Merge pull request #8742 from dstephens99/issue5229

BUG: Allow non-float values in get_yahoo_quotes.

Author: jreback

doc/source/whatsnew/v0.15.1.txt

@@ -301,4 +301,5 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 - Bug in Setting by indexer to a scalar value with a mixed-dtype `Panel4d` was failing (:issue:`8702`)
 
-- Bug where ``DataReader``'s would fail if one of the symbols passed was invalid.  Now returns data for valid symbols and np.nan for invalid (:issue:`8494`)
+- Bug where ``DataReader``'s would fail if one of the symbols passed was invalid.  Now returns data for valid symbols and np.nan for invalid (:issue:`8494`)
+- Bug in ``get_quote_yahoo`` that wouldn't allow non-float return values (:issue:`5229`).

pandas/io/data.py

@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ def get_quote_yahoo(symbols):
                 try:
                     v = float(field)
                 except ValueError:
-                    v = np.nan
+                    v = field
             data[header[i]].append(v)
 
     idx = data.pop('symbol')

pandas/io/tests/test_data.py

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 import pandas as pd
 from pandas import DataFrame, Timestamp
 from pandas.io import data as web
-from pandas.io.data import DataReader, SymbolWarning, RemoteDataError
+from pandas.io.data import DataReader, SymbolWarning, RemoteDataError, _yahoo_codes
 from pandas.util.testing import (assert_series_equal, assert_produces_warning,
                                  network, assert_frame_equal)
 import pandas.util.testing as tm
@@ -151,6 +151,12 @@ def test_get_quote_series(self):
     def test_get_quote_string(self):
         df = web.get_quote_yahoo('GOOG')
 
+    @network
+    def test_get_quote_string(self):
+        _yahoo_codes.update({'MarketCap': 'j1'})
+        df = web.get_quote_yahoo('GOOG')
+        self.assertFalse(pd.isnull(df['MarketCap'][0]))
+
     @network
     def test_get_quote_stringlist(self):
         df = web.get_quote_yahoo(['GOOG', 'AAPL', 'GOOG'])