Make _handle_stats_nesting tolerant of missing drop columns

[thodson-usgs]

Summary

_handle_stats_nesting has two .drop(columns=...) calls (one for the geopandas branch, one for the pandas branch) that hardcode literal column names — [\"type\", \"properties.data\"] and [\"data\"] respectively. If a stats response ever comes back in a slightly different shape (renamed key, missing optional key, edge-case feature without the expected nesting), drop() raises KeyError and aborts the helper.

The sibling pd.json_normalize(...) call later in the same function already passes errors=\"ignore\", so this PR adds the same to the two drop() calls for parity.

Diff

# dataretrieval/waterdata/utils.py:894-901
if not geopd:
    df = pd.json_normalize(body[\"features\"]).drop(
        columns=[\"type\", \"properties.data\"], errors=\"ignore\"  # <-- added
    )
    df.columns = df.columns.str.split(\".\").str[-1]
else:
    df = gpd.GeoDataFrame.from_features(body[\"features\"]).drop(
        columns=[\"data\"], errors=\"ignore\"  # <-- added
    )

Test plan

• New test test_handle_stats_nesting_tolerates_missing_drop_columns constructs a stats body whose features lack the top-level type key and confirms the function returns a populated DataFrame.
• Verified that the new test fails on main with KeyError: \"['type'] not found in axis\".
• Full waterdata_utils test suite passes (5 tests).
• Full test suite (excluding deprecated nwis_test.py): 197 passed.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Related PRs

Other open PRs in this bug-review series that touch dataretrieval/waterdata/utils.py (different functions, no functional conflicts):

• Fix _format_api_dates: parse ISO 8601 datetimes #247 — _format_api_dates accept ISO 8601.
• Fix _arrange_cols: stop mutating the caller's properties list #254 — _arrange_cols stop mutating caller list.
• waterdata: tighten stats + OGC pagination (geometry, KeyError, non-200) #255 — stats / OGC pagination tighten.
• Make _handle_stats_nesting tolerant of missing drop columns #257 — _handle_stats_nesting tolerate missing drop columns.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR hardens the dataretrieval.waterdata.utils._handle_stats_nesting helper against minor upstream schema variations by making its initial DataFrame/GeoDataFrame column drops tolerant of missing columns, preventing avoidable KeyErrors during stats response normalization.

Changes:

• Add errors="ignore" to the pandas-branch drop(columns=["type", "properties.data"]) call.
• Add errors="ignore" to the geopandas-branch drop(columns=["data"]) call.
• Add a regression test ensuring _handle_stats_nesting succeeds when a drop-target column (e.g., type) is absent.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated no comments.

File	Description
dataretrieval/waterdata/utils.py	Makes _handle_stats_nesting resilient to missing columns during initial flattening by ignoring absent drop targets.
tests/waterdata_utils_test.py	Adds regression coverage for missing drop-target columns in stats feature normalization.

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