BUG: misleading error creating df from 2d array

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.0.rst

@@ -265,6 +265,7 @@ Groupby/resample/rolling
 
 Reshaping
 ^^^^^^^^^
+- Improved error message when creating a :class:`DataFrame` column from a multi-dimensional :class:`numpy.ndarray` (:issue:`42463`)
 - :func:`concat` creating :class:`MultiIndex` with duplicate level entries when concatenating a :class:`DataFrame` with duplicates in :class:`Index` and multiple keys (:issue:`42651`)
 - Bug in :meth:`pandas.cut` on :class:`Series` with duplicate indices (:issue:`42185`) and non-exact :meth:`pandas.CategoricalIndex` (:issue:`42425`)
 -

pandas/core/internals/construction.py

@@ -615,6 +615,8 @@ def _extract_index(data) -> Index:
             elif is_list_like(val) and getattr(val, "ndim", 1) == 1:
                 have_raw_arrays = True
                 raw_lengths.append(len(val))
+            elif isinstance(val, np.ndarray) and val.ndim > 1:
+                raise ValueError("Per-column arrays must each be 1-dimensional")
 
         if not indexes and not raw_lengths:
             raise ValueError("If using all scalar values, you must pass an index")

pandas/tests/frame/test_constructors.py

@@ -2530,6 +2530,19 @@ def test_from_2d_object_array_of_periods_or_intervals(self):
         expected = DataFrame({0: pi, 1: ii, 2: pi, 3: ii})
         tm.assert_frame_equal(df3, expected)
 
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "col_a, col_b",
+        [
+            ([[1], [2]], np.array([[1], [2]])),
+            (np.array([[1], [2]]), [[1], [2]]),
+            (np.array([[1], [2]]), np.array([[1], [2]])),
+        ],
+    )
+    def test_error_from_2darray(self, col_a, col_b):
+        msg = "Per-column arrays must each be 1-dimensional"
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=msg):
+            DataFrame({"a": col_a, "b": col_b})
+
 
 class TestDataFrameConstructorWithDtypeCoercion:
     def test_floating_values_integer_dtype(self):