BUG: Index([date]).astype("category").astype(object) roundtrip

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.3.0.rst

@@ -172,7 +172,8 @@ Categorical
 ^^^^^^^^^^^
 
 - Bug in ``CategoricalIndex.reindex`` failed when ``Index`` passed with elements all in category (:issue:`28690`)
--
+- Bug where construcing a :class:`Categorical` from an object-dtype array of ``date`` objects did not round-trip correctly with ``astype`` (:issue:`38552`)
+
 
 Datetimelike
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^

pandas/core/arrays/categorical.py

@@ -331,7 +331,7 @@ def __init__(
         elif not isinstance(values, (ABCIndex, ABCSeries, ExtensionArray)):
             # sanitize_array coerces np.nan to a string under certain versions
             # of numpy
-            values = maybe_infer_to_datetimelike(values, convert_dates=True)
+            values = maybe_infer_to_datetimelike(values)
             if not isinstance(values, (np.ndarray, ExtensionArray)):
                 values = com.convert_to_list_like(values)
 

pandas/tests/arrays/categorical/test_constructors.py

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-from datetime import datetime
+from datetime import date, datetime
 
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
@@ -346,6 +346,14 @@ def test_constructor_from_index_series_datetimetz(self):
         result = Categorical(Series(idx))
         tm.assert_index_equal(result.categories, idx)
 
+    def test_constructor_date_objects(self):
+        # we dont cast date objects to timestamps, matching Index constructor
+        v = date.today()
+
+        cat = Categorical([v, v])
+        assert cat.categories.dtype == object
+        assert type(cat.categories[0]) is date
+
     def test_constructor_from_index_series_timedelta(self):
         idx = timedelta_range("1 days", freq="D", periods=3)
         idx = idx._with_freq(None)  # freq not preserved in result.categories

pandas/tests/indexes/categorical/test_astype.py

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+from datetime import date
+
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
 
@@ -64,3 +66,16 @@ def test_astype_category(self, name, dtype_ordered, index_ordered):
             result = index.astype("category")
             expected = index
             tm.assert_index_equal(result, expected)
+
+    def test_categorical_date_roundtrip(self):
+        # astype to categorical and back should preserve date objects
+        v = date.today()
+
+        obj = Index([v, v])
+        assert obj.dtype == object
+
+        cat = obj.astype("category")
+
+        rtrip = cat.astype(object)
+        assert rtrip.dtype == object
+        assert type(rtrip[0]) is date

pandas/tests/indexes/multi/test_constructors.py

@@ -774,7 +774,7 @@ def test_datetimeindex():
 
     # from datetime combos
     # GH 7888
-    date1 = date.today()
+    date1 = np.datetime64("today")
     date2 = datetime.today()
     date3 = Timestamp.today()
 
@@ -783,6 +783,12 @@ def test_datetimeindex():
         assert isinstance(index.levels[0], pd.DatetimeIndex)
         assert isinstance(index.levels[1], pd.DatetimeIndex)
 
+    # but NOT date objects, matching Index behavior
+    date4 = date.today()
+    index = MultiIndex.from_product([[date4], [date2]])
+    assert not isinstance(index.levels[0], pd.DatetimeIndex)
+    assert isinstance(index.levels[1], pd.DatetimeIndex)
+
 
 def test_constructor_with_tz():
 
@@ -804,3 +810,26 @@ def test_constructor_with_tz():
     assert result.names == ["dt1", "dt2"]
     tm.assert_index_equal(result.levels[0], index)
     tm.assert_index_equal(result.levels[1], columns)
+
+
+def test_multiindex_inference_consistency():
+    # check that inference behavior matches the base class
+
+    v = date.today()
+
+    arr = [v, v]
+
+    idx = Index(arr)
+    assert idx.dtype == object
+
+    mi = MultiIndex.from_arrays([arr])
+    lev = mi.levels[0]
+    assert lev.dtype == object
+
+    mi = MultiIndex.from_product([arr])
+    lev = mi.levels[0]
+    assert lev.dtype == object
+
+    mi = MultiIndex.from_tuples([(x,) for x in arr])
+    lev = mi.levels[0]
+    assert lev.dtype == object

pandas/tests/reshape/concat/test_datetimes.py

@@ -130,39 +130,37 @@ def test_concat_datetimeindex_freq(self):
 
     def test_concat_multiindex_datetime_object_index(self):
         # https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/issues/11058
+        idx = Index(
+            [dt.date(2013, 1, 1), dt.date(2014, 1, 1), dt.date(2015, 1, 1)],
+            dtype="object",
+        )
+
         s = Series(
             ["a", "b"],
             index=MultiIndex.from_arrays(
                 [
                     [1, 2],
-                    Index([dt.date(2013, 1, 1), dt.date(2014, 1, 1)], dtype="object"),
+                    idx[:-1],
                 ],
                 names=["first", "second"],
             ),
         )
         s2 = Series(
             ["a", "b"],
             index=MultiIndex.from_arrays(
-                [
-                    [1, 2],
-                    Index([dt.date(2013, 1, 1), dt.date(2015, 1, 1)], dtype="object"),
-                ],
+                [[1, 2], idx[::2]],
                 names=["first", "second"],
             ),
         )
+        mi = MultiIndex.from_arrays(
+            [[1, 2, 2], idx],
+            names=["first", "second"],
+        )
+        assert mi.levels[1].dtype == object
+
         expected = DataFrame(
             [["a", "a"], ["b", np.nan], [np.nan, "b"]],
-            index=MultiIndex.from_arrays(
-                [
-                    [1, 2, 2],
-                    DatetimeIndex(
-                        ["2013-01-01", "2014-01-01", "2015-01-01"],
-                        dtype="datetime64[ns]",
-                        freq=None,
-                    ),
-                ],
-                names=["first", "second"],
-            ),
+            index=mi,
         )
         result = concat([s, s2], axis=1)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)

pandas/tests/reshape/merge/test_merge.py

@@ -1811,17 +1811,18 @@ def test_dtype_on_categorical_dates(self):
 
         expected_outer = DataFrame(
             [
-                [pd.Timestamp("2001-01-01"), 1.1, 1.3],
-                [pd.Timestamp("2001-01-02"), 1.3, np.nan],
-                [pd.Timestamp("2001-01-03"), np.nan, 1.4],
+                [pd.Timestamp("2001-01-01").date(), 1.1, 1.3],
+                [pd.Timestamp("2001-01-02").date(), 1.3, np.nan],
+                [pd.Timestamp("2001-01-03").date(), np.nan, 1.4],
             ],
             columns=["date", "num2", "num4"],
         )
         result_outer = pd.merge(df, df2, how="outer", on=["date"])
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result_outer, expected_outer)
 
         expected_inner = DataFrame(
-            [[pd.Timestamp("2001-01-01"), 1.1, 1.3]], columns=["date", "num2", "num4"]
+            [[pd.Timestamp("2001-01-01").date(), 1.1, 1.3]],
+            columns=["date", "num2", "num4"],
         )
         result_inner = pd.merge(df, df2, how="inner", on=["date"])
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result_inner, expected_inner)