Improve error message for DataFrame.from_dict when wrong orient is provided

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.3.rst

@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ Bug fixes
 ~~~~~~~~~
 - Bug in :func:`pandas.eval`, :meth:`DataFrame.eval` and :meth:`DataFrame.query` where passing empty ``local_dict`` or ``global_dict`` was treated as passing ``None`` (:issue:`47084`)
 - Most I/O methods no longer suppress ``OSError`` and ``ValueError`` when closing file handles (:issue:`47136`)
+- Improving error message raised by :meth:`DataFrame.from_dict` when passing an invalid ``orient`` parameter (:issue:`47450`)
 
 .. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

pandas/core/frame.py

@@ -1720,7 +1720,10 @@ def from_dict(
             if columns is not None:
                 raise ValueError(f"cannot use columns parameter with orient='{orient}'")
         else:  # pragma: no cover
-            raise ValueError("only recognize index or columns for orient")
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"Expected 'index', 'columns' or 'tight' for orient parameter. "
+                f"Got '{orient}' instead"
+            )
 
         if orient != "tight":
             return cls(data, index=index, columns=columns, dtype=dtype)
@@ -1817,7 +1820,7 @@ def to_dict(self, orient: str = "dict", into=dict):
 
         Parameters
         ----------
-        orient : str {'dict', 'list', 'series', 'split', 'records', 'index'}
+        orient : str {'dict', 'list', 'series', 'split', 'tight', 'records', 'index'}
             Determines the type of the values of the dictionary.
 
             - 'dict' (default) : dict like {column -> {index -> value}}

pandas/tests/frame/constructors/test_from_dict.py

@@ -17,11 +17,6 @@ class TestFromDict:
     # Note: these tests are specific to the from_dict method, not for
     #  passing dictionaries to DataFrame.__init__
 
-    def test_from_dict_scalars_requires_index(self):
-        msg = "If using all scalar values, you must pass an index"
-        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=msg):
-            DataFrame.from_dict(OrderedDict([("b", 8), ("a", 5), ("a", 6)]))
-
     def test_constructor_list_of_odicts(self):
         data = [
             OrderedDict([["a", 1.5], ["b", 3], ["c", 4], ["d", 6]]),
@@ -189,3 +184,16 @@ def test_frame_dict_constructor_empty_series(self):
         # it works!
         DataFrame({"foo": s1, "bar": s2, "baz": s3})
         DataFrame.from_dict({"foo": s1, "baz": s3, "bar": s2})
+
+    def test_from_dict_scalars_requires_index(self):
+        msg = "If using all scalar values, you must pass an index"
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=msg):
+            DataFrame.from_dict(OrderedDict([("b", 8), ("a", 5), ("a", 6)]))
+
+    def test_from_dict_orient_invalid(self):
+        msg = (
+            "Expected 'index', 'columns' or 'tight' for orient parameter. "
+            "Got 'abc' instead"
+        )
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=msg):
+            DataFrame.from_dict({"foo": 1, "baz": 3, "bar": 2}, orient="abc")