API / CoW: shallow copy of DataFrame/Series (.copy(deep=False)) also returns shallow copy of the index/columns

doc/source/whatsnew/v2.1.0.rst

@@ -65,6 +65,10 @@ Copy-on-Write improvements
 - The :class:`DataFrame` constructor, when constructing a DataFrame from a dictionary
   of Index objects and specifying ``copy=False``, will now use a lazy copy
   of those Index objects for the columns of the DataFrame (:issue:`52947`)
+- A shallow copy of a Series or DataFrame (``df.copy(deep=False)``) will now also return
+  a shallow copy of the rows/columns ``Index`` objects instead of only a shallow copy of
+  the data, i.e. the index of the result is no longer identical
+  (``df.copy(deep=False).index is df.index`` is no longer True) (:issue:`53721`)
 - :meth:`DataFrame.head` and :meth:`DataFrame.tail` will now return deep copies (:issue:`54011`)
 - Add lazy copy mechanism to :meth:`DataFrame.eval` (:issue:`53746`)
 

pandas/core/internals/managers.py

@@ -547,7 +547,10 @@ def copy_func(ax):
 
             new_axes = [copy_func(ax) for ax in self.axes]
         else:
-            new_axes = list(self.axes)
+            if using_copy_on_write():
+                new_axes = [ax.view() for ax in self.axes]
+            else:
+                new_axes = list(self.axes)
 
         res = self.apply("copy", deep=deep)
         res.axes = new_axes

pandas/tests/copy_view/test_methods.py

@@ -22,6 +22,12 @@ def test_copy(using_copy_on_write):
     df = DataFrame({"a": [1, 2, 3], "b": [4, 5, 6], "c": [0.1, 0.2, 0.3]})
     df_copy = df.copy()
 
+    # the deep copy by defaults takes a shallow copy of the Index
+    assert df_copy.index is not df.index
+    assert df_copy.columns is not df.columns
+    assert df_copy.index.is_(df.index)
+    assert df_copy.columns.is_(df.columns)
+
     # the deep copy doesn't share memory
     assert not np.shares_memory(get_array(df_copy, "a"), get_array(df, "a"))
     if using_copy_on_write:
@@ -37,6 +43,16 @@ def test_copy_shallow(using_copy_on_write):
     df = DataFrame({"a": [1, 2, 3], "b": [4, 5, 6], "c": [0.1, 0.2, 0.3]})
     df_copy = df.copy(deep=False)
 
+    # the shallow copy also makes a shallow copy of the index
+    if using_copy_on_write:
+        assert df_copy.index is not df.index
+        assert df_copy.columns is not df.columns
+        assert df_copy.index.is_(df.index)
+        assert df_copy.columns.is_(df.columns)
+    else:
+        assert df_copy.index is df.index
+        assert df_copy.columns is df.columns
+
     # the shallow copy still shares memory
     assert np.shares_memory(get_array(df_copy, "a"), get_array(df, "a"))
     if using_copy_on_write:

pandas/tests/frame/methods/test_reindex.py

@@ -607,7 +607,7 @@ def test_reindex_sparse(self):
         )
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
 
-    def test_reindex(self, float_frame):
+    def test_reindex(self, float_frame, using_copy_on_write):
         datetime_series = tm.makeTimeSeries(nper=30)
 
         newFrame = float_frame.reindex(datetime_series.index)
@@ -647,7 +647,10 @@ def test_reindex(self, float_frame):
 
         # Same index, copies values but not index if copy=False
         newFrame = float_frame.reindex(float_frame.index, copy=False)
-        assert newFrame.index is float_frame.index
+        if using_copy_on_write:
+            assert newFrame.index.is_(float_frame.index)
+        else:
+            assert newFrame.index is float_frame.index
 
         # length zero
         newFrame = float_frame.reindex([])

pandas/tests/frame/test_npfuncs.py

@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@ def test_np_sqrt(self, float_frame):
         with np.errstate(all="ignore"):
             result = np.sqrt(float_frame)
         assert isinstance(result, type(float_frame))
-        assert result.index is float_frame.index
-        assert result.columns is float_frame.columns
+        assert result.index.is_(float_frame.index)
+        assert result.columns.is_(float_frame.columns)
 
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, float_frame.apply(np.sqrt))
 

pandas/tests/reshape/concat/test_index.py

@@ -114,14 +114,14 @@ def test_concat_copy_index_frame(self, axis, using_copy_on_write):
         df = DataFrame([[1, 2], [3, 4]], columns=["a", "b"])
         comb = concat([df, df], axis=axis, copy=True)
         if not using_copy_on_write:
-            assert comb.index is not df.index
-            assert comb.columns is not df.columns
+            assert not comb.index.is_(df.index)
+            assert not comb.columns.is_(df.columns)
         elif axis in [0, "index"]:
-            assert comb.index is not df.index
-            assert comb.columns is df.columns
+            assert not comb.index.is_(df.index)
+            assert comb.columns.is_(df.columns)
         elif axis in [1, "columns"]:
-            assert comb.index is df.index
-            assert comb.columns is not df.columns
+            assert comb.index.is_(df.index)
+            assert not comb.columns.is_(df.columns)
 
     def test_default_index(self):
         # is_series and ignore_index

pandas/tests/series/methods/test_align.py

@@ -127,16 +127,18 @@ def test_align_nocopy(datetime_series, using_copy_on_write):
 
 def test_align_same_index(datetime_series, using_copy_on_write):
     a, b = datetime_series.align(datetime_series, copy=False)
-    assert a.index is datetime_series.index
-    assert b.index is datetime_series.index
-
-    a, b = datetime_series.align(datetime_series, copy=True)
     if not using_copy_on_write:
-        assert a.index is not datetime_series.index
-        assert b.index is not datetime_series.index
-    else:
         assert a.index is datetime_series.index
         assert b.index is datetime_series.index
+    else:
+        assert a.index.is_(datetime_series.index)
+        assert b.index.is_(datetime_series.index)
+
+    a, b = datetime_series.align(datetime_series, copy=True)
+    assert a.index is not datetime_series.index
+    assert b.index is not datetime_series.index
+    assert a.index.is_(datetime_series.index)
+    assert b.index.is_(datetime_series.index)
 
 
 def test_align_multiindex():

pandas/tests/series/test_constructors.py

@@ -628,12 +628,15 @@ def test_constructor_maskedarray_hardened(self):
         expected = Series([np.nan, np.nan, np.nan])
         tm.assert_series_equal(result, expected)
 
-    def test_series_ctor_plus_datetimeindex(self):
+    def test_series_ctor_plus_datetimeindex(self, using_copy_on_write):
         rng = date_range("20090415", "20090519", freq="B")
         data = {k: 1 for k in rng}
 
         result = Series(data, index=rng)
-        assert result.index is rng
+        if using_copy_on_write:
+            assert result.index.is_(rng)
+        else:
+            assert result.index is rng
 
     def test_constructor_default_index(self):
         s = Series([0, 1, 2])

pandas/tests/test_multilevel.py

@@ -46,20 +46,26 @@ def test_reindex(self, multiindex_dataframe_random_data):
         tm.assert_frame_equal(reindexed, expected)
 
     def test_reindex_preserve_levels(
-        self, multiindex_year_month_day_dataframe_random_data
+        self, multiindex_year_month_day_dataframe_random_data, using_copy_on_write
     ):
         ymd = multiindex_year_month_day_dataframe_random_data
 
         new_index = ymd.index[::10]
         chunk = ymd.reindex(new_index)
-        assert chunk.index is new_index
+        if using_copy_on_write:
+            assert chunk.index.is_(new_index)
+        else:
+            assert chunk.index is new_index
 
         chunk = ymd.loc[new_index]
         assert chunk.index.equals(new_index)
 
         ymdT = ymd.T
         chunk = ymdT.reindex(columns=new_index)
-        assert chunk.columns is new_index
+        if using_copy_on_write:
+            assert chunk.columns.is_(new_index)
+        else:
+            assert chunk.columns is new_index
 
         chunk = ymdT.loc[:, new_index]
         assert chunk.columns.equals(new_index)