BUG: series replace should allow a single list

doc/source/release.rst

@@ -152,6 +152,8 @@ pandas 0.13
     passed a string (:issue:`4763`). Pass a ``list`` of one element (containing
     the string) instead.
   - Remove undocumented/unused ``kind`` keyword argument from ``read_excel``, and ``ExcelFile``. (:issue:`4713`, :issue:`4712`)
+  - The ``method`` argument of ``NDFrame.replace()`` is valid again, so that a
+    a list can be passed to ``to_replace`` (:issue:`4743`).
 
 **Internal Refactoring**
 

pandas/core/common.py

@@ -1047,6 +1047,7 @@ def wrapper(arr, mask, limit=None):
                                         np.int64)
 
 
+
 def pad_1d(values, limit=None, mask=None):
 
     dtype = values.dtype.name
@@ -1188,6 +1189,14 @@ def _consensus_name_attr(objs):
             return None
     return name
 
+
+_fill_methods = {'pad': pad_1d, 'backfill': backfill_1d}
+
+def _get_fill_func(method):
+    method = _clean_fill_method(method)
+    return _fill_methods[method]
+
+
 #----------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Lots of little utilities
 

pandas/core/generic.py

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 import pandas.lib as lib
 
+import pandas as pd
 from pandas.core.base import PandasObject
 from pandas.core.index import Index, MultiIndex, _ensure_index
 import pandas.core.indexing as indexing
@@ -19,6 +20,33 @@
                                 _infer_dtype_from_scalar, _maybe_promote,
                                 ABCSeries)
 
+
+
+def is_dictlike(x):
+    return isinstance(x, (dict, com.ABCSeries))
+
+
+def _single_replace(self, to_replace, method, inplace, limit):
+    orig_dtype = self.dtype
+    result = self if inplace else self.copy()
+    fill_f = com._get_fill_func(method)
+
+    mask = com.mask_missing(result.values, to_replace)
+    values = fill_f(result.values, limit=limit, mask=mask)
+
+    if values.dtype == orig_dtype and inplace:
+        return
+
+    result = pd.Series(values, index=self.index, name=self.name,
+                       dtype=self.dtype)
+
+    if inplace:
+        self._data = result._data
+        return
+
+    return result
+
+
 class NDFrame(PandasObject):
 
     """
@@ -1581,7 +1609,7 @@ def bfill(self, axis=0, inplace=False, limit=None, downcast=None):
                            limit=limit, downcast=downcast)
 
     def replace(self, to_replace=None, value=None, inplace=False, limit=None,
-                regex=False, method=None, axis=None):
+                regex=False, method='pad', axis=None):
         """
         Replace values given in 'to_replace' with 'value'.
 
@@ -1643,14 +1671,19 @@ def replace(self, to_replace=None, value=None, inplace=False, limit=None,
             string. Otherwise, `to_replace` must be ``None`` because this
             parameter will be interpreted as a regular expression or a list,
             dict, or array of regular expressions.
+        method : string, optional, {'pad', 'ffill', 'bfill'}
+            The method to use when for replacement, when ``to_replace`` is a
+            ``list``.
 
         See also
         --------
-        reindex, asfreq, fillna
+        NDFrame.reindex
+        NDFrame.asfreq
+        NDFrame.fillna
 
         Returns
         -------
-        filled : DataFrame
+        filled : NDFrame
 
         Raises
         ------
@@ -1681,26 +1714,23 @@ def replace(self, to_replace=None, value=None, inplace=False, limit=None,
         if not com.is_bool(regex) and to_replace is not None:
             raise AssertionError("'to_replace' must be 'None' if 'regex' is "
                                  "not a bool")
-        if method is not None:
-            from warnings import warn
-            warn('the "method" argument is deprecated and will be removed in'
-                 'v0.13; this argument has no effect')
-
         if axis is not None:
             from warnings import warn
             warn('the "axis" argument is deprecated and will be removed in'
                  'v0.13; this argument has no effect')
 
         self._consolidate_inplace()
 
-        def is_dictlike(x):
-            return isinstance(x, (dict, com.ABCSeries))
-
         if value is None:
+            if isinstance(to_replace, list):
+                return _single_replace(self, to_replace, method, inplace,
+                                       limit)
+
             if not is_dictlike(to_replace):
                 if not is_dictlike(regex):
                     raise TypeError('If "to_replace" and "value" are both None'
-                                    ' then regex must be a mapping')
+                                    ' and "to_replace" is not a list, then '
+                                    'regex must be a mapping')
                 to_replace = regex
                 regex = True
 

pandas/tests/test_series.py

@@ -4608,6 +4608,63 @@ def test_replace(self):
         result = ser.replace([0, 1, 2, 3, 4], [4, 3, 2, 1, 0])
         assert_series_equal(result, Series([4, 3, 2, 1, 0]))
 
+    def test_replace_with_single_list(self):
+        ser = Series([0, 1, 2, 3, 4])
+        result = ser.replace([1,2,3])
+        assert_series_equal(result, Series([0,0,0,0,4]))
+
+        s = ser.copy()
+        s.replace([1,2,3],inplace=True)
+        assert_series_equal(s, Series([0,0,0,0,4]))
+
+        # make sure things don't get corrupted when fillna call fails
+        s = ser.copy()
+        with tm.assertRaises(ValueError):
+            s.replace([1,2,3],inplace=True,method='crash_cymbal')
+        assert_series_equal(s, ser)
+
+    def test_replace_mixed_types(self):
+        s = Series(np.arange(5))
+
+        def check_replace(to_rep, val, expected):
+            sc = s.copy()
+            r = s.replace(to_rep, val)
+            sc.replace(to_rep, val, inplace=True)
+            assert_series_equal(expected, r)
+            assert_series_equal(expected, sc)
+
+        # should NOT upcast to float
+        e = Series([0,1,2,3,4])
+        tr, v = [3], [3.0]
+        check_replace(tr, v, e)
+
+        # MUST upcast to float
+        e = Series([0,1,2,3.5,4])
+        tr, v = [3], [3.5]
+        check_replace(tr, v, e)
+
+        # casts to object
+        e = Series([0,1,2,3.5,'a'])
+        tr, v = [3,4], [3.5,'a']
+        check_replace(tr, v, e)
+
+        # again casts to object
+        e = Series([0,1,2,3.5,Timestamp('20130101')])
+        tr, v = [3,4],[3.5,Timestamp('20130101')]
+        check_replace(tr, v, e)
+
+        # casts to float
+        e = Series([0,1,2,3.5,1])
+        tr, v = [3,4],[3.5,True]
+        check_replace(tr, v, e)
+
+        # test an object with dates + floats + integers + strings
+        dr = date_range('1/1/2001', '1/10/2001',
+                        freq='D').to_series().reset_index(drop=True)
+        r = dr.astype(object).replace([dr[0],dr[1],dr[2]], [1.0,2,'a'])
+        assert_series_equal(r, Series([1.0,2,'a'] +
+                                      dr[3:].tolist(),dtype=object))
+
     def test_asfreq(self):
         ts = Series([0., 1., 2.], index=[datetime(2009, 10, 30),
                                          datetime(2009, 11, 30),