From 117f3b735153720998a383dd0bbe47ec5ab08434 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ethan DeBandi <16845933+Ethan-DeBandi99@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2022 08:44:51 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Added as-type method to Strings and pdarrayclass to add
 support for .astype()

---
 arkouda/pdarrayclass.py | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 arkouda/strings.py      | 22 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 44 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arkouda/pdarrayclass.py b/arkouda/pdarrayclass.py
index 9ac9b7b9d0..003f806a04 100755
--- a/arkouda/pdarrayclass.py
+++ b/arkouda/pdarrayclass.py
@@ -854,6 +854,28 @@ def rotr(self, other) -> pdarray:
         Rotate bits right by <other>.
         """
         return rotr(self, other)
+
+    def astype(self, dtype) -> pdarray:
+        """
+        Cast values of pdarray to provided dtype
+
+        Parameters
+        __________
+        dtype: np.dtype or str
+            Dtype to cast to
+
+        Returns
+        _______
+        ak.pdarray
+            An arkouda pdarray with values converted to the specified data type
+
+        Notes
+        _____
+        This is essentially shorthand for ak.cast(x, '<dtype>') where x is a pdarray.
+        """
+        from arkouda.numeric import cast as akcast
+
+        return akcast(self, dtype)
     
     def to_ndarray(self) -> np.ndarray:
         """
diff --git a/arkouda/strings.py b/arkouda/strings.py
index 6648f53318..eae060cf48 100755
--- a/arkouda/strings.py
+++ b/arkouda/strings.py
@@ -1287,6 +1287,28 @@ def _comp_to_ndarray(self, comp: str) -> np.ndarray:
             dt = dt.newbyteorder('<')
         return np.frombuffer(rep_msg, dt).copy()
 
+    def astype(self, dtype) -> pdarray:
+        """
+        Cast values of Strings object to provided dtype
+
+        Parameters
+        __________
+        dtype: np.dtype or str
+            Dtype to cast to
+
+        Returns
+        _______
+        ak.pdarray
+            An arkouda pdarray with values converted to the specified data type
+
+        Notes
+        _____
+        This is essentially shorthand for ak.cast(x, '<dtype>') where x is a pdarray.
+        """
+        from arkouda.numeric import cast as akcast
+
+        return akcast(self, dtype)
+
     @typechecked
     def save(self, prefix_path : str, dataset : str='strings_array', 
              mode : str='truncate', save_offsets : bool = True) -> str: