rename some function arguments (#8017)
don't create duplicate pivot names (#8002)
Remove deprecated behaviour (#7978)
rename toggle_string_cache to enable_string_cache (#7970)
change top_k(descending) -> bottom_k (#7969)
in sort, top_k, sort_by, and arg_sort_by, raise if descending is a sequence and its length doesn't match the number of columns to sort by (#7957)
Use RowsError instead of RowsException as recommended … (#6009)
Use time_unit/time_zone instead of tu/tz (#7910)
More ergonomic args for struct, concat_str, and arg_sort_by (#7308)
swap arguments of shift_and_fill and add default… (#7192)
set maintain_order=False for df/lf.unique (#7468)
Rename pipe arg func to function (#7139)
Set some args for Series/Expr methods to keyword-only (#7860)

🚀 Performance improvements

FromParalleIter<Option<str>> for Utf8Chunked ~1.9x (#8058)
speed up from_par_iter Option<bool> ~2.5x (#8057)
parallelize numeric ChunkedArray materialization ~2x. (#8053)
parallelize into_groups materialization ~-25% (#8036)
use a trusted anyvalue builder (#8001)
numeric grouptuples with nulls hash in single pass ~25% (#7980)
ensure primitives are parsed first in anyvalue conversion (#7955)
use perfect hash table for categoricals (#7951)

✨ Enhancements

multiple sql contexts & optional sql highlighting in cli (#8072)
implement arg_sort for struct dtype (#8051)
Support DataFrame init from pyarrow RecordBatch objects, and improve init from Array (#8011)
allow write_ipc to take file=None (returning BytesIO) (#7997)
Add __array__ method to DataFrame (#7979)
support struct in df.unique (#7976)
change top_k(descending) -> bottom_k (#7969)
basic sanity-checks for some Config methods, reference POLARS_MAX_THREADS in threadpool_size docstring (#7965)
optimize away nested unions in lp (#7861)
Use RowsError instead of RowsException as recommended … (#6009)
More ergonomic args for struct, concat_str, and arg_sort_by (#7308)

🐞 Bug fixes

check element count in multi-column explode (#8050)
set lower limit for chunk_size (#8048)
impl to_static for struct (#8037)
create Series with list of only None with Float32 dtype (#8015)
version gate pyarrow version for `to_pandas=(use_pyarrow… (#8026)
Only allow correct type for get_column and to_series arg… (#7983)
Output correct dtype for values of remapping dict in map… (#8013)
all/any empty sets (#8012)
struct null_count, cast string, tranpose and describe (#8009)
fix pivot and transpose of struct data (#8005)
don't create duplicate pivot names (#8002)
Fix test_literal_group_agg_chunked_7968 test (#7991)
fix chunked literals in expression engine (#7973)
in sort, top_k, sort_by, and arg_sort_by, raise if descending is a sequence and its length doesn't match the number of columns to sort by (#7957)
pandas 2.0 compat (#7962)
concat object types (#7958)
fix decimal conversion alignment (#7954)

🛠️ Other improvements

Fix Expr.apply docstring for return_dtype parameter (#8069)
rename some function arguments (#8017)
Remove deprecated behaviour (#7978)
Add docstring examples for top_k and bottom_k (#7987)
rename toggle_string_cache to enable_string_cache (#7970)
add remaining operator-equivalent method docstrings and a related html/docs entry (#7953)
Use time_unit/time_zone instead of tu/tz (#7910)
swap arguments of shift_and_fill and add default… (#7192)
set maintain_order=False for df/lf.unique (#7468)
Rename pipe arg func to function (#7139)
Set some args for Series/Expr methods to keyword-only (#7860)

Thank you to all our contributors for making this release possible! @MarcoGorelli, @StefanBRas, @alexander-beedie, @ghuls, @rben01, @ritchie46, @stinodego and @universalmind303