BUG: DataFrame fail to construct when data is list and columns is nested list for MI

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.1.0.rst

@@ -249,6 +249,8 @@ Other
   instead of ``TypeError: Can only append a Series if ignore_index=True or if the Series has a name`` (:issue:`30871`)
 - Set operations on an object-dtype :class:`Index` now always return object-dtype results (:issue:`31401`)
 - Bug in :meth:`AbstractHolidayCalendar.holidays` when no rules were defined (:issue:`31415`)
+- Bug in :class:`DataFrame` when initiating a frame with lists and assign ``columns`` with nested list for ``MultiIndex`` (:issue:`32173`)
+-
 -
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

pandas/core/internals/construction.py

@@ -574,12 +574,30 @@ def _convert_object_array(content, columns, coerce_float=False, dtype=None):
     if columns is None:
         columns = ibase.default_index(len(content))
     else:
-        if len(columns) != len(content):  # pragma: no cover
+        is_mi_list = isinstance(columns, list) and all(
+            isinstance(col, list) for col in columns
+        )
+
+        if not is_mi_list and len(columns) != len(content):  # pragma: no cover
             # caller's responsibility to check for this...
             raise AssertionError(
                 f"{len(columns)} columns passed, passed data had "
                 f"{len(content)} columns"
             )
+        elif is_mi_list:
+
+            # check if nested list column, length of each sub-list should be equal
+            if len({len(col) for col in columns}) > 1:
+                raise ValueError(
+                    "Length of columns passed for MultiIndex columns is different"
+                )
+
+            # if columns is not empty and then length of sublist is not equal to content
+            elif columns and len(columns[0]) != len(content):
+                raise ValueError(
+                    f"{len(columns[0])} columns passed, passed data had "
+                    f"{len(content)} columns"
+                )
 
     # provide soft conversion of object dtypes
     def convert(arr):

pandas/tests/frame/test_constructors.py

@@ -1062,6 +1062,32 @@ def test_constructor_list_of_lists(self):
         result = DataFrame(data)
         tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
 
+    def test_constructor_list_like_data_nested_list_column(self):
+        # GH 32173
+        arrays = [list("abcd"), list("cdef")]
+        result = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2, 3, 4], [4, 5, 6, 7]], columns=arrays)
+
+        mi = MultiIndex.from_arrays(arrays)
+        expected = pd.DataFrame([[1, 2, 3, 4], [4, 5, 6, 7]], columns=mi)
+
+        tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
+
+    def test_constructor_wrong_length_nested_list_column(self):
+        # GH 32173
+        arrays = [list("abc"), list("cde")]
+
+        msg = "3 columns passed, passed data had 4"
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=msg):
+            DataFrame([[1, 2, 3, 4], [4, 5, 6, 7]], columns=arrays)
+
+    def test_constructor_inequal_length_nested_list_column(self):
+        # GH 32173
+        arrays = [list("abcd"), list("cde")]
+
+        msg = "Length of columns passed for MultiIndex columns is different"
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=msg):
+            DataFrame([[1, 2, 3, 4], [4, 5, 6, 7]], columns=arrays)
+
     def test_constructor_sequence_like(self):
         # GH 3783
         # collections.Squence like