DEPR: Deprecate box kwarg for to_timedelta and to_datetime (#24486)

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.0.rst

@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ Deprecations
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 - Deprecated the `M (months)` and `Y (year)` `units` parameter of :func: `pandas.to_timedelta`, :func: `pandas.Timedelta` and :func: `pandas.TimedeltaIndex` (:issue:`16344`)
+- The functions :func:`pandas.to_datetime` and :func:`pandas.to_timedelta` have deprecated the ``box`` keyword. Instead, use :meth:`to_numpy` or :meth:`Timestamp.to_datetime64`/:meth:`Timedelta.to_timedelta64`. (:issue:`24416`)
 
 .. _whatsnew_0250.prior_deprecations:
 

pandas/core/dtypes/cast.py

@@ -794,10 +794,10 @@ def soft_convert_objects(values, datetime=True, numeric=True, timedelta=True,
         # Immediate return if coerce
         if datetime:
             from pandas import to_datetime
-            return to_datetime(values, errors='coerce', box=False)
+            return to_datetime(values, errors='coerce').to_numpy()
         elif timedelta:
             from pandas import to_timedelta
-            return to_timedelta(values, errors='coerce', box=False)
+            return to_timedelta(values, errors='coerce').to_numpy()
         elif numeric:
             from pandas import to_numeric
             return to_numeric(values, errors='coerce')

pandas/core/indexes/datetimelike.py

@@ -300,7 +300,8 @@ def asobject(self):
         return self.astype(object)
 
     def _convert_tolerance(self, tolerance, target):
-        tolerance = np.asarray(to_timedelta(tolerance, box=False))
+        tolerance = np.asarray(to_timedelta(tolerance).to_numpy())
+
         if target.size != tolerance.size and tolerance.size > 1:
             raise ValueError('list-like tolerance size must match '
                              'target index size')

pandas/core/tools/datetimes.py

@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
     DateParseError, _format_is_iso, _guess_datetime_format, parse_time_string)
 from pandas._libs.tslibs.strptime import array_strptime
 from pandas.compat import zip
+from pandas.util._decorators import deprecate_kwarg
 
 from pandas.core.dtypes.common import (
     ensure_object, is_datetime64_dtype, is_datetime64_ns_dtype,
@@ -398,6 +399,7 @@ def _adjust_to_origin(arg, origin, unit):
     return arg
 
 
+@deprecate_kwarg(old_arg_name='box', new_arg_name=None)
 def to_datetime(arg, errors='raise', dayfirst=False, yearfirst=False,
                 utc=None, box=True, format=None, exact=True,
                 unit=None, infer_datetime_format=False, origin='unix',
@@ -444,6 +446,12 @@ def to_datetime(arg, errors='raise', dayfirst=False, yearfirst=False,
 
         - If True returns a DatetimeIndex or Index-like object
         - If False returns ndarray of values.
+
+        .. deprecated:: 0.25.0
+            Use :meth:`.to_numpy` or :meth:`Timestamp.to_datetime64`
+            instead to get an ndarray of values or numpy.datetime64,
+            respectively.
+
     format : string, default None
         strftime to parse time, eg "%d/%m/%Y", note that "%f" will parse
         all the way up to nanoseconds.

pandas/core/tools/timedeltas.py

@@ -8,13 +8,15 @@
 
 from pandas._libs.tslibs import NaT
 from pandas._libs.tslibs.timedeltas import Timedelta, parse_timedelta_unit
+from pandas.util._decorators import deprecate_kwarg
 
 from pandas.core.dtypes.common import is_list_like
 from pandas.core.dtypes.generic import ABCIndexClass, ABCSeries
 
 from pandas.core.arrays.timedeltas import sequence_to_td64ns
 
 
+@deprecate_kwarg(old_arg_name='box', new_arg_name=None)
 def to_timedelta(arg, unit='ns', box=True, errors='raise'):
     """
     Convert argument to timedelta.
@@ -40,6 +42,12 @@ def to_timedelta(arg, unit='ns', box=True, errors='raise'):
         - If True returns a Timedelta/TimedeltaIndex of the results.
         - If False returns a numpy.timedelta64 or numpy.darray of
           values of dtype timedelta64[ns].
+
+        .. deprecated:: 0.25.0
+            Use :meth:`.to_numpy` or :meth:`Timedelta.to_timedelta64`
+            instead to get an ndarray of values or numpy.timedelta64,
+            respectively.
+
     errors : {'ignore', 'raise', 'coerce'}, default 'raise'
         - If 'raise', then invalid parsing will raise an exception.
         - If 'coerce', then invalid parsing will be set as NaT.

pandas/io/parsers.py

@@ -3164,11 +3164,11 @@ def converter(*date_cols):
                 return tools.to_datetime(
                     ensure_object(strs),
                     utc=None,
-                    box=False,
                     dayfirst=dayfirst,
                     errors='ignore',
                     infer_datetime_format=infer_datetime_format
-                )
+                ).to_numpy()
+
             except ValueError:
                 return tools.to_datetime(
                     parsing.try_parse_dates(strs, dayfirst=dayfirst))

pandas/tests/indexes/datetimes/test_tools.py

@@ -184,9 +184,6 @@ def test_to_datetime_format_weeks(self, cache):
         for s, format, dt in data:
             assert to_datetime(s, format=format, cache=cache) == dt
 
-    @pytest.mark.parametrize("box,const", [
-        [True, pd.Index],
-        [False, np.array]])
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("fmt,dates,expected_dates", [
         ['%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z',
          ['2010-01-01 12:00:00 UTC'] * 2,
@@ -218,15 +215,15 @@ def test_to_datetime_format_weeks(self, cache):
                        tzinfo=pytz.FixedOffset(0)),  # pytz coerces to UTC
           pd.Timestamp('2010-01-01 12:00:00',
                        tzinfo=pytz.FixedOffset(0))]]])
-    def test_to_datetime_parse_tzname_or_tzoffset(self, box, const,
-                                                  fmt, dates, expected_dates):
+    def test_to_datetime_parse_tzname_or_tzoffset(self, fmt, dates,
+                                                  expected_dates):
         # GH 13486
-        result = pd.to_datetime(dates, format=fmt, box=box)
-        expected = const(expected_dates)
+        result = pd.to_datetime(dates, format=fmt)
+        expected = pd.Index(expected_dates)
         tm.assert_equal(result, expected)
 
         with pytest.raises(ValueError):
-            pd.to_datetime(dates, format=fmt, box=box, utc=True)
+            pd.to_datetime(dates, format=fmt, utc=True)
 
     @pytest.mark.parametrize('offset', [
         '+0', '-1foo', 'UTCbar', ':10', '+01:000:01', ''])
@@ -256,7 +253,7 @@ def test_to_datetime_dtarr(self, tz):
         result = to_datetime(arr)
         assert result is arr
 
-        result = to_datetime(arr, box=True)
+        result = to_datetime(arr)
         assert result is arr
 
     def test_to_datetime_pydatetime(self):
@@ -363,9 +360,9 @@ def test_to_datetime_array_of_dt64s(self, cache):
 
         # Assuming all datetimes are in bounds, to_datetime() returns
         # an array that is equal to Timestamp() parsing
-        tm.assert_numpy_array_equal(
-            pd.to_datetime(dts, box=False, cache=cache),
-            np.array([Timestamp(x).asm8 for x in dts])
+        tm.assert_index_equal(
+            pd.to_datetime(dts, cache=cache),
+            pd.DatetimeIndex([Timestamp(x).asm8 for x in dts])
         )
 
         # A list of datetimes where the last one is out of bounds
@@ -375,28 +372,26 @@ def test_to_datetime_array_of_dt64s(self, cache):
         with pytest.raises(OutOfBoundsDatetime, match=msg):
             pd.to_datetime(dts_with_oob, errors='raise')
 
-        tm.assert_numpy_array_equal(
-            pd.to_datetime(dts_with_oob, box=False, errors='coerce',
+        tm.assert_index_equal(
+            pd.to_datetime(dts_with_oob, errors='coerce',
                            cache=cache),
-            np.array(
+            pd.DatetimeIndex(
                 [
                     Timestamp(dts_with_oob[0]).asm8,
                     Timestamp(dts_with_oob[1]).asm8,
-                    tslib.iNaT,
-                ],
-                dtype='M8'
+                    pd.NaT
+                ]
             )
         )
 
         # With errors='ignore', out of bounds datetime64s
         # are converted to their .item(), which depending on the version of
         # numpy is either a python datetime.datetime or datetime.date
-        tm.assert_numpy_array_equal(
-            pd.to_datetime(dts_with_oob, box=False, errors='ignore',
+        tm.assert_index_equal(
+            pd.to_datetime(dts_with_oob, errors='ignore',
                            cache=cache),
-            np.array(
-                [dt.item() for dt in dts_with_oob],
-                dtype='O'
+            pd.Index(
+                [dt.item() for dt in dts_with_oob]
             )
         )
 
@@ -622,20 +617,16 @@ def test_datetime_invalid_index(self, values, format, infer):
 
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("utc", [True, None])
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("format", ['%Y%m%d %H:%M:%S', None])
-    @pytest.mark.parametrize("box", [True, False])
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("constructor", [list, tuple, np.array, pd.Index])
-    def test_to_datetime_cache(self, utc, format, box, constructor):
+    def test_to_datetime_cache(self, utc, format, constructor):
         date = '20130101 00:00:00'
         test_dates = [date] * 10**5
         data = constructor(test_dates)
-        result = pd.to_datetime(data, utc=utc, format=format, box=box,
-                                cache=True)
-        expected = pd.to_datetime(data, utc=utc, format=format, box=box,
-                                  cache=False)
-        if box:
-            tm.assert_index_equal(result, expected)
-        else:
-            tm.assert_numpy_array_equal(result, expected)
+
+        result = pd.to_datetime(data, utc=utc, format=format, cache=True)
+        expected = pd.to_datetime(data, utc=utc, format=format, cache=False)
+
+        tm.assert_index_equal(result, expected)
 
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("utc", [True, None])
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("format", ['%Y%m%d %H:%M:%S', None])
@@ -684,7 +675,10 @@ def test_iso_8601_strings_with_same_offset(self):
     def test_iso_8601_strings_same_offset_no_box(self):
         # GH 22446
         data = ['2018-01-04 09:01:00+09:00', '2018-01-04 09:02:00+09:00']
-        result = pd.to_datetime(data, box=False)
+
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
+            result = pd.to_datetime(data, box=False)
+
         expected = np.array([
             datetime(2018, 1, 4, 9, 1, tzinfo=pytz.FixedOffset(540)),
             datetime(2018, 1, 4, 9, 2, tzinfo=pytz.FixedOffset(540))
@@ -753,6 +747,16 @@ def test_timestamp_utc_true(self, ts, expected):
         result = to_datetime(ts, utc=True)
         assert result == expected
 
+    def test_to_datetime_box_deprecated(self):
+        expected = np.datetime64('2018-09-09')
+
+        # Deprecated - see GH24416
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
+            pd.to_datetime(expected, box=False)
+
+        result = pd.to_datetime(expected).to_datetime64()
+        assert result == expected
+
 
 class TestToDatetimeUnit(object):
     @pytest.mark.parametrize('cache', [True, False])
@@ -891,7 +895,7 @@ def test_unit_rounding(self, cache):
     def test_unit_ignore_keeps_name(self, cache):
         # GH 21697
         expected = pd.Index([15e9] * 2, name='name')
-        result = pd.to_datetime(expected, errors='ignore', box=True, unit='s',
+        result = pd.to_datetime(expected, errors='ignore', unit='s',
                                 cache=cache)
         tm.assert_index_equal(result, expected)
 
@@ -1052,7 +1056,10 @@ def test_dataframe_box_false(self):
         df = pd.DataFrame({'year': [2015, 2016],
                            'month': [2, 3],
                            'day': [4, 5]})
-        result = pd.to_datetime(df, box=False)
+
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
+            result = pd.to_datetime(df, box=False)
+
         expected = np.array(['2015-02-04', '2016-03-05'],
                             dtype='datetime64[ns]')
         tm.assert_numpy_array_equal(result, expected)
@@ -1069,8 +1076,7 @@ def test_dataframe_utc_true(self):
 
     def test_to_datetime_errors_ignore_utc_true(self):
         # GH 23758
-        result = pd.to_datetime([1], unit='s', box=True, utc=True,
-                                errors='ignore')
+        result = pd.to_datetime([1], unit='s', utc=True, errors='ignore')
         expected = DatetimeIndex(['1970-01-01 00:00:01'], tz='UTC')
         tm.assert_index_equal(result, expected)
 
@@ -1188,19 +1194,16 @@ def test_to_datetime_types(self, cache):
         # assert result == expected
 
     @pytest.mark.parametrize('cache', [True, False])
-    @pytest.mark.parametrize('box, klass', [
-        [True, Index],
-        [False, np.array]
-    ])
-    def test_to_datetime_unprocessable_input(self, cache, box, klass):
+    def test_to_datetime_unprocessable_input(self, cache):
         # GH 4928
         # GH 21864
-        result = to_datetime([1, '1'], errors='ignore', cache=cache, box=box)
-        expected = klass(np.array([1, '1'], dtype='O'))
+        result = to_datetime([1, '1'], errors='ignore', cache=cache)
+
+        expected = Index(np.array([1, '1'], dtype='O'))
         tm.assert_equal(result, expected)
         msg = "invalid string coercion to datetime"
         with pytest.raises(TypeError, match=msg):
-            to_datetime([1, '1'], errors='raise', cache=cache, box=box)
+            to_datetime([1, '1'], errors='raise', cache=cache)
 
     def test_to_datetime_other_datetime64_units(self):
         # 5/25/2012