PERF: Break reference cycle for all Index types (pandas-dev#27840)

* Generalize guards for index ref cycles

* add issue number

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.25.1.rst

@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ Indexing
 ^^^^^^^^
 
 - Bug in partial-string indexing returning a NumPy array rather than a ``Series`` when indexing with a scalar like ``.loc['2015']`` (:issue:`27516`)
-- Break reference cycle involving :class:`Index` to allow garbage collection of :class:`Index` objects without running the GC. (:issue:`27585`)
+- Break reference cycle involving :class:`Index` and other index classes to allow garbage collection of index objects without running the GC. (:issue:`27585`, :issue:`27840`)
 - Fix regression in assigning values to a single column of a DataFrame with a ``MultiIndex`` columns (:issue:`27841`).
 -
 

pandas/core/indexes/base.py

@@ -665,7 +665,7 @@ def _cleanup(self):
     def _engine(self):
         # property, for now, slow to look up
 
-        # to avoid a refernce cycle, bind `_ndarray_values` to a local variable, so
+        # to avoid a reference cycle, bind `_ndarray_values` to a local variable, so
         # `self` is not passed into the lambda.
         _ndarray_values = self._ndarray_values
         return self._engine_type(lambda: _ndarray_values, len(self))

pandas/core/indexes/category.py

@@ -446,9 +446,11 @@ def argsort(self, *args, **kwargs):
 
     @cache_readonly
     def _engine(self):
-
-        # we are going to look things up with the codes themselves
-        return self._engine_type(lambda: self.codes, len(self))
+        # we are going to look things up with the codes themselves.
+        # To avoid a reference cycle, bind `codes` to a local variable, so
+        # `self` is not passed into the lambda.
+        codes = self.codes
+        return self._engine_type(lambda: codes, len(self))
 
     # introspection
     @cache_readonly

pandas/core/indexes/period.py

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta
 import warnings
+import weakref
 
 import numpy as np
 
@@ -441,7 +442,9 @@ def _formatter_func(self):
 
     @cache_readonly
     def _engine(self):
-        return self._engine_type(lambda: self, len(self))
+        # To avoid a reference cycle, pass a weakref of self to _engine_type.
+        period = weakref.ref(self)
+        return self._engine_type(period, len(self))
 
     @Appender(_index_shared_docs["contains"])
     def __contains__(self, key):

pandas/tests/indexes/common.py

@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import gc
+
 import numpy as np
 import pytest
 
@@ -908,3 +910,10 @@ def test_is_unique(self):
         # multiple NA should not be unique
         index_na_dup = index_na.insert(0, np.nan)
         assert index_na_dup.is_unique is False
+
+    def test_engine_reference_cycle(self):
+        # GH27585
+        index = self.create_index()
+        nrefs_pre = len(gc.get_referrers(index))
+        index._engine
+        assert len(gc.get_referrers(index)) == nrefs_pre

pandas/tests/indexes/test_base.py

@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 from collections import defaultdict
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta
-import gc
 from io import StringIO
 import math
 import operator
@@ -2425,13 +2424,6 @@ def test_deprecated_contains(self):
             with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
                 index.contains(1)
 
-    def test_engine_reference_cycle(self):
-        # https://github.com/pandas-dev/pandas/issues/27585
-        index = pd.Index([1, 2, 3])
-        nrefs_pre = len(gc.get_referrers(index))
-        index._engine
-        assert len(gc.get_referrers(index)) == nrefs_pre
-
 
 class TestMixedIntIndex(Base):
     # Mostly the tests from common.py for which the results differ