Consolidate DataFrame.__init__ logic to prepare data before calling super

python/cudf/cudf/core/column/column.py

@@ -2090,7 +2090,10 @@ def as_column(
         if dtype is not None:
             data = data.astype(dtype)
 
-    elif np.isscalar(arbitrary) and not isinstance(arbitrary, memoryview):
+    elif arbitrary is None or (
+        np.isscalar(arbitrary) and not isinstance(arbitrary, memoryview)
+    ):
+        # TODO: use is_scalar instead of np.isscalar
         length = length or 1
         if (
             (nan_as_null is True)
@@ -2100,6 +2103,8 @@ def as_column(
             arbitrary = None
             if dtype is None:
                 dtype = cudf.dtype("float64")
+        elif arbitrary is None and dtype is None:
+            dtype = cudf.dtype("object")
 
         data = as_column(full(length, arbitrary, dtype=dtype))
         if not nan_as_null and not is_decimal_dtype(data.dtype):
@@ -2119,6 +2124,11 @@ def as_column(
 
         arbitrary = np.asarray(arbitrary)
 
+        if arbitrary.ndim == 0:
+            arbitrary = arbitrary.reshape(
+                1,
+            )
+
         # Handle case that `arbitrary` elements are cupy arrays
         if (
             shape