From ec19d52f62782bf8a3af12ff30c7140a2bbe98e6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Matthew Roeschke <10647082+mroeschke@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2025 09:51:18 -0800
Subject: [PATCH] cache null count for short circuit case

---
 python/cudf/cudf/_lib/column.pyx | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/column.pyx b/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/column.pyx
index cf7122fd15b..7e313d64789 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/column.pyx
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/column.pyx
@@ -346,7 +346,7 @@ cdef class Column:
     def null_count(self):
         if self._null_count is None:
             if not self.nullable or self.size == 0:
-                return 0
+                self._null_count = 0
             with acquire_spill_lock():
                 self._null_count = pylibcudf.null_mask.null_count(
                     self.base_mask.get_ptr(mode="read"),