Hi all, This week I updated NEP 55 to reflect the changes I made to the prototype since I initially sent out the NEP. The updated NEP is available on the NumPy website: https://numpy.org/neps/nep-0055-string_dtype.html.
Updates to the NEP ++++++++++++++++++ The changes since the original version of the NEP focus on fully defining the C API surface we would like to add to the NumPy C API and an implementation of a per-dtype-instance arena allocator to manage heap allocations. This enabled major improvements to the prototype, including implementing the small string optimization and locking all access to heap memory behind a fine-grained mutex which should prevent seg faults or memory corruption in a multithreaded context. Thanks to Warren Weckesser for his proof of concept code and help with the small string optimization implementation, he has been added as an author to reflect his contributions. With these changes the stringdtype prototype is feature complete. Call to Review NEP 55 +++++++++++++++++++++ I'm requesting another round of review on the NEP with an eye toward acceptance before the NumPy 2.0 release branch is created from main. If I can manage it, my plan is to have a pull request open that merges the stringdtype codebase into NumPy before the branch is created. That said, if we decide that we need more time, or if some issue comes up, I'm happy with this going into main after the NumPy 2.0 release branch is created. The most significant feedback we have not addressed from the last round of review was Warren's suggestion to add a default missing data sentinel to NumPy itself. For reasons outlined in the NEP and in my reply to Warren from earlier this year, we do not want to add a missing data singleton to NumPy, instead leaving it to users to choose the missing data semantics they prefer. Otherwise I believe the current draft addresses all outstanding feedback from the last round of review. Help me Test the Prototype! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If anyone has time and interest, I would also very much appreciate some testing and tire-kicking on the stringdtype prototype, available at https://github.com/numpy/numpy-user-dtypes. There is a README with build instructions here: https://github.com/numpy/numpy-user-dtypes/blob/main/stringdtype/README.md If you have a Python development environment with a C compiler, it should be straightforward to build, install, and test the prototype. Note that you must have `NUMPY_EXPERIMENTAL_DTYPE_API=1` set in your shell environment or via `os.environ` to import stringdtype without error. I'm particularly interested to hear experiences converting code to use stringdtype. This could be code using fixed-width strings in a situation where a variable-length string array makes more sense or code using object string arrays. Are there pain points that aren't discussed in the NEP or existing workflows that cannot be adapted to use stringdtype? As far as I'm aware there aren't, but more testing will help catch issues before we've stabilized everything. My fork of pandas might be a source of inspiration for porting an existing non-trivial codebase that used object string arrays: https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/compare/main...ngoldbaum:pandas:stringdtype Thanks all for your time, attention, and help reviewing the NEP! -Nathan
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