Fix at/iat indexers to reject list-like keys (rapidsai#21213)

Closes rapidsai#20561

Authors:
  - Matthew Murray (https://github.com/Matt711)

Approvers:
  - GALI PREM SAGAR (https://github.com/galipremsagar)

URL: rapidsai#21213

Author: Matt711

python/cudf/cudf/core/dataframe.py

@@ -437,7 +437,19 @@ def _setitem_tuple_arg(self, key, value):
 
 
 class _DataFrameAtIndexer(_DataFrameLocIndexer):
-    pass
+    @_performance_tracking
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
+        indexing_utils.validate_scalar_key(
+            key, "Invalid call for scalar access (getting)!"
+        )
+        return super().__getitem__(key)
+
+    @_performance_tracking
+    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
+        indexing_utils.validate_scalar_key(
+            key, "Invalid call for scalar access (getting)!"
+        )
+        return super().__setitem__(key, value)
 
 
 class _DataFrameIlocIndexer(_DataFrameIndexer):
@@ -507,7 +519,19 @@ def _setitem_tuple_arg(self, key, value):
 
 
 class _DataFrameiAtIndexer(_DataFrameIlocIndexer):
-    pass
+    @_performance_tracking
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
+        indexing_utils.validate_scalar_key(
+            key, "iAt based indexing can only have integer indexers"
+        )
+        return super().__getitem__(key)
+
+    @_performance_tracking
+    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
+        indexing_utils.validate_scalar_key(
+            key, "iAt based indexing can only have integer indexers"
+        )
+        return super().__setitem__(key, value)
 
 
 @_performance_tracking

python/cudf/cudf/core/indexing_utils.py

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 from cudf.api.types import (
     _is_scalar_or_zero_d_array,
     is_integer,
+    is_list_like,
 )
 from cudf.core.column.column import as_column
 from cudf.core.copy_types import BooleanMask, GatherMap
@@ -69,6 +70,30 @@ class ScalarIndexer:
 )
 
 
+def validate_scalar_key(key: Any, error_msg: str) -> None:
+    """Validate that key contains only scalar values for .at/.iat indexers.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    key : Any
+        The key to validate
+    error_msg : str
+        The error message to raise if validation fails
+
+    Raises
+    ------
+    ValueError
+        If the key contains list-like indexers
+    """
+    if not isinstance(key, tuple):
+        if is_list_like(key):
+            raise ValueError(error_msg)
+    else:
+        for k in key:
+            if is_list_like(k):
+                raise ValueError(error_msg)
+
+
 # Helpers for code-sharing between loc and iloc paths
 def expand_key(
     key: Any, frame: DataFrame | Series, method_type: Literal["iloc", "loc"]

python/cudf/cudf/core/series.py

@@ -269,7 +269,19 @@ def __setitem__(self, key, value):
 
 
 class _SeriesiAtIndexer(_SeriesIlocIndexer):
-    pass
+    @_performance_tracking
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
+        indexing_utils.validate_scalar_key(
+            key, "iAt based indexing can only have integer indexers"
+        )
+        return super().__getitem__(key)
+
+    @_performance_tracking
+    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
+        indexing_utils.validate_scalar_key(
+            key, "iAt based indexing can only have integer indexers"
+        )
+        return super().__setitem__(key, value)
 
 
 class _SeriesLocIndexer(_FrameIndexer):
@@ -413,7 +425,19 @@ def _loc_to_iloc(self, arg):
 
 
 class _SeriesAtIndexer(_SeriesLocIndexer):
-    pass
+    @_performance_tracking
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
+        indexing_utils.validate_scalar_key(
+            key, "Invalid call for scalar access (getting)!"
+        )
+        return super().__getitem__(key)
+
+    @_performance_tracking
+    def __setitem__(self, key, value):
+        indexing_utils.validate_scalar_key(
+            key, "Invalid call for scalar access (getting)!"
+        )
+        return super().__setitem__(key, value)
 
 
 class Series(SingleColumnFrame, IndexedFrame):

python/cudf/cudf/tests/dataframe/indexing/test_loc.py

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2025, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2025-2026, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 import re
 import weakref
@@ -627,12 +627,6 @@ def test_dataframe_loc(scalar):
     # Full slice
     assert_eq(df.loc[:, "c"], pdf.loc[:, "c"])
 
-    # Repeat with at[]
-    assert_eq(df.loc[:, ["a"]], df.at[:, ["a"]])
-    assert_eq(df.loc[:, "d"], df.at[:, "d"])
-    assert_eq(df.loc[scalar], df.at[scalar])
-    assert_eq(df.loc[:, "c"], df.at[:, "c"])
-
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("step", [1, 5])
 def test_dataframe_loc_slice(step):
@@ -672,16 +666,6 @@ def test_dataframe_loc_slice(step):
         df.loc[begin, "a":"a"], pdf.loc[begin, "a":"a"], check_dtype=False
     )
 
-    # Repeat with at[]
-    assert_eq(
-        df.loc[begin:end:step, ["c", "d", "a"]],
-        df.at[begin:end:step, ["c", "d", "a"]],
-    )
-    assert_eq(df.loc[begin:end, ["c", "d"]], df.at[begin:end, ["c", "d"]])
-    assert_eq(df.loc[begin:end:step, "a":"c"], df.at[begin:end:step, "a":"c"])
-    assert_eq(df.loc[begin:begin, "a"], df.at[begin:begin, "a"])
-    assert_eq(df.loc[begin, "a":"a"], df.at[begin, "a":"a"], check_dtype=False)
-
 
 def test_dataframe_loc_arraylike():
     size = 123

python/cudf/cudf/tests/dataframe/test_at_iat.py

@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+import pytest
+
+import cudf
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def df_with_index():
+    return cudf.DataFrame(
+        {"A": [1, 2, 3], "B": [4, 5, 6]}, index=["x", "y", "z"]
+    )
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def df_without_index():
+    return cudf.DataFrame({"A": [1, 2, 3], "B": [4, 5, 6]})
+
+
+def test_dataframe_at_scalar_getitem(df_with_index):
+    assert df_with_index.at["x", "A"] == 1
+    assert df_with_index.at["y", "B"] == 5
+
+
+def test_dataframe_at_scalar_setitem(df_with_index):
+    df_with_index.at["x", "A"] = 10
+    assert df_with_index.at["x", "A"] == 10
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("key", [[["x"], "A"], ["x", ["A"]], [["x"], ["A"]]])
+def test_dataframe_at_rejects_list_like(df_with_index, key):
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="Invalid call for scalar access"):
+        df_with_index.at[key[0], key[1]]
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("key", [[["x"], "A"], ["x", ["A"]]])
+def test_dataframe_at_setitem_rejects_list_like(df_with_index, key):
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="Invalid call for scalar access"):
+        df_with_index.at[key[0], key[1]] = 10
+
+
+def test_dataframe_iat_scalar_getitem(df_without_index):
+    assert df_without_index.iat[0, 0] == 1
+    assert df_without_index.iat[1, 1] == 5
+
+
+def test_dataframe_iat_scalar_setitem(df_without_index):
+    df_without_index.iat[0, 0] = 10
+    assert df_without_index.iat[0, 0] == 10
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("key", [[[0], 0], [0, [0]], [[0], [0]]])
+def test_dataframe_iat_rejects_list_like(df_without_index, key):
+    with pytest.raises(
+        ValueError, match="iAt based indexing can only have integer indexers"
+    ):
+        df_without_index.iat[key[0], key[1]]
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("key", [[[0], 0], [0, [0]]])
+def test_dataframe_iat_setitem_rejects_list_like(df_without_index, key):
+    with pytest.raises(
+        ValueError, match="iAt based indexing can only have integer indexers"
+    ):
+        df_without_index.iat[key[0], key[1]] = 10

python/cudf/cudf/tests/series/test_at_iat.py

@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+import pytest
+
+import cudf
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def sr_with_index():
+    return cudf.Series([1, 2, 3], index=["x", "y", "z"])
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def sr_without_index():
+    return cudf.Series([1, 2, 3])
+
+
+def test_series_at_scalar_getitem(sr_with_index):
+    assert sr_with_index.at["x"] == 1
+    assert sr_with_index.at["y"] == 2
+
+
+def test_series_at_scalar_setitem(sr_with_index):
+    sr_with_index.at["x"] = 10
+    assert sr_with_index.at["x"] == 10
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("key", [[["x"]], [["x", "y"]]])
+def test_series_at_rejects_list_like(sr_with_index, key):
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="Invalid call for scalar access"):
+        sr_with_index.at[key[0]]
+
+
+def test_series_at_setitem_rejects_list_like(sr_with_index):
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="Invalid call for scalar access"):
+        sr_with_index.at[["x"]] = 10
+
+
+def test_series_iat_scalar_getitem(sr_without_index):
+    assert sr_without_index.iat[0] == 1
+    assert sr_without_index.iat[1] == 2
+
+
+def test_series_iat_scalar_setitem(sr_without_index):
+    sr_without_index.iat[0] = 10
+    assert sr_without_index.iat[0] == 10
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("key", [[[0]], [[0, 1]]])
+def test_series_iat_rejects_list_like(sr_without_index, key):
+    with pytest.raises(
+        ValueError, match="iAt based indexing can only have integer indexers"
+    ):
+        sr_without_index.iat[key[0]]
+
+
+def test_series_iat_setitem_rejects_list_like(sr_without_index):
+    with pytest.raises(
+        ValueError, match="iAt based indexing can only have integer indexers"
+    ):
+        sr_without_index.iat[[0]] = 10