Series and DataFrame have "alternate constructors" for this purpose, and the loc/iloc accessors give you a bit more control. I agree that the magic type auto-d

Series and DataFrame have "alternate constructors" for this purpose, and the loc/iloc accessors give you a bit more control. I agree that the magic type auto-detection is a bit too magical and sloppy, but you have to realize that data analysts and scientists have historically been incredibly sloppy programmers who wanted as much magic as possible. It's only in recent years that researchers have begun to value some amount of discipline in their research code.