[ARROW-5952] [Python] Segfault when reading empty table with category as pandas dataframe

• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 0.14.0, 0.14.1
• Fix Version/s: 0.15.0
• Component/s: Python
• Labels: pull-request-available
• Environment: Linux 3.10.0-327.36.3.el7.x86_64 ; Python 3.6.8 ; Pandas 0.24.2 ; Pyarrow 0.14.0
• External issue URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues/22361
• Assignee: Joris Van den Bossche
• Reporter: Daniel Nugent
• Created: 15/Jul/19 17:09
• Updated: 11/Jan/23 07:43
• Resolved: 16/Aug/19 02:47

Description

I have two short sample programs which demonstrate the issue:

import pyarrow as pa
import pandas as pd
empty = pd.DataFrame({'foo':[]},dtype='category')
table = pa.Table.from_pandas(empty)
outfile = pa.output_stream('bar')
writer = pa.RecordBatchFileWriter(outfile,table.schema)
writer.write(table)
writer.close()

import pyarrow as pa
pa.ipc.open_file('bar').read_pandas()
Segmentation fault

My apologies if this was already reported elsewhere, I searched but could not find an issue which seemed to refer to the same behavior.

Issue Links

• links to: GitHub Pull Request #5081