Merge branch 'string-methods'

* string-methods:
  TST: added unit tests from PR #1179 and copied docstrings
  ENH: additional unicode handling
  ENH: don't repeat numerical types
  TST: mixed types for string methods
  ENH: finish docs
  TST: add testing module for string methods #620
  ENH: continue filling out string methods + tests #620
  ENH: get working on vectorized string methods #620

pandas/core/series.py

@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 import pandas.core.generic as generic
 import pandas.core.nanops as nanops
 import pandas.lib as lib
-from pandas.util.decorators import Appender, Substitution
+from pandas.util.decorators import Appender, Substitution, cache_readonly
 
 from pandas.compat.scipy import scoreatpercentile as _quantile
 
@@ -2626,6 +2626,10 @@ def tz_localize(self, tz, copy=True):
 
         return Series(new_values, index=new_index, name=self.name)
 
+    @cache_readonly
+    def str(self):
+        from pandas.core.strings import StringMethods
+        return StringMethods(self)
 
 _INDEX_TYPES = ndarray, Index, list, tuple