title: h2o frame from pandas casting
body: <p>I am using h2o to perform predictive modeling from python.
  I have loaded some data from a csv using pandas, specifying some column types:</p>
  
  <pre><code>dtype_dict = {'SIT_SSICCOMP':'object',
                'SIT_CAPACC':'object',
                'PTT_SSIRMPOL':'object',
                'PTT_SPTCLVEI':'object',
                'cap_pad':'object',
                'SIT_SADNS_RESP_PERC':'object',
                'SIT_GEOCODE':'object',
                'SIT_TIPOFIRMA':'object',
                'SIT_TPFRODESI':'object',
                'SIT_CITTAACC':'object',
                'SIT_INDIRACC':'object',
                'SIT_NUMCIVACC':'object'
                }
  date_cols = ["SIT_SSIDTSIN","SIT_SSIDTDEN","PTT_SPTDTEFF","PTT_SPTDTSCA","SIT_DTANTIFRODE","PTT_DTELABOR"]
  
  
  columns_to_drop = ['SIT_TPFRODESI','SIT_CITTAACC',
         'SIT_INDIRACC', 'SIT_NUMCIVACC', 'SIT_CAPACC', 'SIT_LONGITACC',
         'SIT_LATITACC','cap_pad','SIT_DTANTIFRODE']
  
  
  comp='mycomp'
  
  file_completo = os.path.join(dataDir,"db4modelrisk_"+comp+".csv")
  db4scoring = pd.read_csv(filepath_or_buffer=file_completo,sep=";", encoding='latin1',
                            header=0,infer_datetime_format =True,na_values=[''], keep_default_na =False,
                            parse_dates=date_cols,dtype=dtype_dict,nrows=500e3)
  db4scoring.drop(labels=columns_to_drop,axis=1,inplace =True)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Then, after I set up a h2o cluster I import it in h2o using <code>db4scoring_h2o = H2OFrame(db4scoring)</code> and I convert categorical predictors in factor for example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>db4scoring_h2o["SIT_SADTPROV"]=db4scoring_h2o["SIT_SADTPROV"].asfactor()
  db4scoring_h2o["PTT_SPTFRAZ"]=db4scoring_h2o["PTT_SPTFRAZ"].asfactor()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I check data types using db4scoring.dtypes I notice that they are properly set but when I import it in h2o I notice that h2oframe performs some unwanted conversions to enum (eg from float or from int). I wonder if is is a way to specify the variable format in H2OFrame.</p>