ENH: In pd.cut(), allow bins='auto' (leveraging `np.histogram_bin_edges`)

[Hari-Shankar-Karthik]

Feature Type

• Adding new functionality to pandas

• Changing existing functionality in pandas

• Removing existing functionality in pandas

Problem Description

While converting a quantitative variable into a qualitative one, pd.cut() comes in clutch. However, it requires the user to specify bins as either an integer or a list of bin edges. I wish it was allowed to specify bins='auto' similar to how np.histogram allows it. It internally leverages np.histogram_bin_edges to compute these. Thank you.

Expectation

Instead of coding
pd.cut(df['x1'], bins=np.histogram_bin_edges(df['x1'], bins='auto'))
Allow for coding
pd.cut(df['x1'], bins='auto')

Additional Context

Calculation of bin edges is already done via np.histogram_bin_edges. Reference: https://numpy.org/doc/stable/reference/generated/numpy.histogram_bin_edges.html#numpy-histogram-bin-edges

[Aloqeely]

Thanks for the suggestion! It appears there was an effort to allow string bins in pd.cut in #23567 but that PR got stale.
PRs are welcomed to add string bins support, dispatching the string to np.histogram_bin_edges.

[chaarvii]

Hey, would like to work on this.

[chaarvii]

Take

[chaarvii]

It was discussed that since the implementation is fairly straight-forward, its better to just add in documentation explaining how to use np.histogram_bin_edges with pd.cut

Hence, opened a new PR #59281 and closing previous one i.e. #59241