QST: Zero copy access to the mask of a nullable array

[brandon-b-miller]

• I have searched the [pandas] tag on StackOverflow for similar questions.

• I have asked my usage related question on StackOverflow.

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Question about pandas

Hello Pandas devs,
I was wondering what's the best zero-copy way to access the mask of a nullable array, say a StringArray for example. I noticed these all inherit from BaseMaskedArray which provides isna() wrapping _mask however I want to make sure this is the recommended method, if I can always be sure this doesn't incur a copy, etc. Should I be using isna() or something else, if it exists?

[TomAugspurger]

See #34873.

And FYI StringArray doesn't use a mask currently. It's NA values are stored inline.