Deprecate DataFrame indexer for iloc setitem and getitem

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.3.0.rst

@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ Other enhancements
 - Add support for dict-like names in :class:`MultiIndex.set_names` and :class:`MultiIndex.rename` (:issue:`20421`)
 - :func:`pandas.read_excel` can now auto detect .xlsb files (:issue:`35416`)
 - :meth:`.Rolling.sum`, :meth:`.Expanding.sum`, :meth:`.Rolling.mean`, :meth:`.Expanding.mean`, :meth:`.Rolling.median`, :meth:`.Expanding.median`, :meth:`.Rolling.max`, :meth:`.Expanding.max`, :meth:`.Rolling.min`, and :meth:`.Expanding.min` now support ``Numba`` execution with the ``engine`` keyword (:issue:`38895`)
+- Disallow :class:`DataFrame` indexer for ``iloc`` to make behavior consistent between :meth:`Series.__getitem__`, :meth:`DataFrame.__getitem__`, :meth:`Series.__setitem__` and :meth:`DataFrame.__setitem__` (:issue:`39004`)
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

pandas/core/indexing.py

@@ -1389,6 +1389,14 @@ def _has_valid_setitem_indexer(self, indexer) -> bool:
         if isinstance(indexer, dict):
             raise IndexError("iloc cannot enlarge its target object")
 
+        if isinstance(indexer, ABCDataFrame):
+            warnings.warn(
+                "DataFrame indexer for iloc is deprecated and will be removed in "
+                "a future version",
+                FutureWarning,
+                stacklevel=3,
+            )
+
         if not isinstance(indexer, tuple):
             indexer = _tuplify(self.ndim, indexer)
 
@@ -1480,6 +1488,9 @@ def _get_list_axis(self, key, axis: int):
             raise IndexError("positional indexers are out-of-bounds") from err
 
     def _getitem_axis(self, key, axis: int):
+        if isinstance(key, ABCDataFrame):
+            raise IndexError("DataFrame indexer is not allowed for iloc")
+
         if isinstance(key, slice):
             return self._get_slice_axis(key, axis=axis)
 

pandas/tests/indexing/test_iloc.py

@@ -947,6 +947,17 @@ def test_iloc_float_raises(self, series_with_simple_index, frame_or_series):
         with pytest.raises(IndexError, match=_slice_iloc_msg):
             obj.iloc[3.0] = 0
 
+    def test_iloc_frame_indexer(self, frame_or_series):
+        # GH#39004
+        df = DataFrame({"a": [1, 2, 3]})
+        indexer = DataFrame({"a": [True, False, True]})
+        with tm.assert_produces_warning(FutureWarning):
+            df.iloc[indexer] = 1
+
+        msg = "DataFrame indexer is not allowed for iloc"
+        with pytest.raises(IndexError, match=msg):
+            df.iloc[indexer]
+
 
 class TestILocSetItemDuplicateColumns:
     def test_iloc_setitem_scalar_duplicate_columns(self):