ENH/DOC: reimplement Series delegates/accessors using descriptors

This PR implements `Series.str`, `Series.dt` and `Series.cat` as descriptors
instead of properties. This means that the API docs can refer to methods like
`Series.str.lower` instead of `StringMethods.lower` and tab-completion like
`Series.str.<tab>` also works, even on the base class.

CC jorisvandenbossche jreback

doc/source/api.rst

@@ -449,114 +449,106 @@ Datetimelike Properties
 
 ``Series.dt`` can be used to access the values of the series as
 datetimelike and return several properties.
-Due to implementation details the methods show up here as methods of the
-``DatetimeProperties/PeriodProperties/TimedeltaProperties`` classes. These can be accessed like ``Series.dt.<property>``.
-
-.. currentmodule:: pandas.tseries.common
+These can be accessed like ``Series.dt.<property>``.
 
 **Datetime Properties**
 
 .. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
 
-   DatetimeProperties.date
-   DatetimeProperties.time
-   DatetimeProperties.year
-   DatetimeProperties.month
-   DatetimeProperties.day
-   DatetimeProperties.hour
-   DatetimeProperties.minute
-   DatetimeProperties.second
-   DatetimeProperties.microsecond
-   DatetimeProperties.nanosecond
-   DatetimeProperties.second
-   DatetimeProperties.weekofyear
-   DatetimeProperties.dayofweek
-   DatetimeProperties.weekday
-   DatetimeProperties.dayofyear
-   DatetimeProperties.quarter
-   DatetimeProperties.is_month_start
-   DatetimeProperties.is_month_end
-   DatetimeProperties.is_quarter_start
-   DatetimeProperties.is_quarter_end
-   DatetimeProperties.is_year_start
-   DatetimeProperties.is_year_end
+   Series.dt.date
+   Series.dt.time
+   Series.dt.year
+   Series.dt.month
+   Series.dt.day
+   Series.dt.hour
+   Series.dt.minute
+   Series.dt.second
+   Series.dt.microsecond
+   Series.dt.nanosecond
+   Series.dt.second
+   Series.dt.weekofyear
+   Series.dt.dayofweek
+   Series.dt.weekday
+   Series.dt.dayofyear
+   Series.dt.quarter
+   Series.dt.is_month_start
+   Series.dt.is_month_end
+   Series.dt.is_quarter_start
+   Series.dt.is_quarter_end
+   Series.dt.is_year_start
+   Series.dt.is_year_end
 
 **Datetime Methods**
 
 .. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
 
-   DatetimeProperties.to_period
-   DatetimeProperties.to_pydatetime
-   DatetimeProperties.tz_localize
-   DatetimeProperties.tz_convert
+   Series.dt.to_period
+   Series.dt.to_pydatetime
+   Series.dt.tz_localize
+   Series.dt.tz_convert
 
 **Timedelta Properties**
 
 .. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
 
-   TimedeltaProperties.days
-   TimedeltaProperties.seconds
-   TimedeltaProperties.microseconds
-   TimedeltaProperties.nanoseconds
-   TimedeltaProperties.components
+   Series.dt.days
+   Series.dt.seconds
+   Series.dt.microseconds
+   Series.dt.nanoseconds
+   Series.dt.components
 
 **Timedelta Methods**
 
 .. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
 
-   TimedeltaProperties.to_pytimedelta
+   Series.dt.to_pytimedelta
 
 String handling
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 ``Series.str`` can be used to access the values of the series as
-strings and apply several methods to it. Due to implementation
-details the methods show up here as methods of the
-``StringMethods`` class. These can be acccessed like ``Series.str.<function/property>``.
-
-.. currentmodule:: pandas.core.strings
-
-.. autosummary::
-   :toctree: generated/
-
-   StringMethods.cat
-   StringMethods.center
-   StringMethods.contains
-   StringMethods.count
-   StringMethods.decode
-   StringMethods.encode
-   StringMethods.endswith
-   StringMethods.extract
-   StringMethods.findall
-   StringMethods.get
-   StringMethods.join
-   StringMethods.len
-   StringMethods.lower
-   StringMethods.lstrip
-   StringMethods.match
-   StringMethods.pad
-   StringMethods.repeat
-   StringMethods.replace
-   StringMethods.rstrip
-   StringMethods.slice
-   StringMethods.slice_replace
-   StringMethods.split
-   StringMethods.startswith
-   StringMethods.strip
-   StringMethods.title
-   StringMethods.upper
-   StringMethods.get_dummies
+strings and apply several methods to it. These can be acccessed like
+``Series.str.<function/property>``.
+
+.. autosummary::
+   :toctree: generated/
+
+   Series.str.cat
+   Series.str.center
+   Series.str.contains
+   Series.str.count
+   Series.str.decode
+   Series.str.encode
+   Series.str.endswith
+   Series.str.extract
+   Series.str.findall
+   Series.str.get
+   Series.str.join
+   Series.str.len
+   Series.str.lower
+   Series.str.lstrip
+   Series.str.match
+   Series.str.pad
+   Series.str.repeat
+   Series.str.replace
+   Series.str.rstrip
+   Series.str.slice
+   Series.str.slice_replace
+   Series.str.split
+   Series.str.startswith
+   Series.str.strip
+   Series.str.title
+   Series.str.upper
+   Series.str.get_dummies
 
 .. _api.categorical:
 
 Categorical
 ~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-.. currentmodule:: pandas.core.categorical
-
 If the Series is of dtype ``category``, ``Series.cat`` can be used to change the the categorical
 data. This accessor is similar to the ``Series.dt`` or ``Series.str`` and has the
 following usable methods and properties (all available as ``Series.cat.<method_or_property>``).
@@ -579,6 +571,8 @@ To create a Series of dtype ``category``, use ``cat = s.astype("category")``.
 The following two ``Categorical`` constructors are considered API but should only be used when
 adding ordering information or special categories is need at creation time of the categorical data:
 
+.. currentmodule:: pandas.core.categorical
+
 .. autosummary::
    :toctree: generated/
 

doc/source/reshaping.rst

@@ -478,7 +478,7 @@ This function is often used along with discretization functions like ``cut``:
 
    get_dummies(cut(values, bins))
 
-See also :func:`Series.str.get_dummies <pandas.core.strings.StringMethods.get_dummies>`.
+See also :func:`Series.str.get_dummies <pandas.Series.str.get_dummies>`.
 
 .. versionadded:: 0.15.0
 

doc/source/text.rst

@@ -204,27 +204,27 @@ Method Summary
     :header: "Method", "Description"
     :widths: 20, 80
 
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.cat`,Concatenate strings
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.split`,Split strings on delimiter
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.get`,Index into each element (retrieve i-th element)
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.join`,Join strings in each element of the Series with passed separator
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.contains`,Return boolean array if each string contains pattern/regex
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.replace`,Replace occurrences of pattern/regex with some other string
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.repeat`,Duplicate values (``s.str.repeat(3)`` equivalent to ``x * 3``)
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.pad`,"Add whitespace to left, right, or both sides of strings"
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.center`,Equivalent to ``pad(side='both')``
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.wrap`,Split long strings into lines with length less than a given width
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.slice`,Slice each string in the Series
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.slice_replace`,Replace slice in each string with passed value
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.count`,Count occurrences of pattern
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.startswith`,Equivalent to ``str.startswith(pat)`` for each element
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.endswith`,Equivalent to ``str.endswith(pat)`` for each element
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.findall`,Compute list of all occurrences of pattern/regex for each string
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.match`,"Call ``re.match`` on each element, returning matched groups as list"
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.extract`,"Call ``re.match`` on each element, as ``match`` does, but return matched groups as strings for convenience."
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.len`,Compute string lengths
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.strip`,Equivalent to ``str.strip``
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.rstrip`,Equivalent to ``str.rstrip``
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.lstrip`,Equivalent to ``str.lstrip``
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.lower`,Equivalent to ``str.lower``
-    :meth:`~core.strings.StringMethods.upper`,Equivalent to ``str.upper``
+    :meth:`~Series.str.cat`,Concatenate strings
+    :meth:`~Series.str.split`,Split strings on delimiter
+    :meth:`~Series.str.get`,Index into each element (retrieve i-th element)
+    :meth:`~Series.str.join`,Join strings in each element of the Series with passed separator
+    :meth:`~Series.str.contains`,Return boolean array if each string contains pattern/regex
+    :meth:`~Series.str.replace`,Replace occurrences of pattern/regex with some other string
+    :meth:`~Series.str.repeat`,Duplicate values (``s.str.repeat(3)`` equivalent to ``x * 3``)
+    :meth:`~Series.str.pad`,"Add whitespace to left, right, or both sides of strings"
+    :meth:`~Series.str.center`,Equivalent to ``pad(side='both')``
+    :meth:`~Series.str.wrap`,Split long strings into lines with length less than a given width
+    :meth:`~Series.str.slice`,Slice each string in the Series
+    :meth:`~Series.str.slice_replace`,Replace slice in each string with passed value
+    :meth:`~Series.str.count`,Count occurrences of pattern
+    :meth:`~Series.str.startswith`,Equivalent to ``str.startswith(pat)`` for each element
+    :meth:`~Series.str.endswith`,Equivalent to ``str.endswith(pat)`` for each element
+    :meth:`~Series.str.findall`,Compute list of all occurrences of pattern/regex for each string
+    :meth:`~Series.str.match`,"Call ``re.match`` on each element, returning matched groups as list"
+    :meth:`~Series.str.extract`,"Call ``re.match`` on each element, as ``match`` does, but return matched groups as strings for convenience."
+    :meth:`~Series.str.len`,Compute string lengths
+    :meth:`~Series.str.strip`,Equivalent to ``str.strip``
+    :meth:`~Series.str.rstrip`,Equivalent to ``str.rstrip``
+    :meth:`~Series.str.lstrip`,Equivalent to ``str.lstrip``
+    :meth:`~Series.str.lower`,Equivalent to ``str.lower``
+    :meth:`~Series.str.upper`,Equivalent to ``str.upper``

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.16.0.txt

@@ -107,6 +107,8 @@ Enhancements
 
 - ``Timedelta`` will now accept nanoseconds keyword in constructor (:issue:`9273`)
 
+- Added auto-complete for ``Series.str.<tab>``, ``Series.dt.<tab>`` and ``Series.cat.<tab>`` (:issue:`9322`)
+
 Performance
 ~~~~~~~~~~~
 

pandas/core/base.py

@@ -166,6 +166,28 @@ def f(self, *args, **kwargs):
             if not hasattr(cls, name):
                 setattr(cls,name,f)
 
+
+class AccessorProperty(object):
+    """Descriptor for implementing accessor properties like Series.str
+    """
+    def __init__(self, accessor_cls, construct_accessor):
+        self.accessor_cls = accessor_cls
+        self.construct_accessor = construct_accessor
+        self.__doc__ = accessor_cls.__doc__
+
+    def __get__(self, instance, owner=None):
+        if instance is None:
+            # this ensures that Series.str.<method> is well defined
+            return self.accessor_cls
+        return self.construct_accessor(instance)
+
+    def __set__(self, instance, value):
+        raise AttributeError("can't set attribute")
+
+    def __delete__(self, instance):
+        raise AttributeError("can't delete attribute")
+
+
 class FrozenList(PandasObject, list):
 
     """

pandas/core/categorical.py

@@ -829,7 +829,7 @@ def searchsorted(self, v, side='left', sorter=None):
         array([3, 4])	    # eggs before milk
         >>> x = pd.Categorical(['apple', 'bread', 'bread', 'cheese', 'milk', 'donuts' ])
         >>> x.searchsorted(['bread', 'eggs'], side='right', sorter=[0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 4])
-        array([3, 5])       # eggs after donuts, after switching milk and donuts 
+        array([3, 5])       # eggs after donuts, after switching milk and donuts
         """
         if not self.ordered:
             raise ValueError("searchsorted requires an ordered Categorical.")

pandas/core/series.py

@@ -27,7 +27,10 @@
 from pandas.core.indexing import _check_bool_indexer, _maybe_convert_indices
 from pandas.core import generic, base
 from pandas.core.internals import SingleBlockManager
-from pandas.core.categorical import Categorical
+from pandas.core.categorical import Categorical, CategoricalAccessor
+from pandas.core.strings import StringMethods
+from pandas.tseries.common import (maybe_to_datetimelike,
+                                   CombinedDatetimelikeProperties)
 from pandas.tseries.index import DatetimeIndex
 from pandas.tseries.tdi import TimedeltaIndex
 from pandas.tseries.period import PeriodIndex, Period
@@ -2452,11 +2455,6 @@ def asof(self, where):
         new_values = com.take_1d(values, locs)
         return self._constructor(new_values, index=where).__finalize__(self)
 
-    @cache_readonly
-    def str(self):
-        from pandas.core.strings import StringMethods
-        return StringMethods(self)
-
     def to_timestamp(self, freq=None, how='start', copy=True):
         """
         Cast to datetimeindex of timestamps, at *beginning* of period
@@ -2502,27 +2500,35 @@ def to_period(self, freq=None, copy=True):
         return self._constructor(new_values,
                                  index=new_index).__finalize__(self)
 
+    #------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+    # string methods
+
+    def _make_str_accessor(self):
+        return StringMethods(self)
+
+    str = base.AccessorProperty(StringMethods, _make_str_accessor)
+
     #------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Datetimelike delegation methods
 
-    @cache_readonly
-    def dt(self):
-        from pandas.tseries.common import maybe_to_datetimelike
+    def _make_dt_accessor(self):
         try:
             return maybe_to_datetimelike(self)
         except (Exception):
             raise TypeError("Can only use .dt accessor with datetimelike values")
 
+    dt = base.AccessorProperty(CombinedDatetimelikeProperties, _make_dt_accessor)
+
     #------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Categorical methods
 
-    @cache_readonly
-    def cat(self):
-        from pandas.core.categorical import CategoricalAccessor
+    def _make_cat_accessor(self):
         if not com.is_categorical_dtype(self.dtype):
             raise TypeError("Can only use .cat accessor with a 'category' dtype")
         return CategoricalAccessor(self.values, self.index)
 
+    cat = base.AccessorProperty(CategoricalAccessor, _make_cat_accessor)
+
 Series._setup_axes(['index'], info_axis=0, stat_axis=0,
                    aliases={'rows': 0})
 Series._add_numeric_operations()