ENH: Adding 'protocol' parameter to 'to_pickle'.

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.21.0.txt

@@ -27,7 +27,8 @@ New features
 Other Enhancements
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 
-
+- :func:`to_pickle` has gained a protocol parameter (:issue:`16252`). By default,
+this parameter is set to HIGHEST_PROTOCOL (see <https://docs.python.org/3/library/pickle.html/>, 12.1.2).
 
 .. _whatsnew_0210.api_breaking:
 

pandas/core/generic.py

@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@
 from pandas import compat
 from pandas.compat.numpy import function as nv
 from pandas.compat import (map, zip, lzip, lrange, string_types,
-                           isidentifier, set_function_name)
+                           isidentifier, set_function_name, cPickle as pkl)
 import pandas.core.nanops as nanops
 from pandas.util.decorators import Appender, Substitution, deprecate_kwarg
 from pandas.util.validators import validate_bool_kwarg
@@ -1344,7 +1344,8 @@ def to_sql(self, name, con, flavor=None, schema=None, if_exists='fail',
                    if_exists=if_exists, index=index, index_label=index_label,
                    chunksize=chunksize, dtype=dtype)
 
-    def to_pickle(self, path, compression='infer'):
+    def to_pickle(self, path, compression='infer',
+                  protocol=pkl.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL):
         """
         Pickle (serialize) object to input file path.
 
@@ -1356,9 +1357,22 @@ def to_pickle(self, path, compression='infer'):
             a string representing the compression to use in the output file
 
             .. versionadded:: 0.20.0
+        protocol : int
+            Int which indicates which protocol should be used by the pickler,
+            default HIGHEST_PROTOCOL (see [1], paragraph 12.1.2). The possible
+            values for this parameter depend on the version of Python. For
+            Python 2.x, possible values are 0, 1, 2. For Python>=3.0, 3 is a
+            valid value. For Python >= 3.4, 4 is a valid value.A negative value
+            for the protocol parameter is equivalent to setting its value to
+            HIGHEST_PROTOCOL.
+
+            .. [1] https://docs.python.org/3/library/pickle.html
+            .. versionadded:: 0.21.0
+
         """
         from pandas.io.pickle import to_pickle
-        return to_pickle(self, path, compression=compression)
+        return to_pickle(self, path, compression=compression,
+                         protocol=protocol)
 
     def to_clipboard(self, excel=None, sep=None, **kwargs):
         """

pandas/io/pickle.py

@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 from pandas.io.common import _get_handle, _infer_compression
 
 
-def to_pickle(obj, path, compression='infer'):
+def to_pickle(obj, path, compression='infer', protocol=pkl.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL):
     """
     Pickle (serialize) object to input file path
 
@@ -20,13 +20,28 @@ def to_pickle(obj, path, compression='infer'):
         a string representing the compression to use in the output file
 
         .. versionadded:: 0.20.0
+    protocol : int
+        Int which indicates which protocol should be used by the pickler,
+        default HIGHEST_PROTOCOL (see [1], paragraph 12.1.2). The possible
+        values for this parameter depend on the version of Python. For Python
+        2.x, possible values are 0, 1, 2. For Python>=3.0, 3 is a valid value.
+        For Python >= 3.4, 4 is a valid value. A negative value for the
+        protocol parameter is equivalent to setting its value to
+        HIGHEST_PROTOCOL.
+
+        .. [1] https://docs.python.org/3/library/pickle.html
+        .. versionadded:: 0.21.0
+
+
     """
     inferred_compression = _infer_compression(path, compression)
     f, fh = _get_handle(path, 'wb',
                         compression=inferred_compression,
                         is_text=False)
+    if protocol < 0:
+        protocol = pkl.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL
     try:
-        pkl.dump(obj, f, protocol=pkl.HIGHEST_PROTOCOL)
+        pkl.dump(obj, f, protocol=protocol)
     finally:
         for _f in fh:
             _f.close()

pandas/tests/io/test_pickle.py

@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 import pandas.util.testing as tm
 from pandas.tseries.offsets import Day, MonthEnd
 import shutil
+import sys
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(scope='module')
@@ -489,3 +490,38 @@ def test_read_infer(self, ext, get_random_path):
             df2 = pd.read_pickle(p2)
 
             tm.assert_frame_equal(df, df2)
+
+
+# ---------------------
+# test pickle compression
+# ---------------------
+
+class TestProtocol(object):
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize('protocol', [-1, 0, 1, 2])
+    def test_read(self, protocol, get_random_path):
+        with tm.ensure_clean(get_random_path) as path:
+            df = tm.makeDataFrame()
+            df.to_pickle(path, protocol=protocol)
+            df2 = pd.read_pickle(path)
+            tm.assert_frame_equal(df, df2)
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize('protocol', [3, 4])
+    @pytest.mark.skipif(sys.version_info[:2] >= (3, 4),
+                        reason="Testing invalid parameters for "
+                               "Python 2.x and 3.y (y < 4).")
+    def test_read_bad_versions(self, protocol, get_random_path):
+        # For Python 2.x (respectively 3.y with y < 4), [expected]
+        # HIGHEST_PROTOCOL should be 2 (respectively 3). Hence, the protocol
+        # parameter should not exceed 2 (respectively 3).
+        if sys.version_info[:2] < (3, 0):
+            expect_hp = 2
+        else:
+            expect_hp = 3
+        with tm.assert_raises_regex(ValueError,
+                                    "pickle protocol %d asked for; the highest"
+                                    " available protocol is %d" % (protocol,
+                                                                   expect_hp)):
+            with tm.ensure_clean(get_random_path) as path:
+                df = tm.makeDataFrame()
+                df.to_pickle(path, protocol=protocol)