GH-35676: [MATLAB] Add an InferNulls name-value pair for controlling null value inference during construction of arrow.array.Array

[sgilmore10]

Rationale for this change

This change lets users control toggle the automatic null-value detection behavior. By default, values MATLAB considers to be missing (e.g. NaN for double, <missing> for string, and NaT for datetime) will be treated as null values. Users can toggle this behavior on and off using the InferNulls name-value pair.

Example

>> matlabArray = [1 NaN 3]'

matlabArray =

     1
     NaN
     3
      
% Treat NaN as a null value
 >> arrowArray1 = arrow.array.Float64Array(maltabArray, InferNulls=true)

arrowArray1 = 

[
  1,
  null,
  3
]

% Don't treat NaN as a null value 
 >> arrowArray2 = arrow.array.Float64Array(maltabArray, InferNulls=false)
   
arrowArray2 = 

[
  1,
  nan,
  3
]

We've only added this nv-pair to arrow.array.Float64Array for now. We'll add this nv-pair to the other types in a followup changelist.

What changes are included in this PR?

1. Added InferNulls name-value pair to arrow.array.Float64Array.
2. Added common validation function arrow.args.validateTypeAndShape to remove duplicate validation code among the numeric classes.
3. Added a function called arrow.args.parseValidElements that the arrow.array.<Type>Array classes will be able to share for generating the logical mask of valid elements.

Are these changes tested?

Yes, we added a test pointed called InferNulls to the test classtFloat64Array.m.

Are there any user-facing changes?

Yes, users can now control how NaN values are treated when creating an arrow.array.Float64Array.

Future Directions

1. Add a name-value pair to allow users to specify the valid elements themselves.
2. Extend null support to other numeric types.
3. We've been working on adding error-handling support to mathworks/libmexclass. We have a prototype to do this using status-like and result-like objects already pushed to a branch. Once this branch is merged with the main branch of mathworks/libmexclass, we'll port it over.

Notes

Thank you @kevingurney for all the help with this PR!

• Closes: [MATLAB] Add an InferNulls name-value pair for controlling null value inference during construction of arrow.array.Array #35676

[github-actions]

⚠️ GitHub issue #35676 has been automatically assigned in GitHub to PR creator.

[sgilmore10]

I think I've addressed all the current feedback. Let me know if we feel anything else needs to be changed.

Thanks!
Sarah

[kou]

+1

[ursabot]

Benchmark runs are scheduled for baseline = 8878fc8 and contender = f44f768. f44f768 is a master commit associated with this PR. Results will be available as each benchmark for each run completes.
Conbench compare runs links:
[Finished ⬇️0.0% ⬆️0.0%] ec2-t3-xlarge-us-east-2
[Finished ⬇️1.8% ⬆️0.0%] test-mac-arm
[Finished ⬇️0.98% ⬆️0.0%] ursa-i9-9960x
[Finished ⬇️1.6% ⬆️0.48%] ursa-thinkcentre-m75q
Buildkite builds:
[Finished] f44f7685 ec2-t3-xlarge-us-east-2
[Finished] f44f7685 test-mac-arm
[Finished] f44f7685 ursa-i9-9960x
[Finished] f44f7685 ursa-thinkcentre-m75q
[Finished] 8878fc81 ec2-t3-xlarge-us-east-2
[Finished] 8878fc81 test-mac-arm
[Finished] 8878fc81 ursa-i9-9960x
[Finished] 8878fc81 ursa-thinkcentre-m75q
Supported benchmarks:
ec2-t3-xlarge-us-east-2: Supported benchmark langs: Python, R. Runs only benchmarks with cloud = True
test-mac-arm: Supported benchmark langs: C++, Python, R
ursa-i9-9960x: Supported benchmark langs: Python, R, JavaScript
ursa-thinkcentre-m75q: Supported benchmark langs: C++, Java