Index.to_datetime() has no `format` keyword

[jorisvandenbossche]

Index.to_datetime has no format keyword (and more generally, it lacks all keyword arguments from pd.to_datetime except for dayfirst).

Maybe it could be made more similar to pd.datetime? (or even just use it under the hood?)

Code: https://github.com/pydata/pandas/blob/master/pandas/core/index.py#L278
Docs: http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/dev/generated/pandas.Index.to_datetime.html#pandas.Index.to_datetime

Thanks to @stijnvanhoey for reporting

[jreback]

this shouldn't even be a method, I think should drop it; to_datetime is much more general in any event

[jorisvandenbossche]

Removing is maybe difficult, as it there already a long time (#208)? Or with deprecation it is no problem?

But maybe making it a simple wrapper around pd.to_datetime like self.index = pd.datetime(self.index, **kwds)? And not advertising it in the docs could be starter (it is listed in the api docs).

[jorisvandenbossche]

Another question, what is the usage of DatetimeIndex.to_datetime?

[jreback]

yep deprecate and wrap would eork