FIX Fixes memory regression for inspecting extension arrays

thomasjpfan · thomasjpfan · commit 0d3fb7ca9bdb · 2023-04-05T12:34:01.000-04:00
diff --git a/doc/whats_new/v1.3.rst b/doc/whats_new/v1.3.rst
@@ -452,7 +452,7 @@ Changelog
   :user:`Jérémie du Boisberranger <jeremiedbb>`.
 
 - |FIX| Fixes :func:`utils.validation.check_array` to properly convert pandas
-  extension arrays. :pr:`25813` by `Thomas Fan`_.
+  extension arrays. :pr:`25813` :pr:`xxxxx` by `Thomas Fan`_.
 
 - |Fix| :func:`utils.validation.check_array` now suports pandas DataFrames with
   extension arrays and object dtypes by return an ndarray with object dtype.
diff --git a/sklearn/utils/validation.py b/sklearn/utils/validation.py
@@ -628,12 +628,8 @@ def _pandas_dtype_needs_early_conversion(pd_dtype):
 
 
 def _is_extension_array_dtype(array):
-    try:
-        from pandas.api.types import is_extension_array_dtype
-
-        return is_extension_array_dtype(array)
-    except ImportError:
-        return False
+    # Pandas extension arrays have a dtype with an na_value
+    return hasattr(array, "dtype") and hasattr(array.dtype, "na_value")
 
 
 def check_array(
