun('age1','age2','diff')
print (df1)
   age1  age2  diff
0    23    10    13
1    45    20    25
2    21    50     0

Error is better explain here.

Slowier solution with apply, where need axis=1 for data processing by rows:

def my_fun(x, var1, var2, var3):
    print (x)
    if (x[var1]-x[var2])>0 :
        x[var3]=x[var1]-x[var2]
    else:
        x[var3]=0
    return x    

print (df.apply(lambda x: my_fun(x, 'age1', 'age2','diff'), axis=1))
   age1  age2  diff
0    23    10    13
1    45    20    25
2    21    50     0

Also is possible use loc, but sometimes data can be overwritten:

def my_fun(x, var1, var2, var3):
    print (x)
    mask = (x[var1]-x[var2])>0
    x.loc[mask, var3] = x[var1]-x[var2]
    x.loc[~mask, var3] = 0

    return x    

print (my_fun(df, 'age1', 'age2','diff'))
   age1  age2  diff
0    23    10  13.0
1    45    20  25.0
2    21    50   0.0

A good solution has been provided by @Phoenix based on what you have tried so far. But in the case of an if-else condition, you can use numpy.where function too:

import numpy as np
data["Status"] = np.where(data["sex"] == "female", "f", "m")