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Solve the following problem using Python, implementing the functions described below, one line at a time
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Description:
 def _ensure_datetimelike_to_i8(other, to_utc=False):
 """ Helper for coercing an input scalar or array to i8. Parameters other : 1d array to_utc : bool, default False If True, convert the values to UTC before extracting the i8 values If False, extract the i8 values directly. Returns ------- i8 1d array """

    from pandas import Index
    from pandas.core.arrays import PeriodArray

    if lib.is_scalar(other) and isna(other):
        return iNaT
    elif isinstance(other, (PeriodArray, ABCIndexClass,
                            DatetimeLikeArrayMixin)):
        # convert tz if needed
        if getattr(other, 'tz', None) is not None:
            if to_utc:
                other = other.tz_convert('UTC')
            else:
                other = other.tz_localize(None)
    else:
        try:
            return np.array(other, copy=False).view('i8')
        except TypeError:
            # period array cannot be coerced to int
            other = Index(other)
    return other.asi8