You can use pandas methods where and mask:
df['color'] = 'green'
df['color'] = df['color'].where(df['Set']=='Z', other='red')
# Replace values where the condition is False
or
df['color'] = 'red'
df['color'] = df['color'].mask(df['Set']=='Z', other='green')
# Replace values where the condition is True
Alternatively, you can use the method transform with a lambda function:
df['color'] = df['Set'].transform(lambda x: 'green' if x == 'Z' else 'red')
Output:
Type Set color
1 A Z green
2 B Z green
3 B X red
4 C Y red
Performance comparison from @chai:
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
df = pd.DataFrame({'Type':list('ABBC')*1000000, 'Set':list('ZZXY')*1000000})
%timeit df['color1'] = 'red'; df['color1'].where(df['Set']=='Z','green')
%timeit df['color2'] = ['red' if x == 'Z' else 'green' for x in df['Set']]
%timeit df['color3'] = np.where(df['Set']=='Z', 'red', 'green')
%timeit df['color4'] = df.Set.map(lambda x: 'red' if x == 'Z' else 'green')
397 ms ± 101 ms per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each)
976 ms ± 241 ms per loop
673 ms ± 139 ms per loop
796 ms ± 182 ms per loop