API: Have MultiIndex constructors return MI

This removes the special case for MultiIndex constructors returning
an Index if all the levels are length-1. Now this will return a
MultiIndex with a single level.

This is a backwards incompatabile change, with no clear method for
deprecation, so we're making a clean break.

Closes pandas-dev#17178

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt

@@ -273,6 +273,27 @@ named ``.isna()`` and ``.notna()``, these are included for classes ``Categorical
 
 The configuration option ``pd.options.mode.use_inf_as_null`` is deprecated, and ``pd.options.mode.use_inf_as_na`` is added as a replacement.
 
+.. _whatsnew_210.api.multiindex_single:
+
+MultiIndex Constructor with a Single Level
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Previous versions would automatically squeeze a ``MultiIndex`` with length-one
+``levels`` down to an ``Index``:
+
+.. code-block:: ipython
+
+   In [2]: pd.MultiIndex.from_tuples([('a',), ('b',)])
+   Out[2]: Index(['a', 'b'], dtype='object')
+
+Length 1 levels are no longer special-cased. They behave exactly as if you had
+length 2+ levels, so a :class:`MultiIndex` is always returned from all of the
+``MultiIndex`` constructors:
+
+.. ipython:: python
+
+   pd.MultiIndex.from_tuples([('a',), ('b',)])
+
 .. _whatsnew_0210.api:
 
 Other API Changes

pandas/core/frame.py

@@ -1156,8 +1156,11 @@ def from_records(cls, data, index=None, exclude=None, columns=None,
                 try:
                     to_remove = [arr_columns.get_loc(field) for field in index]
 
-                    result_index = MultiIndex.from_arrays(
-                        [arrays[i] for i in to_remove], names=index)
+                    if len(to_remove) == 1:
+                        result_index = Index(arrays[to_remove[0]], name=index[0])
+                    else:
+                        result_index = MultiIndex.from_arrays(
+                            [arrays[i] for i in to_remove], names=index)
 
                     exclude.update(index)
                 except Exception:
@@ -3000,7 +3003,10 @@ def set_index(self, keys, drop=True, append=False, inplace=False,
                     to_remove.append(col)
             arrays.append(level)
 
-        index = MultiIndex.from_arrays(arrays, names=names)
+        if len(arrays) == 1:
+            index = Index(arrays[0], name=names[0])
+        else:
+            index = MultiIndex.from_arrays(arrays, names=names)
 
         if verify_integrity and not index.is_unique:
             duplicates = index.get_duplicates()

pandas/core/indexes/multi.py

@@ -91,12 +91,6 @@ def __new__(cls, levels=None, labels=None, sortorder=None, names=None,
             raise ValueError('Length of levels and labels must be the same.')
         if len(levels) == 0:
             raise ValueError('Must pass non-zero number of levels/labels')
-        if len(levels) == 1:
-            if names:
-                name = names[0]
-            else:
-                name = None
-            return Index(levels[0], name=name, copy=True).take(labels[0])
 
         result = object.__new__(MultiIndex)
 
@@ -1084,10 +1078,6 @@ def from_arrays(cls, arrays, sortorder=None, names=None):
         MultiIndex.from_product : Make a MultiIndex from cartesian product
                                   of iterables
         """
-        if len(arrays) == 1:
-            name = None if names is None else names[0]
-            return Index(arrays[0], name=name)
-
         # Check if lengths of all arrays are equal or not,
         # raise ValueError, if not
         for i in range(1, len(arrays)):

pandas/core/reshape/reshape.py

@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
 
 from pandas.core.frame import _shared_docs
 from pandas.util._decorators import Appender
-from pandas.core.index import MultiIndex, _get_na_value
+from pandas.core.index import Index, MultiIndex, _get_na_value
 
 
 class _Unstacker(object):
@@ -311,10 +311,13 @@ def _unstack_multiple(data, clocs):
     recons_labels = decons_obs_group_ids(comp_ids, obs_ids, shape, clabels,
                                          xnull=False)
 
-    dummy_index = MultiIndex(levels=rlevels + [obs_ids],
-                             labels=rlabels + [comp_ids],
-                             names=rnames + ['__placeholder__'],
-                             verify_integrity=False)
+    if rlocs == []:
+        dummy_index = Index(obs_ids, name='__placeholder__')
+    else:
+        dummy_index = MultiIndex(levels=rlevels + [obs_ids],
+                                 labels=rlabels + [comp_ids],
+                                 names=rnames + ['__placeholder__'],
+                                 verify_integrity=False)
 
     if isinstance(data, Series):
         dummy = data.copy()
@@ -446,7 +449,10 @@ def _slow_pivot(index, columns, values):
 
 def unstack(obj, level, fill_value=None):
     if isinstance(level, (tuple, list)):
-        return _unstack_multiple(obj, level)
+        if len(level) == 1:
+            level = level[0]
+        else:
+            return _unstack_multiple(obj, level)
 
     if isinstance(obj, DataFrame):
         if isinstance(obj.index, MultiIndex):

pandas/core/sparse/scipy_sparse.py

@@ -71,7 +71,11 @@ def robust_get_level_values(i):
             labels_to_i = Series(labels_to_i)
             if len(subset) > 1:
                 labels_to_i.index = MultiIndex.from_tuples(labels_to_i.index)
-            labels_to_i.index.names = [index.names[i] for i in subset]
+                labels_to_i.index.names = [index.names[i] for i in subset]
+            else:
+                labels_to_i.index = Index(x[0] for x in labels_to_i.index)
+                labels_to_i.index.name = index.names[subset[0]]
+
             labels_to_i.name = 'value'
             return (labels_to_i)
 

pandas/core/strings.py

@@ -1452,7 +1452,10 @@ def cons_row(x):
 
             if expand:
                 result = list(result)
-                return MultiIndex.from_tuples(result, names=name)
+                out = MultiIndex.from_tuples(result, names=name)
+                if out.nlevels == 1:
+                    out = out.get_level_values(0)
+                return out
             else:
                 return Index(result, name=name)
         else:

pandas/io/parsers.py

@@ -1444,7 +1444,14 @@ def _agg_index(self, index, try_parse_dates=True):
             arr, _ = self._infer_types(arr, col_na_values | col_na_fvalues)
             arrays.append(arr)
 
-        index = MultiIndex.from_arrays(arrays, names=self.index_names)
+        if len(arrays) > 1:
+            index = MultiIndex.from_arrays(arrays, names=self.index_names)
+        else:
+            if self.index_names is None:
+                name = None
+            else:
+                name = self.index_names[0]
+            index = Index(arrays[0], name=name)
 
         return index
 
@@ -1808,7 +1815,10 @@ def read(self, nrows=None):
                                                  try_parse_dates=True)
                 arrays.append(values)
 
-            index = MultiIndex.from_arrays(arrays)
+            if self._reader.leading_cols == 1:
+                index = Index(arrays[0])
+            else:
+                index = MultiIndex.from_arrays(arrays)
 
             if self.usecols is not None:
                 names = self._filter_usecols(names)
@@ -3138,9 +3148,13 @@ def _get_empty_meta(columns, index_col, index_names, dtype=None):
     if index_col is None or index_col is False:
         index = Index([])
     else:
-        index = [Series([], dtype=dtype[index_name])
-                 for index_name in index_names]
-        index = MultiIndex.from_arrays(index, names=index_names)
+        if len(index_names) == 1:
+            name = index_names[0]
+            index = Index(Series([], dtype=dtype[name], name=name))
+        else:
+            index = [Series([], dtype=dtype[index_name])
+                     for index_name in index_names]
+            index = MultiIndex.from_arrays(index, names=index_names)
         index_col.sort()
         for i, n in enumerate(index_col):
             columns.pop(n - i)

pandas/tests/indexes/test_multi.py

@@ -537,15 +537,12 @@ def test_astype(self):
             self.index.astype(np.dtype(int))
 
     def test_constructor_single_level(self):
-        single_level = MultiIndex(levels=[['foo', 'bar', 'baz', 'qux']],
-                                  labels=[[0, 1, 2, 3]], names=['first'])
-        assert isinstance(single_level, Index)
-        assert not isinstance(single_level, MultiIndex)
-        assert single_level.name == 'first'
-
-        single_level = MultiIndex(levels=[['foo', 'bar', 'baz', 'qux']],
-                                  labels=[[0, 1, 2, 3]])
-        assert single_level.name is None
+        result = MultiIndex(levels=[['foo', 'bar', 'baz', 'qux']],
+                            labels=[[0, 1, 2, 3]], names=['first'])
+        assert isinstance(result, MultiIndex)
+        expected = Index(['foo', 'bar', 'baz', 'qux'], name='first')
+        tm.assert_index_equal(result.levels[0], expected)
+        assert result.names == ['first']
 
     def test_constructor_no_levels(self):
         tm.assert_raises_regex(ValueError, "non-zero number "
@@ -768,8 +765,9 @@ def test_from_arrays_empty(self):
 
         # 1 level
         result = MultiIndex.from_arrays(arrays=[[]], names=['A'])
+        assert isinstance(result, MultiIndex)
         expected = Index([], name='A')
-        tm.assert_index_equal(result, expected)
+        tm.assert_index_equal(result.levels[0], expected)
 
         # N levels
         for N in [2, 3]:
@@ -830,7 +828,7 @@ def test_from_product_empty(self):
         # 1 level
         result = MultiIndex.from_product([[]], names=['A'])
         expected = pd.Index([], name='A')
-        tm.assert_index_equal(result, expected)
+        tm.assert_index_equal(result.levels[0], expected)
 
         # 2 levels
         l1 = [[], ['foo', 'bar', 'baz'], []]

pandas/util/testing.py

@@ -1910,6 +1910,9 @@ def keyfunc(x):
     # convert tuples to index
     if nentries == 1:
         index = Index(tuples[0], name=names[0])
+    elif nlevels == 1:
+        name = None if names is None else names[0]
+        index = Index((x[0] for x in tuples), name=name)
     else:
         index = MultiIndex.from_tuples(tuples, names=names)
     return index