BUG: pandas 2.2.0 changes GeoDataFrame.from_records() behavior

[robertschweizer]

• I have checked that this issue has not already been reported.

• I have confirmed this bug exists on the latest version of geopandas.

• (optional) I have confirmed this bug exists on the main branch of geopandas.

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Note: Please read this guide detailing how to provide the necessary information for us to reproduce your bug.

Code Sample, a copy-pastable example

from geopandas import GeoDataFrame
from shapely import box

gdf = GeoDataFrame.from_records([{"value": 12, "geometry": box(0,0,1,1)}])
gdf.geometry

Problem description

The above code sample works with pandas 2.1.4, but with pandas 2.2.0 I get:

AttributeError: You are calling a geospatial method on the GeoDataFrame, but the active geometry column to use has not been set.
There are no existing columns with geometry data type. You can add a geometry column as the active geometry column with df.set_geometry.

Expected Output

There should be no exception without prior deprecation warnings.

Output of geopandas.show_versions()

SYSTEM INFO

python : 3.10.10 | packaged by conda-forge | (main, Mar 24 2023, 20:12:31) [Clang 14.0.6 ]
executable : /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/bin/python3.10
machine : macOS-14.2.1-arm64-arm-64bit

GEOS, GDAL, PROJ INFO

GEOS : 3.11.2
GEOS lib : None
GDAL : 3.6.4
GDAL data dir: /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/lib/python3.10/site-packages/fiona/gdal_data
PROJ : 9.2.1
PROJ data dir: /opt/homebrew/Caskroom/miniforge/base/lib/python3.10/site-packages/pyproj/proj_dir/share/proj

PYTHON DEPENDENCIES

geopandas : 0.14.2
numpy : 1.23.5
pandas : 2.2.0
pyproj : 3.6.0
shapely : 2.0.2
fiona : 1.9.4.post1
geoalchemy2: None
geopy : None
matplotlib : 3.7.1
mapclassify: None
pygeos : None
pyogrio : None
psycopg2 : None
pyarrow : None
rtree : 1.0.1

[jorisvandenbossche]

@robertschweizer thanks for the report!

This seems to be a regression on the pandas side in its from_records method in pandas 2.2 (I will open a report upstream). We could maybe fix it on our side short term by overriding from_records.

It looks a bit duplicative, but as a quick workaround to let your code work as before, you can pass the result once more to GeoDataFrame(..):

gdf = GeoDataFrame(GeoDataFrame.from_records([{"value": 12, "geometry": box(0,0,1,1)}]))

[jorisvandenbossche]

Opened pandas-dev/pandas#57008 on the pandas side.