remove check for non-leaf node

fixes plotly#4774 and plotly#3589

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
 - Updated Plotly.js from version 2.35.0 to version 2.35.2. See the [plotly.js CHANGELOG](https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#2352----2024-09-10) for more information.
 
+### Fixed
+- Removed check for non-leaf nodes in dataframe for sunburst, treemap, and icicle [[#4776](https://github.com/plotly.plotly.py/pull/4776)]
+
 ## [5.24.0] - 2024-08-29
 
 ### Added

packages/python/plotly/plotly/express/_core.py

@@ -1633,15 +1633,6 @@ def _check_dataframe_all_leaves(df):
                 "None entries cannot have not-None children",
                 df_sorted.iloc[null_row_index],
             )
-    df_sorted[null_mask] = ""
-    row_strings = list(df_sorted.apply(lambda x: "".join(x), axis=1))
-    for i, row in enumerate(row_strings[:-1]):
-        if row_strings[i + 1] in row and (i + 1) in null_indices:
-            raise ValueError(
-                "Non-leaves rows are not permitted in the dataframe \n",
-                df_sorted.iloc[i + 1],
-                "is not a leaf.",
-            )
 
 
 def process_dataframe_hierarchy(args):

packages/python/plotly/plotly/tests/test_optional/test_px/test_px_functions.py

@@ -320,13 +320,25 @@ def test_sunburst_treemap_with_path_non_rectangular():
         )
     )
     path = ["total", "regions", "sectors", "vendors"]
-    msg = "Non-leaves rows are not permitted in the dataframe"
-    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=msg):
-        fig = px.sunburst(df, path=path, values="values")
+    fig = px.sunburst(df, path=path, values="values")
+    assert fig.data[0].values[-1] == np.sum(values)
     df.loc[df["vendors"].isnull(), "sectors"] = "Other"
     fig = px.sunburst(df, path=path, values="values")
     assert fig.data[0].values[-1] == np.sum(values)
 
+    df = pd.DataFrame(
+        {
+            "status": ["NOT_YET_COMPLETED", "COMPLETED"],
+            "next_step": ["Wrapup", None],
+            "count": [1, 2],
+        }
+    )
+    fig = px.sunburst(df, path=["status", "next_step"], values="count")
+    assert fig.data[0].values[-1] == 1
+    df.loc[0, "status"] = "ACTIVE_NOT_YET_COMPLETED"
+    fig = px.sunburst(df, path=["status", "next_step"], values="count")
+    assert fig.data[0].values[-1] == 1
+
 
 def test_pie_funnelarea_colorscale():
     labels = ["A", "B", "C", "D"]