ENH: Use lazy copy in infer objects

doc/source/whatsnew/v2.0.0.rst

@@ -223,6 +223,7 @@ Copy-on-Write improvements
   - :meth:`DataFrame.to_period` / :meth:`Series.to_period`
   - :meth:`DataFrame.truncate`
   - :meth:`DataFrame.tz_convert` / :meth:`Series.tz_localize`
+  - :meth:`DataFrame.infer_objects` / :meth:`Series.infer_objects`
   - :func:`concat`
 
   These methods return views when Copy-on-Write is enabled, which provides a significant

pandas/core/generic.py

@@ -6426,7 +6426,7 @@ def __deepcopy__(self: NDFrameT, memo=None) -> NDFrameT:
         return self.copy(deep=True)
 
     @final
-    def infer_objects(self: NDFrameT, copy: bool_t = True) -> NDFrameT:
+    def infer_objects(self: NDFrameT, copy: bool_t | None = None) -> NDFrameT:
         """
         Attempt to infer better dtypes for object columns.
 

pandas/core/internals/array_manager.py

@@ -369,7 +369,10 @@ def fillna(self: T, value, limit, inplace: bool, downcast) -> T:
     def astype(self: T, dtype, copy: bool = False, errors: str = "raise") -> T:
         return self.apply(astype_array_safe, dtype=dtype, copy=copy, errors=errors)
 
-    def convert(self: T, copy: bool) -> T:
+    def convert(self: T, copy: bool | None) -> T:
+        if copy is None:
+            copy = True
+
         def _convert(arr):
             if is_object_dtype(arr.dtype):
                 # extract PandasArray for tests that patch PandasArray._typ

pandas/core/internals/blocks.py

@@ -207,7 +207,9 @@ def mgr_locs(self, new_mgr_locs: BlockPlacement) -> None:
         self._mgr_locs = new_mgr_locs
 
     @final
-    def make_block(self, values, placement=None) -> Block:
+    def make_block(
+        self, values, placement=None, refs: BlockValuesRefs | None = None
+    ) -> Block:
         """
         Create a new block, with type inference propagate any values that are
         not specified
@@ -219,7 +221,7 @@ def make_block(self, values, placement=None) -> Block:
 
         # TODO: perf by not going through new_block
         # We assume maybe_coerce_values has already been called
-        return new_block(values, placement=placement, ndim=self.ndim)
+        return new_block(values, placement=placement, ndim=self.ndim, refs=refs)
 
     @final
     def make_block_same_class(
@@ -372,7 +374,7 @@ def _split(self) -> list[Block]:
             vals = self.values[slice(i, i + 1)]
 
             bp = BlockPlacement(ref_loc)
-            nb = type(self)(vals, placement=bp, ndim=2)
+            nb = type(self)(vals, placement=bp, ndim=2, refs=self.refs)
             new_blocks.append(nb)
         return new_blocks
 
@@ -431,7 +433,9 @@ def _maybe_downcast(self, blocks: list[Block], downcast=None) -> list[Block]:
         if downcast is None:
             return blocks
 
-        return extend_blocks([b._downcast_2d(downcast) for b in blocks])
+        return extend_blocks(
+            [b._downcast_2d(downcast) for b in blocks]  # type: ignore[call-arg]
+        )
 
     @final
     @maybe_split
@@ -448,12 +452,15 @@ def convert(
         self,
         *,
         copy: bool = True,
+        using_cow: bool = False,
     ) -> list[Block]:
         """
         attempt to coerce any object types to better types return a copy
         of the block (if copy = True) by definition we are not an ObjectBlock
         here!
         """
+        if not copy and using_cow:
+            return [self.copy(deep=False)]
         return [self.copy()] if copy else [self]
 
     # ---------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -2040,6 +2047,7 @@ def convert(
         self,
         *,
         copy: bool = True,
+        using_cow: bool = False,
     ) -> list[Block]:
         """
         attempt to cast any object types to better types return a copy of
@@ -2048,6 +2056,8 @@ def convert(
         if self.dtype != _dtype_obj:
             # GH#50067 this should be impossible in ObjectBlock, but until
             #  that is fixed, we short-circuit here.
+            if using_cow:
+                return [self.copy(deep=False)]
             return [self]
 
         values = self.values
@@ -2063,10 +2073,14 @@ def convert(
             convert_period=True,
             convert_interval=True,
         )
+        refs = None
         if copy and res_values is values:
             res_values = values.copy()
+        elif res_values is values and using_cow:
+            refs = self.refs
+
         res_values = ensure_block_shape(res_values, self.ndim)
-        return [self.make_block(res_values)]
+        return [self.make_block(res_values, refs=refs)]
 
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------

pandas/core/internals/managers.py

@@ -424,11 +424,14 @@ def fillna(self: T, value, limit, inplace: bool, downcast) -> T:
     def astype(self: T, dtype, copy: bool = False, errors: str = "raise") -> T:
         return self.apply("astype", dtype=dtype, copy=copy, errors=errors)
 
-    def convert(self: T, copy: bool) -> T:
-        return self.apply(
-            "convert",
-            copy=copy,
-        )
+    def convert(self: T, copy: bool | None) -> T:
+        if copy is None:
+            if using_copy_on_write():
+                copy = False
+            else:
+                copy = True
+
+        return self.apply("convert", copy=copy, using_cow=using_copy_on_write())
 
     def replace(self: T, to_replace, value, inplace: bool) -> T:
         inplace = validate_bool_kwarg(inplace, "inplace")

pandas/tests/copy_view/test_methods.py

@@ -748,6 +748,41 @@ def test_head_tail(method, using_copy_on_write):
     tm.assert_frame_equal(df, df_orig)
 
 
+def test_infer_objects(using_copy_on_write):
+    df = DataFrame({"a": [1, 2], "b": "c", "c": 1, "d": "x"})
+    df_orig = df.copy()
+    df2 = df.infer_objects()
+
+    if using_copy_on_write:
+        assert np.shares_memory(get_array(df2, "a"), get_array(df, "a"))
+        assert np.shares_memory(get_array(df2, "b"), get_array(df, "b"))
+
+    else:
+        assert not np.shares_memory(get_array(df2, "a"), get_array(df, "a"))
+        assert not np.shares_memory(get_array(df2, "b"), get_array(df, "b"))
+
+    df2.iloc[0, 0] = 0
+    df2.iloc[0, 1] = "d"
+    if using_copy_on_write:
+        assert not np.shares_memory(get_array(df2, "a"), get_array(df, "a"))
+        assert not np.shares_memory(get_array(df2, "b"), get_array(df, "b"))
+    tm.assert_frame_equal(df, df_orig)
+
+
+def test_infer_objects_no_reference(using_copy_on_write):
+    df = DataFrame({"a": [1, 2], "b": "c", "c": 1, "d": "x"})
+    df = df.infer_objects()
+
+    arr_a = get_array(df, "a")
+    arr_b = get_array(df, "b")
+
+    df.iloc[0, 0] = 0
+    df.iloc[0, 1] = "d"
+    if using_copy_on_write:
+        assert np.shares_memory(arr_a, get_array(df, "a"))
+        assert not np.shares_memory(arr_b, get_array(df, "b"))
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "kwargs",
     [