Title: Passing numpy array to ClassLabel names causes ValueError
Author: freddyheppell (CONTRIBUTOR)
State: closed
Created: 2022-12-05T12:59:03Z

### Describe the bug

If a numpy array is passed to the names argument of ClassLabel, creating a dataset with those features causes an error.

### Steps to reproduce the bug

https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1cV_es1PWZiEuus17n-2C-w0KEoEZ68IX

TLDR:

If I define my classes as:
```
my_classes = np.array(['one', 'two', 'three'])
```

Then this errors:

```py
features = Features({'value': Value('string'), 'label': ClassLabel(names=my_classes)})
dataset = Dataset.from_list(my_data, features=features)
```
```
ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
[<ipython-input-8-a8a9d53ec82f>](https://localhost:8080/#) in <module>
----> 1 dataset = Dataset.from_list(my_data, features=features)

11 frames
[/usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages/datasets/utils/py_utils.py](https://localhost:8080/#) in _asdict_inner(obj)
    183             for f in fields(obj):
    184                 value = _asdict_inner(getattr(obj, f.name))
--> 185                 if not f.init or value != f.default or f.metadata.get("include_in_asdict_even_if_is_default", False):
    186                     result[f.name] = value
    187             return result

ValueError: The truth value of an array with more than one element is ambiguous. Use a.any() or a.all()
```

But this works:
```
features2 = Features({'value': Value('string'), 'label': ClassLabel(names=list(my_classes))})
dataset2 = Dataset.from_list(my_data, features=features2)
```


### Expected behavior

If I provide a numpy array of class names, I would expect either an error that the names list is the wrong type, or for it to be cast internally.

### Environment info

- `datasets` version: 2.7.1
- Platform: Linux-5.15.0-56-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.10
- Python version: 3.8.15
- PyArrow version: 10.0.1
- Pandas version: 1.5.2

Additionally:
- Numpy version: 1.23.5

Comments:
Should `datasets` allow `ClassLabel` input parameter to be an `np.array` even though internally we need to cast it to a Python list? @lhoestq @mariosasko  

Hi! No, I don't think so. The `names` parameter is [annotated](https://github.com/huggingface/datasets/blob/582236640b9109988e5f7a16a8353696ffa09a16/src/datasets/features/features.py#L892) as `List[str]` (**NumPy arrays are not lists**), and considering that type checking is not a common practice in Python, I think we can leave the code as-is.

I appreciate it is the wrong type, and that type checking is not common, but I think there's a few circumstances that make it a good idea from a usability perspective.

It's quite a difficult error to debug because it comes from a utility function (so it's not immediately obvious which parameter caused it). What makes it even more difficult is the exception happens when the features instance is used to instantiate the dataset, **not** when when the wrong type is actually passed when the features is instantiated. When I was debugging the error, I didn't really consider it could be an issue with the features instance because it had instantiated fine. It's also not one of the more common exceptions caused by trying to use a non-list as a list.

It's also relatively easy to accidentally get a numpy array of class types (e.g. calling `unique()` on a pandas dataframe column). Additionally, passing in a `set` instead of the list (again, relatively easy because people may run `set(classes)` to generate uniques) causes an error when the features instance is used, albeit a slightly more obvious one.

The names list is already being processed and validated in the `__post_init__` method anyway, so it would not really be adding any complexity to check it is actually a list here too. I'm happy to contribute this change if you change your mind about whether it's worthwhile.

I agree that it's not easy to debug this issue, so perhaps we could add some basic type checking (e.g. `not isinstance(names, list)` -> error) to make debugging easier. Feel free to submit a PR.

> Additionally, passing in a set instead of the list (again, relatively easy because people may run set(classes) to generate uniques) causes an error when the features instance is used, albeit a slightly more obvious one.

`set` is an unordered structure (it's ordered in Python 3.6+, but this is CPython's implementation detail), and the order of ClassLabel `names` matters, so this doesn't require a fix.

What about checking for `Sequence` instead? I think users can pass a list or a tuple as well.