ImportError: cannot import name 'Appender' from 'statsmodels.compat.pandas'

TL;DR: statsmodels removed its Appender shim. Import it from pandas.util._decorators instead, or upgrade the package that does the old import.

The error

ImportError: cannot import name 'Appender' from 'statsmodels.compat.pandas'

Fix it

1. Replace the import in your code:

   from pandas.util._decorators import Appender

   Expected: no import error; Appender behaves the same.

2. If the bad import is inside a third-party package, upgrade that package:

   pip install -U [the-package]

   Expected: new release uses the new path.

3. Verify the import that failed now works.

When this applies

Use this when code does from statsmodels.compat.pandas import Appender on a recent statsmodels.

When it does not apply

If the error names a different statsmodels.compat member, check whether the shim still exists. If statsmodels itself will not import, reinstall it.

Compatibility

Recent statsmodels versions where the compat shim was removed. pandas.util._decorators.Appender exists across pandas 1.x and 2.x.

Root cause

statsmodels.compat.pandas held shims for pandas API drift, including a re-export of pandas' Appender docstring decorator. statsmodels cleaned the module up and dropped the re-export; anything importing it breaks.

Edge cases

Appender is itself semi-private in pandas (pandas.util._decorators), so prefer upgrading the dependent package over relying on the new path long-term. Grep for other statsmodels.compat imports when upgrading.

GitHub issue statsmodels/statsmodels#6760 reports ImportError: cannot import name 'Appender' from 'statsmodels.compat.pandas' with a modern statsmodels installed. The verified answer: statsmodels removed the Appender compatibility shim from statsmodels.compat.pandas, so code importing it must use pandas.util._decorators.Appender directly (or upgrade the package that does the old import to a fixed release). Full thread: https://github.com/statsmodels/statsmodels/issues/6760