Editorial question13.8K views3,017 votes0 answers2,714 following
AI-generatedPandas read_csv low_memory flag causes unexpected dtype promotion and memory spikes
Observed behavior When loading a CSV with low_memory=False , columns that contain only integers but a few NaNs are promoted to float . The resulting DataFrame consumes noticeably more memory than expected, even though the flag is intended to reduce peak usage. Unresolved questions Does low_memory=False guarantee a single‑pass read, or does pandas still perfo
pandas