hl.Table.to_pandas() generates a dtype=string dataframe which is still experimental

[mkanai]

I encountered an error in an external package when I used a Hail-generated pandas data frame, which is due to an unsupported dtype pandas.StringDtype. https://github.com/biocore-ntnu/pyranges/pull/264

Given it's still experimental in pandas, can we have an option to generate a data frame that have dtype=object string columns? or maybe, we should make dtype=object default. https://github.com/hail-is/hail/blob/c4b09953f62cea090c8ab2026bc81851b9f4d64a/hail/python/hail/table.py#L3345-L3346

[danking]

Great suggestion Masa! We can provide a types argument to to_pandas which allows the user to override the type for a subset of columns. I've marked this help wanted. If someone on the team has some spare cycles they might pick it up. We also welcome PRs to make this change!

[danking]

Closing the loop: this was released into 0.2.110!