BUG (string dtype): replace with non-string to fall back to object dtype (#60285)

Co-authored-by: Matthew Roeschke <10647082+mroeschke@users.noreply.github.com>

Author: jorisvandenbossche

doc/source/whatsnew/v2.3.0.rst

@@ -106,10 +106,10 @@ Conversion
 Strings
 ^^^^^^^
 - Bug in :meth:`Series.rank` for :class:`StringDtype` with ``storage="pyarrow"`` incorrectly returning integer results in case of ``method="average"`` and raising an error if it would truncate results (:issue:`59768`)
+- Bug in :meth:`Series.replace` with :class:`StringDtype` when replacing with a non-string value was not upcasting to ``object`` dtype (:issue:`60282`)
 - Bug in :meth:`Series.str.replace` when ``n < 0`` for :class:`StringDtype` with ``storage="pyarrow"`` (:issue:`59628`)
 - Bug in ``ser.str.slice`` with negative ``step`` with :class:`ArrowDtype` and :class:`StringDtype` with ``storage="pyarrow"`` giving incorrect results (:issue:`59710`)
 - Bug in the ``center`` method on :class:`Series` and :class:`Index` object ``str`` accessors with pyarrow-backed dtype not matching the python behavior in corner cases with an odd number of fill characters (:issue:`54792`)
--
 
 Interval
 ^^^^^^^^

pandas/core/arrays/string_.py

@@ -730,20 +730,9 @@ def _values_for_factorize(self) -> tuple[np.ndarray, libmissing.NAType | float]:
 
         return arr, self.dtype.na_value
 
-    def __setitem__(self, key, value) -> None:
-        value = extract_array(value, extract_numpy=True)
-        if isinstance(value, type(self)):
-            # extract_array doesn't extract NumpyExtensionArray subclasses
-            value = value._ndarray
-
-        key = check_array_indexer(self, key)
-        scalar_key = lib.is_scalar(key)
-        scalar_value = lib.is_scalar(value)
-        if scalar_key and not scalar_value:
-            raise ValueError("setting an array element with a sequence.")
-
-        # validate new items
-        if scalar_value:
+    def _maybe_convert_setitem_value(self, value):
+        """Maybe convert value to be pyarrow compatible."""
+        if lib.is_scalar(value):
             if isna(value):
                 value = self.dtype.na_value
             elif not isinstance(value, str):
@@ -753,8 +742,11 @@ def __setitem__(self, key, value) -> None:
                     "instead."
                 )
         else:
+            value = extract_array(value, extract_numpy=True)
             if not is_array_like(value):
                 value = np.asarray(value, dtype=object)
+            elif isinstance(value.dtype, type(self.dtype)):
+                return value
             else:
                 # cast categories and friends to arrays to see if values are
                 # compatible, compatibility with arrow backed strings
@@ -764,11 +756,26 @@ def __setitem__(self, key, value) -> None:
                     "Invalid value for dtype 'str'. Value should be a "
                     "string or missing value (or array of those)."
                 )
+        return value
 
-            mask = isna(value)
-            if mask.any():
-                value = value.copy()
-                value[isna(value)] = self.dtype.na_value
+    def __setitem__(self, key, value) -> None:
+        value = self._maybe_convert_setitem_value(value)
+
+        key = check_array_indexer(self, key)
+        scalar_key = lib.is_scalar(key)
+        scalar_value = lib.is_scalar(value)
+        if scalar_key and not scalar_value:
+            raise ValueError("setting an array element with a sequence.")
+
+        if not scalar_value:
+            if value.dtype == self.dtype:
+                value = value._ndarray
+            else:
+                value = np.asarray(value)
+                mask = isna(value)
+                if mask.any():
+                    value = value.copy()
+                    value[isna(value)] = self.dtype.na_value
 
         super().__setitem__(key, value)
 

pandas/core/dtypes/cast.py

@@ -1749,6 +1749,13 @@ def can_hold_element(arr: ArrayLike, element: Any) -> bool:
             except (ValueError, TypeError):
                 return False
 
+        if dtype == "string":
+            try:
+                arr._maybe_convert_setitem_value(element)  # type: ignore[union-attr]
+                return True
+            except (ValueError, TypeError):
+                return False
+
         # This is technically incorrect, but maintains the behavior of
         # ExtensionBlock._can_hold_element
         return True

pandas/core/internals/blocks.py

@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@
     ABCNumpyExtensionArray,
     ABCSeries,
 )
+from pandas.core.dtypes.inference import is_re
 from pandas.core.dtypes.missing import (
     is_valid_na_for_dtype,
     isna,
@@ -706,7 +707,7 @@ def replace(
             #  bc _can_hold_element is incorrect.
             return [self.copy(deep=False)]
 
-        elif self._can_hold_element(value):
+        elif self._can_hold_element(value) or (self.dtype == "string" and is_re(value)):
             # TODO(CoW): Maybe split here as well into columns where mask has True
             # and rest?
             blk = self._maybe_copy(inplace)
@@ -766,14 +767,24 @@ def _replace_regex(
         -------
         List[Block]
         """
-        if not self._can_hold_element(to_replace):
+        if not is_re(to_replace) and not self._can_hold_element(to_replace):
             # i.e. only if self.is_object is True, but could in principle include a
             #  String ExtensionBlock
             return [self.copy(deep=False)]
 
-        rx = re.compile(to_replace)
+        if is_re(to_replace) and self.dtype not in [object, "string"]:
+            # only object or string dtype can hold strings, and a regex object
+            # will only match strings
+            return [self.copy(deep=False)]
 
-        block = self._maybe_copy(inplace)
+        if not (
+            self._can_hold_element(value) or (self.dtype == "string" and is_re(value))
+        ):
+            block = self.astype(np.dtype(object))
+        else:
+            block = self._maybe_copy(inplace)
+
+        rx = re.compile(to_replace)
 
         replace_regex(block.values, rx, value, mask)
         return [block]
@@ -793,7 +804,9 @@ def replace_list(
 
         # Exclude anything that we know we won't contain
         pairs = [
-            (x, y) for x, y in zip(src_list, dest_list) if self._can_hold_element(x)
+            (x, y)
+            for x, y in zip(src_list, dest_list)
+            if (self._can_hold_element(x) or (self.dtype == "string" and is_re(x)))
         ]
         if not len(pairs):
             return [self.copy(deep=False)]

pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_replace.py

@@ -889,7 +889,6 @@ def test_replace_input_formats_listlike(self):
         with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=msg):
             df.replace(to_rep, values[1:])
 
-    @pytest.mark.xfail(using_string_dtype(), reason="can't set float into string")
     def test_replace_input_formats_scalar(self):
         df = DataFrame(
             {"A": [np.nan, 0, np.inf], "B": [0, 2, 5], "C": ["", "asdf", "fd"]}
@@ -940,7 +939,6 @@ def test_replace_dict_no_regex(self):
         result = answer.replace(weights)
         tm.assert_series_equal(result, expected)
 
-    @pytest.mark.xfail(using_string_dtype(), reason="can't set float into string")
     def test_replace_series_no_regex(self):
         answer = Series(
             {
@@ -1176,7 +1174,6 @@ def test_replace_commutative(self, df, to_replace, exp):
         result = df.replace(to_replace)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
 
-    @pytest.mark.xfail(using_string_dtype(), reason="can't set float into string")
     @pytest.mark.parametrize(
         "replacer",
         [

pandas/tests/series/indexing/test_setitem.py

@@ -860,24 +860,16 @@ def test_index_where(self, obj, key, expected, raises, val):
         mask = np.zeros(obj.shape, dtype=bool)
         mask[key] = True
 
-        if raises and obj.dtype == "string":
-            with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="Invalid value"):
-                Index(obj).where(~mask, val)
-        else:
-            res = Index(obj).where(~mask, val)
-            expected_idx = Index(expected, dtype=expected.dtype)
-            tm.assert_index_equal(res, expected_idx)
+        res = Index(obj).where(~mask, val)
+        expected_idx = Index(expected, dtype=expected.dtype)
+        tm.assert_index_equal(res, expected_idx)
 
     def test_index_putmask(self, obj, key, expected, raises, val):
         mask = np.zeros(obj.shape, dtype=bool)
         mask[key] = True
 
-        if raises and obj.dtype == "string":
-            with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="Invalid value"):
-                Index(obj).putmask(mask, val)
-        else:
-            res = Index(obj).putmask(mask, val)
-            tm.assert_index_equal(res, Index(expected, dtype=expected.dtype))
+        res = Index(obj).putmask(mask, val)
+        tm.assert_index_equal(res, Index(expected, dtype=expected.dtype))
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(

pandas/tests/series/methods/test_replace.py

@@ -635,13 +635,11 @@ def test_replace_regex_dtype_series(self, regex):
         tm.assert_series_equal(result, expected)
 
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("regex", [False, True])
-    def test_replace_regex_dtype_series_string(self, regex, using_infer_string):
-        if not using_infer_string:
-            # then this is object dtype which is already tested above
-            return
+    def test_replace_regex_dtype_series_string(self, regex):
         series = pd.Series(["0"], dtype="str")
-        with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="Invalid value"):
-            series.replace(to_replace="0", value=1, regex=regex)
+        expected = pd.Series([1], dtype=object)
+        result = series.replace(to_replace="0", value=1, regex=regex)
+        tm.assert_series_equal(result, expected)
 
     def test_replace_different_int_types(self, any_int_numpy_dtype):
         # GH#45311