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migrate missing indicator to narwhals, add polar support - #1001

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migrate missing indicator to narwhals, add polar support#1001
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narwhals-missing-indicator

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solegalli and others added 2 commits August 24, 2026 21:53
Shared base for the imputation module: _transform() (fit-state checks +
column reorder) and transform() (fillna via imputer_dict_) are now
dataframe-agnostic, with _get_feature_names_in() reading columns through
narwhals on non-pandas input.

Benchmarked the fillna step (select + fill from a per-column value dict)
at 10k/100k/1M rows x 1/2/10 columns: pandas-native fillna runs ~1.3-1.6x
faster than the narwhals-generic fill_null equivalent at the 10k-100k
row sizes imputers are normally used at (the gap narrows to ~1.0x only
past ~1M rows) - a real, not minimal, loss, so pandas keeps its own fast
path (is_pandas = nwd.is_pandas_dataframe(X); if is_pandas is True: ...
else narwhals fill_null per column). Also benchmarked a numpy rewrite
(to_numpy + np.where per column, mirroring RelativeFeatures) but it did
not beat pandas-native and was consistently slower than narwhals
fill_null on polars, so it wasn't adopted here - unlike RelativeFeatures'
arithmetic, a plain value fill is already close to a no-op for both
pandas and narwhals/polars, leaving no room for a numpy win.

The pandas<3 fillna-downcasting workaround (option_context +
infer_objects) is preserved on the pandas branch but no longer imports
pandas at module level - the module is fetched via
nw.from_native(X).__native_namespace__() only once X is already
confirmed to be a pandas dataframe, so no import is attempted on a
polars-only install.

Verified: tests/test_imputation full suite unchanged (95 passed, 7
pre-existing failures in test_check_estimator_imputers.py - sklearn's
check_estimator feeds raw numpy arrays, which check_X() has always
rejected per the narwhals migration's dataframe-only contract, predates
this change). flake8 and mypy clean on the file. Module imports with
pandas import blocked. sphinx -W build clean (only the pre-existing
unrelated linkcode_resolve warning).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
…support

Removed the module-level `import pandas as pd`; X/y type hints now use
narwhals' IntoDataFrame/IntoSeries. This file overrides transform() rather
than extending BaseImputer's, so both the fit() null-count filter and the
transform() indicator-column step needed their own narwhals path.

Benchmarked both operations at 10k/50k/100k rows x 1/2/10 columns (varying
how many columns need indicators), plus a mixed string+numeric-dtype
dataset matching MissingIndicator's real "all variable types" usage:

- fit()'s `[var for var in variables_ if X[var].isnull().sum() > 0]` loop
  is ~2-5x faster on pandas than a narwhals-generic `null_count()` call
  (e.g. 100k rows x 10 cols: 0.41ms loop vs 0.78ms narwhals-on-pandas).
  A vectorized `X[variables_].isnull().sum()` alternative didn't beat the
  loop either. narwhals-on-polars was consistently fastest of all (its own
  native path), so the split is pandas-loop vs narwhals-generic (used for
  polars/other backends), matching BaseImputer's is_pandas branch pattern.

- transform()'s `X[vars].isna().astype("int8").add_suffix("_na")` +
  `pd.concat` is ~2-5x faster on pandas than narwhals' with_columns
  equivalent (100k rows x 10 cols: 0.28ms concat vs 1.27ms narwhals-on-
  pandas), and also beats `assign()`-per-column (0.91ms) and `join()`
  (0.44ms) alternatives - concat already batches all new columns in one
  op. So transform() keeps the same pandas fast path, split from a
  narwhals with_columns path for other backends.

Both losses are >1.7x, past the "keep pandas fast path" threshold, so
merging into one narwhals-generic path (as BaseImputer's docstring
discusses for its own fillna step) was not justified here either.

Numpy: converting columns via `.to_numpy()` + `pd.isna()` (the only numpy
op that works across MissingIndicator's mixed string/numeric columns,
since np.isnan raises on object arrays) was consistently ~1.7-2x slower
than pandas-native isnull()/isna() for both fit and transform on mixed
dtypes - the extra .to_numpy() copy plus pd.isna() dispatch outweighs any
gain, same conclusion as BaseImputer's fillna numpy experiment.

Tests: converted tests/test_imputation/test_missing_indicator.py from the
pandas-only `df_na` fixture to a plain DATA dict parametrized over
`make_df` in [pd.DataFrame, pl.DataFrame], asserting identical variables_
selection and identical `<var>_na` column values on both backends for the
same input (one cross-backend PerformanceWarning regression test stays
pandas-only, since it targets the pandas fast path specifically).

Docs: docs/user_guide/imputation/MissingIndicator.rst has no inline
printed output to go stale (it references a screenshot image instead of
doctest-style text) - verified its house_prices code example's logic
against the migrated transformer with a synthetic stand-in dataset (no
network access in this environment) and it behaves identically. Added a
verified "With polars" example to the class docstring.

Verified: tests/test_imputation/test_missing_indicator.py 29 passed.
tests/test_imputation full suite: 107 passed / 7 pre-existing failures
in test_check_estimator_imputers.py (confirmed identical failures against
a baseline run of origin/narwhals-imputation-base: 95 passed / same 7
failures - sklearn's check_estimator feeds raw numpy arrays, which
check_X() has always rejected per the narwhals migration's dataframe-only
contract; predates this change). flake8 and mypy clean. Module imports
with pandas import blocked. sphinx -W build clean (only the pre-existing
unrelated linkcode_resolve warning).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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