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Migrate EqualWidthDiscretiser to narwhals, add polars support - #1040

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Sep 18, 2026
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Migrates EqualWidthDiscretiser to narwhals with polars support.

fit()'s only pandas dependency was pd.cut(bins=int, retbins=True, duplicates="drop"), used purely to compute equal-width bin edges from each variable's min/max (the discretised codes come from transform(), migrated on narwhals-discretisation-base). Replaced with _equal_width_edges(): a plain np.linspace(min, max, bins+1), reproducing pandas.cut's own edge computation exactly — verified against pandas 3.0's _nbins_to_bins/_bins_to_cuts source, including the mn == mx 0.1%-range widening for constant columns and the duplicates="drop" collapse for degenerate float edges. fit() now pulls all variables in one .select(variables_).to_numpy() call (min/max per column via axis=0), following CyclicalFeatures.fit().

Merge vs split: benchmarked old pandas-native (pd.cut per column) vs the new narwhals+numpy fit() at 10k/50k/100k rows × 1/2/10 cols. narwhals-on-pandas is faster everywhere except the smallest 10k/1-col case (2.58x slower, sub-ms); at realistic sizes 2–6x faster (100k×10: 19.3ms → 3.0ms). polars faster still. The new path is a speedup on pandas — no is_pandas branch, single numpy-driven path for every backend.

Verified binner_dict_ numerically identical to the old pd.cut-based fit() across 53 diff cases (random/int/negative values, constant columns, tiny near-duplicate float ranges, two-point and single-value arrays, bins=1) — zero mismatches.

Tests: test_equal_width_discretiser.py converted to one parametrized test per behaviour over [pd.DataFrame, pl.DataFrame]. Also fixed two vacuous assertions in the original numeric-output test (generator expressions checking truthiness of an always-empty sequence) with real comparisons against pd.cut ground truth, and added a constant-column case exercising the mn == mx widening branch. Fixed a pre-existing copy-paste bug in EqualWidthDiscretiser.rst (a "Return bin boundaries" example set up an EqualFrequencyDiscretiser).

Verified: tests/test_discretisation — 116 passed, same 5 pre-existing check_estimator failures. flake8 / mypy clean, sphinx -W clean. Runs fit_transform() on polars with pandas blocked at builtins.__import__.


Stacked on narwhals-discretisation-base (its own PR). Until that merges this PR's diff also contains the shared BaseDiscretiser commit; review that one first.

@solegalli
solegalli force-pushed the narwhals-equal-width-discretiser branch from c6f4877 to 5143c64 Compare September 14, 2026 20:46
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Updated this branch:

Locally: test_equal_width_discretiser.py 14 passed; no new failures in tests/test_discretisation.

@solegalli
solegalli force-pushed the narwhals-equal-width-discretiser branch from 5143c64 to 89e7c7e Compare September 15, 2026 10:06
solegalli and others added 3 commits September 18, 2026 13:17
fit()'s only pandas dependency was pd.cut(bins=int, retbins=True,
duplicates="drop"), used purely to compute equal-width bin edges from
each variable's min/max (the discretised codes themselves come from
transform(), already migrated to numpy searchsorted on the prior
base_discretiser branch). Replaced it with _equal_width_edges(): a
plain numpy np.linspace(min, max, bins+1), reproducing pandas.cut's
own edge computation exactly - verified against pandas 3.0's
_nbins_to_bins/_bins_to_cuts source, including the mn==mx 0.1%-range
widening for constant columns and the duplicates="drop" collapse for
degenerate float edges. fit() now pulls all variables' values in one
nw.from_native(X).select(variables_).to_numpy() call (min/max per
column via axis=0), instead of one get_column() round-trip per
variable, following the pattern already used in CyclicalFeatures.fit().

Benchmarked old pandas-native (pd.cut per column) vs the new
narwhals+numpy fit() at 10k/50k/100k rows x 1/2/10 columns:
- narwhals-on-pandas is *faster* than the old pd.cut path everywhere
  except the smallest 10k-row/1-col case (2.58x slower there, but
  sub-millisecond either way - fixed per-call overhead). At realistic
  sizes (50k-100k rows) it's 2-6x faster; at 100k rows x 10 cols,
  19.3ms (old) vs 3.0ms (new).
- narwhals-on-polars is faster still at every size (e.g. 100k x 10:
  2.9ms).
Given the new path is a speedup rather than a loss on pandas, there
was no case for a pandas fast-path split (is_pandas branch) - fit()
is a single numpy-driven code path for every backend.

Verified binner_dict_ output is numerically identical to the old
pd.cut-based fit() across 53 diff cases (random/int/negative values,
constant columns at zero/positive/negative, tiny near-duplicate float
ranges, two-point and single-value arrays, bins=1) - zero mismatches.
Also verified full fit_transform() end-to-end against the class
docstring's documented value_counts() output (pre-existing "Name: x"
vs "Name: count" pandas-3.0 staleness noted in the base branch is
unrelated to this migration) and confirmed the module fit()/transform()
round-trip works on polars with pandas import blocked at the
interpreter level.

tests/test_discretisation/test_equal_width_discretiser.py: converted
to one parametrized test per behavior over
@pytest.mark.parametrize("make_df", [pd.DataFrame, pl.DataFrame]) per
AGENTS.md, replacing the pandas-only tests. Also fixed two vacuous
assertions in the original numeric-output test (generator expressions
that were checking truthiness of an always-empty filtered sequence,
so they passed regardless of correctness) with real value comparisons
against pd.cut ground truth, and added a dedicated constant-column
case exercising the new mn==mx widening branch that pd.cut used to
handle internally.

docs/user_guide/discretisation/EqualWidthDiscretiser.rst: verified
every existing example (binner_dict_, transformed head, dtypes,
return_boundaries output) against real output - all matched, no
changes needed to those values. Fixed a pre-existing copy-paste bug
(predates this migration) where the "Return bin boundaries" code
example set up an EqualFrequencyDiscretiser instead of
EqualWidthDiscretiser. Updated the "under the hood" description that
referenced pandas.cut specifically, and added a "With polars" section
with a verified worked example.

Verified: tests/test_discretisation full suite - 116 passed, same 5
pre-existing failures as the unmodified baseline (check_estimator
feeds raw numpy arrays, rejected by check_X() since the narwhals
migration's dataframe-only contract predates this branch). flake8 and
mypy clean. sphinx -W build clean (only the pre-existing unrelated
linkcode_resolve warning, confirmed identical on the unmodified
baseline). Module imports and runs fit_transform() on polars input
with pandas blocked at the builtins.__import__ level.

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

Build inputs from the data_normal_dist / data_vartypes / data_na fixtures on
the backend under test instead of converting pandas frames (which needs
pyarrow for polars, so the polars cases failed), check isinstance(X, make_df)
plus to_dict() contents, and use pytest.raises(match=re.escape(msg)).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@solegalli
solegalli force-pushed the narwhals-equal-width-discretiser branch from 89e7c7e to 31244fc Compare September 18, 2026 11:17
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@solegalli
solegalli merged commit 1003a7d into narwhals-migration Sep 18, 2026
3 of 10 checks passed
@solegalli
solegalli deleted the narwhals-equal-width-discretiser branch September 18, 2026 11:58
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