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Aws Glue Interview

AWS Glue is a managed ETL service that allows users to extract, transform and load data between data stores. It consists of the AWS Glue Data Catalog for metadata, an ETL engine that automatically generates code, and a customizable scheduler. Users create crawlers to populate the data catalog and jobs to execute ETL tasks on a scheduled basis.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
343 views259 pages

Aws Glue Interview

AWS Glue is a managed ETL service that allows users to extract, transform and load data between data stores. It consists of the AWS Glue Data Catalog for metadata, an ETL engine that automatically generates code, and a customizable scheduler. Users create crawlers to populate the data catalog and jobs to execute ETL tasks on a scheduled basis.

Uploaded by

Rick V
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1. What is AWS Glue?

AWS Glue is a managed service ETL (extract, transform, and load) service that enables
categorizing, cleaning, enriching, and moving data reliably between various data storage
and data streams simple and cost-effective. AWS Glue consists of the AWS Glue Data
Catalog, an ETL engine that creates Python or Scala code automatically, and a
customizable scheduler that manages dependency resolution, job monitoring, and
retries. Because AWS Glue is serverless, there is no infrastructure to install or maintain.

2. Describe AWS Glue Architecture

The architecture of an AWS Glue environment is shown in the figure below.

1. The fundamentals of using AWS Glue to generate one's Data Catalog and
processing ETL dataflows.

2. In AWS Glue, users create tasks to complete the operation of extracting,


transforming, and loading (ETL) data from a data source to a data target. You
usually do the following:

3. You construct a crawler for datastore resources to enrich one's AWS Glue Data
Catalog with metadata table entries. When you direct your crawler to a data
store, the crawler populates the Data Catalog with table definitions. Manually
define Data Catalog tables and data stream characteristics for streaming
sources.
4. In addition to table descriptions, the AWS Glue Data Model contains additional
metadata that is required to build ETL operations. Users use this information
when they take on that job to alter their data.

5. AWS Glue may generate a data transformation script. Users can also provide the
script using the AWS Glue console or API.

6. Users could complete their task immediately or set it to start when another
incidence occurs. The trigger could be a timer or an event.

7. When a user's task starts, a script pulls information from the user's data source,
modifies it, and sends it to the user's data target. The script is run in an Apache
Spark environment through AWS Glue.

[Read Also: AWS Glue Tutorial]

3. What are the Features of AWS Glue?

The key features of AWS Glue are listed below:

Automatic Schema Discovery 

Enables crawlers to automatically acquire scheme-related information and store it in a


data catalog.

Job Scheduler 

Several jobs can be initiated simultaneously, and users can specify job dependencies.

Developer Endpoints

Aid in creating bespoke readers, writers, and transformations.


Automatic Code Generation (ACG) 

Aids in building code.

Integrated Data Catalog

The AWS pipeline's Integrated Data Catalog stores various sources.

4. What are the Benefits of AWS Glue?

The following are some of the advantages of AWS Glue:

 Fault Tolerance - AWS Glue logs can be debugged and retrieved.


 Filtering - For poor data, AWS Glue employs filtering.
 Maintenance and Development - AWS Glue relies on maintenance and
deployment because AWS manages the service.

5. When to use a Glue Classifier?

A Glue Classifier is used to crawl a data store in the AWS Glue Data Catalog to
generate metadata tables. An ordered set of classifiers can be used to configure your
crawler. When a crawler calls a classifier, the classifier determines whether or not the
data is recognized. If the first classifier fails to acknowledge the data or is unsure, the
crawler moves to the next classifier in the list to see if it can.

6. What are the main components of AWS Glue?

AWS Glue’s main components are as follows: 

 Data Catalog  acts as a central metadata repository

 ETL engine that can automatically generate Scala or Python code.

 The flexible scheduler manages dependency resolution, job monitoring, and


retries.

 AWS Glue DataBrew allows the user to clean and stabilize data using a visual
interface.

 AWS Glue Elastic View will enable users to combine and replicate data across
multiple data stores. 

These solutions will allow you to spend more time analyzing your data by automating
most of the non-differentiated labor associated with data search, categorization,
cleaning, enrichment, and migration.

7. What Data Sources are supported by AWS Glue?

AWS Glue's data sources include:

1. Amazon Aurora
2. Amazon RDS for MySQL
3. Amazon RDS for Oracle
4. Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL
5. Amazon RDS for SQL Server
6. Amazon Redshift
7. DynamoDB
8. Amazon S3
9. MySQL
10. Oracle
11. Microsoft SQL Server

8. What is AWS Glue Data Catalog?

Your persistent metadata repository is AWS Glue Data Catalog. It's a managed service
that allows you to store, annotate, and exchange metadata in the AWS Cloud in the
same way as an Apache Hive metastore does.AWS Glue Data Catalogs are unique to
each AWS account and region. It creates a centralized location where diverse systems
may store and get metadata to maintain data in data silos and query and alter the data
using that metadata. Access to the data sources handled by the AWS Glue Data Catalog
can be controlled with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies.

9. Which AWS services and open-source projects use AWS Glue Data
Catalog?

The AWS Glue Data Catalog is used by the following AWS services and open-
source projects:

 AWS Lake Formation


 Amazon Athena
 Amazon Redshift Spectrum
 Amazon EMR
 AWS Glue Data Catalog Client for Apache Hive Metastore

10. What are AWS Glue Crawlers?

AWS Glue crawler is used to populate the AWS Glue catalog with tables. It can crawl
many data repositories in one operation. One or even more tables in the Data Catalog
are created or modified when the crawler is done. In ETL operations defined in AWS
Glue, these Data Catalog tables are used as sources and targets. The ETL task reads
and writes data to the Data Catalog tables in the source and target.

11. What is the AWS Glue Schema Registry?

The AWS Glue Schema Registry assists us by allowing to validate and regulate the
lifecycle of streaming data using registered Apache Avro schemas at no cost. Apache
Kafka, Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (MSK), Amazon Kinesis Data
Streams, Apache Flink, Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics for Apache Flink, and AWS
Lambda benefit from Schema Registry.
12. Why should we use AWS Glue Schema Registry?

You can use the AWS Glue Schema Registry to:

 Validate schemas: Schemas used for data production are checked against
schemas in a central registry when data streaming apps are linked with AWS
Glue Schema Registry, allowing you to regulate data quality centrally.

 Safeguard schema evolution: One of eight compatibility modes can be used to


specify criteria for how schemas can and cannot grow.

 Improve data quality: Serializers compare data producers' schemas to those in


the registry, enhancing data quality at the source and avoiding downstream
difficulties caused by random schema drift.

 Save costs: Serializers transform data into a binary format that can be
compressed before transferring, lowering data transfer and storage costs.

 Improve processing efficiency: A data stream frequently comprises records with


multiple schemas. The Schema Registry allows applications that read data
streams to process each document based on the schema rather than parsing its
contents, increasing processing performance.

13. When should I use AWS Glue vs. AWS Batch?

AWS Batch enables you to conduct any batch computing job on AWS with ease and
efficiency, regardless of the work type. AWS Batch maintains and produces computing
resources in your AWS account, giving you complete control over and insight into the
resources in use. AWS Glue is a fully-managed ETL solution that runs your ETL tasks in
a serverless Apache Spark environment. We recommend using AWS Glue for your ETL
use cases. AWS Batch might be a better fit for some batch-oriented use cases, such as
ETL use cases.

14. What kinds of evolution rules does AWS Glue Schema Registry
support?

Backward, Backward All, Forward, Forward All, Full, Full All, None, and Disabled are the
compatibility modes accessible to regulate your schema evolution. 

15. How does AWS Glue Schema Registry maintain high availability
for applications?

The AWS Glue SLA is underpinned by the Schema Registry storage and control plane,
and the serializers and deserializers use best-practice caching strategies to maximize
client schema availability.

16. Is AWS Glue Schema Registry open-source?

The serializers and deserializers are Apache-licensed open-source components, but the
Glue Schema Registry storage is an AWS service.
17. How does AWS Glue relate to AWS Lake Formation?

AWS Lake Formation benefits from AWS Glue's shared infrastructure, which offers
console controls, ETL code development and task monitoring, a shared data catalog,
and serverless architecture. Lake Formation features AWS Glue capability and
additional capabilities for constructing, securing, and administering data lakes, even
though AWS Glue is still focused on such types of procedures.

18. What are Development Endpoints?

The term "development endpoints" is used to describe the AWS Glue API's testing
capabilities when utilizing Custom DevEndpoint. A developer may debug the extract,
transform, and load ETL Scripts at the endpoint.

19. What are AWS Tags in AWS Glue?

A tag is a label you apply to an Amazon Web Services resource. Each tag has a key and
an optional value, both of which are defined by you. 
In AWS Glue, you may use tags to organize and identify your resources. Tags can be
used to generate cost accounting reports and limit resource access. You can restrict
which users in your AWS account have authority to create, update, or delete tags if you
use AWS Identity and Access Management.

The following AWS Glue resources can be tagged:

 Crawler
 Job
 Trigger
 Workflow
 Development endpoint
 Machine learning transform

20. What are the points to remember when using tags with AWS Glue?

1. Each entity can have a maximum of 50 tags.


2. Tags are specified as a list of key-value pairs in the "string": "string"... in AWS
Glue.
3. The tag key is necessary when creating a tag on an item, but the tag value is not.
4. Case matters when it comes to the tag key and value.
5. The prefix AWS cannot be used in the tag key or the tag value. Such tags are not
subject to any activities.
6. In UTF-8, 128 Unicode characters are the maximum tag key length. There can't
be any empty or null tags in the tag key.
7. In UTF-8, 256 Unicode characters are the highest tag value length. The tag value
may be null or empty.

21. What is the AWS Glue database?

The AWS Glue Data Catalog database is a container that houses tables. You utilize
databases to categorize your tables. When you run a crawler or manually add a table,
you establish a database. All of your databases are listed in the AWS Glue console's
database list.

22. What programming language is used to write  ETL code for AWS
Glue?

Scala or Python can write ETL code for AWS Glue.

Visit here to learn AWS Course in Hyderabad

23. What is the AWS Glue Job system?

AWS Glue Jobs is a managed platform for orchestrating your ETL workflow. In AWS
Glue, you may construct jobs to automate the scripts you use to extract, transform, and
transport data to various places. Jobs can be scheduled and chained, or events like new
data arrival can trigger them.

24. Does AWS Glue use EMR?

The AWS Glue Data Catalog integrates with Amazon EMR, Amazon RDS, Amazon
Redshift, Redshift Spectrum, Athena, and any application compatible with the Apache
Hive megastore, providing a consistent metadata repository across several data sources
and data formats.
Advanced AWS Glue interview questions with answers

25. Does AWS Glue have a no-code interface for visual ETL?

Yes. AWS Glue Studio is a graphical tool for creating Glue jobs that process data. AWS
Glue studio will produce Apache Spark code on your behalf once you've defined the flow
of your data sources, transformations, and targets in the visual interface.

AWS Glue Advanced Interview Questions 


26. How do I query metadata in Athena?

AWS Glue metadata such as databases, tables, partitions, and columns may be queried
using Athena. Individual hive DDL commands can be used to extract metadata
information from Athena for specific databases, tables, views, partitions, and columns,
but the results are not tabular.

27. What is the general workflow for how a Crawler populates the
AWS Glue Data Catalog? 

The usual method for populating the AWS Glue Data Catalog via a crawler is as
follows:

1. To deduce the format and schema of your data, a crawler runs any custom
classifiers you specify. Custom classifiers are programmed by you and run in the
order you specify.

2. A schema is created using the first custom classifier that correctly recognizes
your data structure. Lower-ranking custom classifiers are ignored.

3. Built-in classifiers attempt to identify your data schema if no custom classifier


matches it. One that acknowledges JSON is an example of a built-in classifier.

4. The crawler accesses the data storage. Connection attributes are required for
crawler access to some data repositories.

5. Your data will be given an inferred schema.

6. The crawler populates the data catalog. A table description is a piece of metadata
that defines your data store's data. The table is kept in the Data Catalog, a
database container for tables. The label generated by the classifier that inferred
the table schema is the table's classification attribute.

28. How to customize the ETL code generated by AWS Glue?

Scala or Python code is generated via the AWS Glue ETL script suggestion engine. It
makes use of Glue's ETL framework to manage task execution and facilitate access to
data sources. One can use AWS Glue's library to write ETL code, or you can use inline
editing using the AWS Glue Console script editor to write arbitrary code in Scala or
Python, which you can then download and modify in your IDE.

29. How to build an end-to-end ETL workflow using multiple jobs in


AWS Glue?

AWS Glue includes a sophisticated set of orchestration features that allow you to handle
dependencies between numerous tasks to design end-to-end ETL processes; in addition
to the ETL library and code generation, AWS Glue ETL jobs can be scheduled or
triggered when they finish. Several jobs can be activated simultaneously or sequentially
by triggering them on a task completion event.

30. How does AWS Glue monitor dependencies?

AWS Glue uses triggers to handle dependencies among two or more activities or
external events. Triggers can both watch and invoke jobs. The three options are a
scheduled trigger, which runs jobs regularly, an on-demand trigger, or a job completion
trigger.

31. How does AWS Glue handle ETL errors?

AWS Glue tracks job metrics and faults and sends all alerts to Amazon CloudWatch.
You may set up Amazon CloudWatch to do various tasks responding to AWS Glue
notifications. You can use AWS Lambda to trigger an AWS Lambda function when you
get an error or a success notice from Glue. Glue also has a default retry behavior that
retries all errors three times before generating an error message.

32. Can we run existing ETL jobs with AWS Glue?


Yes. On AWS Glue, we can run your Scala or Python code. Simply save the code to
Amazon S3 and use it in one or more jobs. We can reuse code across multiple jobs by
connecting numerous jobs to the exact code location on Amazon S3.

33. What AWS Glue Schema Registry supports data format, client
language, and integrations?

The Schema Registry supports Java client apps and Apache Avro and JSON Schema
data formats. We intend to keep adding support for non-Java clients and various data
types. The Schema Registry works with Apache Kafka, Amazon Managed Streaming for
Apache Kafka (MSK), Amazon Kinesis Data Streams, Apache Flink, Amazon Kinesis
Data Analytics for Apache Flink, and AWS Lambda applications.

Leave an Inquiry to learn AWS Course in Bangalore

34. How to get metadata into the AWS Glue Data Catalog?

The AWS Glue Data Catalog can be populated in a variety of ways. Crawlers in the Glue
Data Catalog search various data stores you own to infer schemas and partition
structure and populate the Glue Data Catalog with table definitions and statistics. You
can also run crawlers regularly to keep your metadata current and in line with the
underlying data. Users can also use the AWS Glue Console or the API to manually add
and change table information. Hive DDL statements can also be executed on an
Amazon EMR cluster via the Amazon Athena Console or a Hive client.

35. How to import data from the existing Apache Hive Metastore to the
AWS Glue Data Catalog?

Simply execute an ETL process that reads data from your Apache Hive Metastore,
exports it to Amazon S3, and imports it into the AWS Glue Data Catalog.

36. Do we need to maintain my Apache Hive Metastore if we store


metadata in the AWS Glue Data Catalog?

No, the Apache Hive Metastore is incompatible with AWS Glue Data Catalog. You can
use Glue Data Catalog to replace Apache Hive Metastore by pointing to its endpoint.

37. When should we use AWS Glue Streaming, and when should I use
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics?

Streaming data can be processed with AWS Glue and Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics.
AWS Glue is advised when your use cases are mostly ETL, and you wish to run tasks
on a serverless Apache Spark-based infrastructure. Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics is
recommended when your use cases are mostly analytics, and you want to run jobs on a
serverless Apache Flink-based platform.

AWS Glue's Streaming ETL allows you to perform complex ETL on streaming data using
the same serverless, pay-as-you-go infrastructure that you use for batch tasks. AWS
Glue provides customized ETL code to prepare your data in flight and has built-in
functionality to process semi-structured or developing schema Streaming data. Use Glue
to load data streams into your data lake or warehouse using its built-in and Spark-native
transformations.

We can use Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics to create complex streaming applications
that analyze data in real time. It offers a serverless Apache Flink runtime that scales
without servers and saves application information indefinitely. For real-time analytics and
more generic stream data processing, use Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics.

38. What is AWS Glue DataBrew?

AWS Glue DataBrew is a visual data preparation solution that allows data analysts and
scientists to prepare without writing code using an interactive, point-and-click graphical
interface. You can simply visualize, clean, and normalize terabytes, even petabytes, of
data directly from your data lake, data warehouses, and databases, including Amazon
S3, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Aurora, and Amazon RDS, with Glue DataBrew.

39. Who can use AWS Glue DataBrew?

AWS Glue DataBrew is designed for users that need to clean and standardize data
before using it for analytics or machine learning. The most common users are data
analysts and data scientists. Business intelligence analysts, operations analysts, market
intelligence analysts, legal analysts, financial analysts, economists, quants, and
accountants are examples of employment functions for data analysts. Materials
scientists, bioanalytical scientists, and scientific researchers are all examples of
employment functions for data scientists.

40. What types of transformations are supported in AWS Glue


DataBrew?

You can combine, pivot, and transpose data using over 250 built-in transformations
without writing code. AWS Glue DataBrew also suggests transformations such as
filtering anomalies, rectifying erroneous, wrongly classified, duplicate data, normalizing
data to standard date and time values, or generating aggregates for analysis
automatically. Glue DataBrew enables transformations that leverage powerful machine
learning techniques such as Natural Language Processing for complex transformations
like translating words to a common base or root word (NLP). Multiple transformations
can be grouped, saved as recipes, and applied straight to incoming data.

41. What file formats does AWS Glue DataBrew support?

AWS Glue DataBrew accepts comma-separated values (.csv), JSON and nested JSON,
Apache Parquet and nested Apache Parquet, and Excel sheets as input data types.
Comma-separated values (.csv), JSON, Apache Parquet, Apache Avro, Apache ORC,
and XML are all supported as output data formats in AWS Glue DataBrew.

42. Do we need to use AWS Glue Data Catalog or AWS Lake


Formation to use AWS Glue DataBrew?
No. Without using the AWS Glue Data Catalog or AWS Lake Formation, you can use
AWS Glue DataBrew. DataBrew users can pick data sets from their centralized data
catalog using the AWS Glue Data Catalog or AWS Lake Formation.

43. What is AWS Glue Elastic Views?

AWS Glue Elastic Views makes it simple to create materialized views that integrate and
replicate data across various data stores without writing proprietary code. AWS Glue
Elastic Views can quickly generate a virtual materialized view table from multiple source
data stores using familiar Structured Query Language (SQL). AWS Glue Elastic Views
moves data from each source data store to a destination datastore and generates a
duplicate of it. AWS Glue Elastic Views continuously monitors data in your source data
stores, and automatically updates materialized views in your target data stores, ensuring
that data accessed through the materialized view is always up-to-date.

44. Why should we use AWS Glue Elastic Views?

Use AWS Glue Elastic Views to aggregate and continuously replicate data across
several data stores in near-real-time. This is frequently the case when implementing new
application functionality requiring data access from one or more existing data stores. For
example, a company might use a customer relationship management (CRM) application
to keep track of customer information and an e-commerce website to handle online
transactions. The data would be stored in these apps or more data stores. The firm is
now developing a new custom application that produces and displays special offers for
active website visitors.

What is AWS Glue?


AWS Glue is a fully managed data ingestion and transformation service. You
can build simple and cost-effective solutions to clean and process the data
flowing through your various systems using AWS Glue. You can think of AWS
Glue as a modern ETL alternative.

Explain why and when you would use AWS


Glue compared to other options to set up
data pipelines
AWS Glue makes it easy to move data between data stores and as such, can
be used in a variety of data integration scenarios, including:

1. Data lake build & consolidation: Glue can extract data from multiple
sources and load the data into a central data lake powered by
something like Amazon S3.
2. Data migration: For large migration and modernization initiatives, Glue
can help move data from a legacy data store to a modern data lake or
data warehouse.
3. Data transformation: Glue provides a visual workflow to transform data
using a comprehensive built-in transformation library or custom
transformation using PySpark
4. Data cataloging: Glue can assist data governance initiatives since it
supports automatic metadata cataloging across your data sources and
targets, making it easy to discover and understand data relationships.
When compared to other options for setting up data pipelines, such as
Apache NiFi or Apache Airflow, AWS Glue is typically a good choice if:

1. You want a fully managed solution: With Glue, you don’t have to
worry about setting up, patching, or maintaining any infrastructure.
2. Your data sources are primarily in AWS: Glue integrates natively with
many AWS services, such as S3, Redshift, and RDS.
3. You are constrained by programming skills availability: Glue’s visual
workflow makes it easy to create data pipelines in a no-code or low-
code code way.
4. You need flexibility and scalability: Glue can scale automatically to
meet demand and can handle petabyte-scale data.
Related Reading:  AWS Glue vs Lambda: Choosing the Right Tool for Your
Data Pipeline

What is the AWS Glue Architecture?


The main components of AWS Glue architecture are

 AWS Glue Catalog


 Glue Crawlers, Classifiers, and Connections
 Glue job
For an overview of each component, read this introduction to AWS Glue

What are the primary benefits of using AWS


Data Brew?
AWS Data Brew is a visual data preparation service that simplifies the process
of data cleansing & transformation. The primary benefits of using AWS Data
Brew are:

1. Visual interface: Data Brew provides an intuitive visual interface for


configuring data preparation workflows, making it easy for users with
limited technical skills to use the service.
2. Automated data preparation: Data Brew can automatically detect
patterns in your source data and suggest actions to cleanse it. This
reduces the data preparation effort significantly.
3. Increased efficiency: The visual interface, detection of patterns and
cleansing actions together significantly reduce the time spent on data
preparation, improving efficiency.
4. Integration with other AWS services: Data Brew integrates natively
with many other AWS services, including Amazon S3, RDS and Redshift,
making it easy to source and prepare data from those data sources for
analysis or use in other applications.
5. Flexible, pay-per-use pricing model: Like with most AWS Services,
with Data Brew, you only pay for what you use, making it a cost-
effective solution for data preparation that can scale with your needs.

Describe the four ways to create AWS Glue


jobs
Four ways to create Glue jobs are:

1. Visual Canvas: The Visual Canvas is an intuitive, drag-and-drop


interface that makes it super easy to create Glue jobs without writing
any code, or in a no-code manner.
2. Spark script: The Spark script option allows you to create Glue jobs
using Spark code in Scala or PySpark, providing access to the full Spark
ecosystem to create complex data transformations.
3. Python script: The Python script option lets you create AWS Glue jobs
using Python code, useful in scenarios that require the most flexibility
and versatility.
4. Jupyter Notebook: By allowing to create AWS Glue jobs using a
Jupyter Notebook, Glue makes it easy to create and run interactive data
transformations, and explorations in a collaborative manner and then
turn them into Glue jobs.
How does AWS Glue support the creation of
no-code ETL jobs?
AWS Glue supports the creation of no-code ETL jobs through its Visual
Canvas – a drag-and-drop interface to create AWS Glue jobs without writing
any code. Visual Canvas allows users to visually define sources, targets, and
data transformations by connecting sources to targets.

Visual Canvas comes with a library of pre-built transformations thereby


making it possible to create and deploy Glue jobs quickly and easily, even for
users with limited technical skills. Additionally, Visual Canvas integrates
natively with other AWS services, such as S3, RDS and Redshift, making it easy
to move data between these purpose-built data stores (again, using the visual
canvas)

Related Reading:  Efficient AWS Glue ETL

What is the difference between AWS Glue and


AWS EMR?
Some of the differences between AWS Glue and EMR are:

 AWS Glue is a fully managed ETL (extract, transform, and load) service
that makes it easy for customers to prepare and load their data for
analytics. AWS EMR, on the other hand, is a service that makes it easy to
process large amounts of data quickly and efficiently.
 AWS Glue and EMR are both used for data processing but they differ in
how they process and data and their typical use cases
 AWS Glue can be easily used to process both structured as well as
unstructured data while AWS EMR is typically suited for processing
structured or semi-structured data.
 AWS Glue can automatically discover and categorize the data. AWS EMR
does not have that capability.
 AWS Glue can be used to process streaming data or data in near-real-
time, while AWS EMR is typically used for scheduled batch processing.
 Usage of AWS Glue is charged per DPU hour while EMR is charged per
underlying EC2 instance hour.
 AWS Glue is easier to get started than EMR as Glue does not require
developers to have prior knowledge of MapReduce or Hadoop.
Here is an article that dives deep into AWS Glue vs EMR

What are some ways to orchestrate glue jobs


as part of a larger ETL flow?
Glue Workflows and AWS Step Functions are two ways to orchestrate
glue jobs as part of large ETL flows.

What is a connection in AWS Glue?


Connection in AWS Glue is a construct  that stores information required to
connect to a data source such as Redshift, RDS, DynamoDB, or S3.

Connections, with the help of glue crawlers, help move data from source to
target.

In addition to the support for many AWS native data stores glue connections
also support external data sources as long as those data sources can be
connected to using a JDBC driver.

What is the best practice for managing the


credentials required by a Glue connection?
The best practice is for the credentials to be stored & accessed securely by
leveraging AWS Systems Manager (SSM), AWS Secrets Manager or
Amazon Key Management Service (KMS)

Can Glue crawlers be configured to run on a


regular schedule? If yes, how?
Yes, Glue crawlers can be configured to run on a regular schedule. Glue
supports cron based scheduling format to be specified during the creation
of the crawler. For ETL workflows orchestrated by step functions, event-based
triggers in step functions can be used to run crawlers on a specific schedule.

What streaming sources does AWS Glue


support?
AWS Glue supports Amazon Kinesis Data Streams, Apache Kafka, and Amazon
Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (Amazon MSK).

See Using a streaming data source on how to configure properties for each of


these streaming sources in AWS Glue.

Related Article:  Top Kafka Interview Questions

Is AWS Glue suitable for converting log files


into structured data?
Yes, AWS Glue is suitable for converting log files into structured data. Using
the AWS Glue Visual Canvas or by defining a custom glue job, we can define
custom data transformations to structure log file data.

Glue makes is possible to aggregate logs from various sources into a common
data lake that makes it easy to access and maintain these logs.

What is an interactive session in AWS Glue


and what are its benefits?
Interactive sessions in AWS Glue are essentially on-demand serverless Spark
runtime environments that allow rapid build and test of data preparation and
analytics applications. Interactive sessions can be used via the visual interface,
AWS command line or the API.

Using interactive sessions, you can author and test your scripts as Jupyter
notebooks. Glue supports a comprehensive set of Jupyter magics allowing
developers to develop rich data preparation or transformation scripts.
What are the two types of workflow views in
AWS Glue?
The two types of workflow views are static views and dynamic views.
Static view can be considered as the design view of the workflow, whereas the
dynamic view is the runtime view of the workflow that includes logs, status
and error details for the latest run of the workflow.

Static view is used mainly while defining the workflow, whereas dynamic view
is used when operating the workflow.

What are start triggers in AWS Glue?


Start triggers are special Data Catalog objects that can be used to start
Glue jobs. Start triggers in AWS Glue can be one of three types: Scheduled,
Conditional or On-demand.

How can you start an AWS Glue workflow run


using AWS CLI?
Glue workflow can be started using the start-workflow-run command of AWS
CLI and passing the workflow name as a parameter. The command accepts
various optional parameters which are listed in the AWS CLI documentation.

How can you pull data from an external API in


your AWS Glue job?
AWS Glue does not have native support for connecting to external APIs. To
allow AWS Glue to access data from an external API, we can build a custom
connector in Amazon AppFlow that connects to the external API, retrieves the
necessary data, and makes it available to AWS Glue. This solution is illustrated
in the architecture diagram below –
AWS AppFlow is a perfect fit for this use case since designed to automate data
flows at scale between AWS services and external systems such as SaaS and
APIs without having to provision or manage resources.

Our company’s spend on AWS Glue is


increasing rapidly. How can we optimize our
AWS Glue spend?
Cost optimization is a critical aspect of running workloads in cloud and
leveraging cloud services, including AWS Glue. On going cost optimization
ensures we are making most of our cloud investments while reducing waste.
When optimizing AWS Glue spend, the following factors should be
considered:

1. Use Glue Development Endpoints sparingly as these can get costly


quickly.
2. Choose the right DPU allocation based on job complexity and
requirements.
3. Optimize job concurrency
4. Use Glue job bookmarks to track processed data, allowing Glue to skip
previously processed records during incremental runs, thus reducing
cost for recurring jobs.
5. Some additional factors such as leveraging Glue Data
Catalog, minimizing costly transformations, etc.
Our article on the best practices for AWS Glue Cost Optimization, covers this
topic in more detail.

What is the difference between Glue Data


Catalog and Collibra Data Catalog?
AWS Glue Data Catalog is a centralized metadata repository primarily focused
on seamless integration with AWS services, while Collibra Data Catalog
emphasizes comprehensive data governance, collaboration, and data quality
management.

AWS Glue Data Catalog suits organizations heavily invested in the AWS
ecosystem, whereas Collibra Data Catalog is ideal for those prioritizing
advanced governance features and flexibility in connecting with various data
sources. Our article AWS Glue Data Catalog versus Collibra Data
Catalog covers this topic in-depth.

AWS Glue Scenario Based Interview


Questions
Scenario: You are working on a project where
you need to clean and prepare large amounts
of raw data for analysis. The data is stored in
various formats and in different AWS services
like Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, and Amazon
Redshift. How would you use AWS Glue in this
scenario to automate the process of data
preparation?
Answer: AWS Glue is a fully managed extract, transform, and load (ETL) service
that makes it easy to prepare and load data for analysis. I would use AWS Glue
to discover the data and store the associated metadata (e.g., table definition
and schema) in the AWS Glue Data Catalog. Once cataloged in Glue Catalog,
the data is immediately searchable, queryable, and available for ETL. AWS Glue
generates Python or Scala code for the transformations, which I can further
customize if needed.

Scenario: Your company has a large amount


of data stored in a non-relational database on
AWS, and you need to move this data to a
relational database for a specific analysis. The
data needs to be transformed during this
process. How would you use AWS Glue for
this data migration and transformation?
Answer: AWS Glue can connect to on-premises and cloud-based data sources,
including non-relational databases. I would use AWS Glue to extract the data
from the non-relational database, transform the data to match the schema of
the relational database, and then load the transformed data into the relational
database. The transformation could include actions like converting data
formats, mapping one data set to another, and cleaning data.

Scenario: You are tasked with setting up a


data catalog for your organization. The data is
stored in various AWS services and in different
formats. How would you use AWS Glue to
create a centralized metadata repository?
Answer: In this scenario, I would use AWS Glue’s data crawlers to
automatically discover and catalog metadata from various data sources in
AWS. The cataloged metadata, stored in the AWS Glue Data Catalog, includes
data format, data type, and other characteristics. This makes the data easily
searchable and queryable across the organization.

The Data Catalog integrates with other AWS services like Amazon Athena and
Amazon Redshift Spectrum, allowing direct querying of the data without
moving it. Additionally, it stores metadata related to ETL jobs, aiding in
automating data preparation for analysis. This approach creates a unified view
of all data, irrespective of its location or format.

WS Glue Expert Interview Preparation: Top 10 Questions and


Answers

 Abhay SinghJune 19, 2023Interview , AWS0 Comments36 views

Are you preparing for an interview on AWS Glue? Check out this comprehensive list of common
AWS Glue interview questions and answers. Covering topics such as ETL jobs, data pipelines,
data lakes, real-time data processing, and more, this guide will help you demonstrate your
knowledge and understanding of this fully-managed ETL service. Whether you’re a beginner or
an experienced user, these questions and answers will help you confidently navigate any AWS
Glue interview.

I have prepared a list of top 10 AWS Glue interview questions and answers to help you prepare
for your next job interview.

1. What is AWS Glue?


Answer: AWS Glue is a fully managed extract, transform, and load (ETL) service that automates
the process of discovering, preparing, and combining data for analytics, machine learning, and
application development. It simplifies and accelerates the process of moving and transforming
data between various data stores.
2. What are the main components of AWS Glue?
Answer: AWS Glue consists of three main components: a. Data Catalog: A central metadata
repository that stores information about data sources and transformations. b. ETL Engine: A
serverless and scalable ETL processing engine that runs Glue jobs. c. Development Endpoint: An
interactive environment for developing and testing ETL scripts.

3. How does AWS Glue discover and catalog data?


Answer: AWS Glue uses crawlers to automatically discover and catalog data from various
sources like Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, and Amazon Redshift. Crawlers connect to the data
source, identify the schema, and store the metadata in the AWS Glue Data Catalog.

4. What is the role of AWS Glue Jobs?

ALSO READ  10 Steps to Mastering AWS EKS Interview Questions and Answers

Answer: AWS Glue jobs are the core ETL operations that perform data transformations and move
data between different data stores. You can create, schedule, and manage Glue jobs using the
AWS Management Console, AWS SDKs, or AWS CLI.

5. What are some advantages of using AWS Glue over traditional ETL solutions?
Answer: a. Fully managed service with no infrastructure to manage. b. Automatic scaling to
handle varying workloads. c. Pay-as-you-go pricing model. d. Integration with other AWS
services. e. Support for various data formats and sources.

6. What languages are supported by AWS Glue for ETL scripts?


Answer: AWS Glue supports both Python and Scala for writing ETL scripts.

7. What are the different types of Glue triggers?


Answer: There are three types of Glue triggers: a. On-demand triggers: Manually triggered by
users or APIs. b. Schedule-based triggers: Triggered based on a specified schedule. c. Event-
based triggers: Triggered when a specified event occurs, such as the completion of another Glue
job.
8. Can AWS Glue be used with streaming data?
Answer: Yes, AWS Glue can be used with streaming data by utilizing AWS Glue Streaming
ETL. This enables real-time processing and analytics of streaming data by continuously reading,
processing, and loading the data into a target data store.

9. How does AWS Glue handle schema changes in the source data?
Answer: AWS Glue crawlers can automatically detect schema changes in the source data and
update the metadata in the Data Catalog. You can also configure the crawler to update the schema
in the Data Catalog with new columns or changes to the data type of existing columns.

10. What is AWS Glue Studio?

ALSO READ  Master AWS Lambda: 20 Key Questions Answered

Answer: AWS Glue Studio is a visual interface for creating, managing, and monitoring AWS
Glue ETL jobs. It simplifies the ETL job creation process by providing a drag-and-drop interface
for defining sources, transformations, and targets, and generating the ETL code automatically.

1. What is AWS Glue ?


AWS Glue is a cloud service that prepares data for analysis through automated
extract, transform and load (ETL) processes. Glue also supports MySQL, Oracle,
Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL databases that run on Amazon Elastic
Compute Cloud (EC2) instances in an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud. AWS Glue
is a fully-managed, pay-as-you-go, extract, transform, and load (ETL) service that
automates the time-consuming steps of data preparation for analytics.
2. When will I use AWS Glue for Streaming ?
AWS Glue is recommended for Streaming when your use cases are primarily ETL
and when you want to run jobs on a serverless Apache Spark-based platform.
3. How to launch the Spark history server ?
We can launch the Spark history server using a AWS CloudFormation template
that hosts the server on an EC2 instance, or launch locally using Docker.
4. How does a glue crawler determine when to create partitions ?
When an AWS Glue crawler scans Amazon S3 path and if detects multiple folders
in a bucket, it determines the root of a table in the folder structure and which
folders are partitions of a table. The name of the table is based on the Amazon S3
prefix or folder name. You provide an Include path that points to the folder level to
crawl. When the majority of schemas at a folder level are similar, the crawler
creates partitions of a table instead of two separate tables.
5. When do I use a Glue Classifier ?
You use classifiers when you crawl a data store to define metadata tables in the
AWS Glue Data Catalog. You can set up your crawler with an ordered set of
classifiers. When the crawler invokes a classifier, the classifier determines whether
the data is recognized. If the classifier can’t recognize the data or is not 100 percent
certain, the crawler invokes the next classifier in the list to determine whether it
can recognize the data.
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6. How to import data from my existing Apache Hive Metastore to the AWS
Glue Data Catalog ?
Run an ETL job that reads from your Apache Hive Metastore, exports the data to
an intermediate format in Amazon S3, and then imports that data into the AWS
Glue Data Catalog.
7. What is Time-Based Schedules for Jobs and Crawlers ?
We  can define a time-based schedule for your crawlers and jobs in AWS Glue.
You specify time in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and the minimum
precision for a schedule is 5 minutes.
8. What will happens when a crawler Runs?
When a crawler runs, it takes the following actions to interrogate a data store:
Classifies data to determine the format, schema, and associated properties of the
raw data – You can configure the results of classification by creating a custom
classifier.
Groups data into tables or partitions – Data is grouped based on crawler heuristics.
Writes metadata to the Data Catalog – You can configure how the crawler adds,
updates, and deletes tables and partitions.
9. What is Development Endpoints ?
The Development Endpoints API describes the AWS Glue API related to testing
using a custom DevEndpoint. A development endpoint where a developer can
remotely debug extract, transform, and load (ETL) scripts.
10. In Glue is it possible to trigger an AWS Glue crawler on new files, that get
uploaded into a S3 bucket, given that the crawler is “pointed” to that bucket? 
No, there is currently no direct way to invoke an AWS Glue crawler in response to
an upload to an S3 bucket. S3 event notifications can only be sent to:
SNS
SQS
Lambda
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11. Which Data Stores Can I Crawl using Glue?
Crawlers can crawl both file-based and table-based data stores.
Crawlers can crawl the following data stores through their respective native
interfaces:
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)
Amazon DynamoDB
Crawlers can crawl the following data stores through a JDBC connection:
Amazon Redshift
Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS)
Amazon Aurora
Microsoft SQL Server
MySQL
Oracle
PostgreSQL
Publicly accessible databases
Aurora
Microsoft SQL Server
MySQL
Oracle
PostgreSQL
12. What is AWS Tags in AWS Glue ?
A tag is a label that you assign to an AWS resource. Each tag consists of a key and
an optional value, both of which you define. You can use tags in AWS Glue to
organize and identify your resources. Tags can be used to create cost accounting
reports and restrict access to resources.
13. What is AWS Glue Metrics ?
When you interact with AWS Glue, it sends metrics to CloudWatch. You can view
these metrics using the AWS Glue console (the preferred method), the
CloudWatch console dashboard, or the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS
CLI).
14. Is it possible to re-partition the data using AWS glue crawler?
You cant do it with help of crawler, however you can create new table manually in
Athena.
15. Can we use Apache Spark web UI to monitor and debug AWS Glue ETL
jobs ?
Yes, you can use the Apache Spark web UI to monitor and debug AWS Glue ETL
jobs running on the AWS Glue job system, and also Spark applications running on
AWS Glue development endpoints. The Spark UI enables you to check the
following for each job:
The event timeline of each Spark stage
A directed acyclic graph (DAG) of the job
Physical and logical plans for SparkSQL queries
The underlying Spark environmental variables for each job
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16. What are the main components of AWS Glue ?
AWS Glue consists of a Data Catalog which is a central metadata repository, an
ETL engine that can automatically generate Scala or Python code, and a flexible
scheduler that handles dependency resolution, job monitoring, and retries.
17. How to process MS Excel using Glue ?
As of now glue crawlers doesn’t support MS Excel files. If you want to create a
table for the excel file you have to convert it first from excel to csv/json/parquet
and then run crawler on the newly created file.
18. Explain AWS Glue Data Catalog ?
The AWS Glue Data Catalog is a central repository to store structural and
operational metadata for all your data assets. For a given data set, you can store its
table definition, physical location, add business relevant attributes, as well as track
how this data has changed over time.
19. What is AWS Glue Triggers ?
When fired, a trigger can start specified jobs and crawlers. A trigger fires on
demand, based on a schedule, or based on a combination of events. A trigger can
exist in one of several states. A trigger is either CREATED, ACTIVATED, or
DEACTIVATED. There are also transitional states, such as ACTIVATING. To
temporarily stop a trigger from firing, you can deactivate it. You can then
reactivate it later.
20. Give some argument names used by AWS Glue internally that you cant set
?
–conf
–debug
–mode
–JOB_NAME
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Pages:12345

21. How does AWS Glue monitor dependencies ?


AWS Glue manages dependencies between two or more jobs or dependencies on
external events using triggers. Triggers can watch one or more jobs as well as
invoke one or more jobs.
22. How to get metadata into the AWS Glue Data Catalog ?
Glue crawlers scan various data stores you own to automatically infer schemas and
partition structure and populate the Glue Data Catalog with corresponding table
definitions and statistics.
23. What is bookmarks in AWS glue ?
AWS Glue tracks data that has already been processed during a previous run of an
ETL job by persisting state information from the job run. This persisted state
information is called a job bookmark. Job bookmarks help AWS Glue maintain
state information and prevent the reprocessing of old data.
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PySpark : from_utc_timestamp Function: A Detailed Guide


 USER  JULY 21, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : FROM_UTC_TIMESTAMP FUNCTION: A DETAILED
GUIDE

The from_utc_timestamp function  in PySpark is a highly useful function


that allows users to convert UTC time to a specified timezone. This
conversion can be essential when you’re dealing with data that spans
different time zones. In this article, we’re going to deep dive into this
function, exploring its syntax, use-cases, and providing examples for a
better understanding.
Syntax
The function from_utc_timestamp accepts two parameters:
1. The timestamp to convert from UTC.

2. The string that represents the timezone to convert to.

The syntax is as follows:

from pyspark.sql.functions import from_utc_timestamp


from_utc_timestamp(timestamp, tz)

Python
COPY

Use-Case Scenario
Imagine you’re a data analyst working with a global company that receives
sales data from different regions around the world. The data you’re working
with includes the timestamp of each transaction, which is stored in UTC
time. However, for your analysis, you need to convert these timestamps
into local times to get a more accurate picture of customer behaviors during
their local hours. Here, the comes from_utc_timestamp function into play.

Detailed Examples
First, let’s start by creating a PySpark session:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('Learning @ Freshers.in
from_utc_timestamp').getOrCreate()

Python

COPY

Let’s assume we have a data frame with sales data, which includes a
timestamp column with UTC times. We’ll use hardcoded values for
simplicity:

from pyspark.sql.functions import to_utc_timestamp, lit


from pyspark.sql.types import TimestampType
data = [("1", "2023-01-01 13:30:00"),
("2", "2023-02-01 14:00:00"),
("3", "2023-03-01 15:00:00")]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["sale_id", "timestamp"])
# Cast the timestamp column to timestamp type
df = df.withColumn("timestamp", df["timestamp"].cast(TimestampType()))

Python

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Now, our data frame has a ‘timestamp’ column with UTC times. Let’s
convert these to New York time using the from_utc_timestamp function:
from pyspark.sql.functions import from_utc_timestamp
df = df.withColumn("NY_time", from_utc_timestamp(df["timestamp"], "America/New_York"))
df.show(truncate=False)

Python

COPY

Output

+-------+-------------------+-------------------+
|sale_id|timestamp |NY_time |
+-------+-------------------+-------------------+
|1 |2023-01-01 13:30:00|2023-01-01 08:30:00|
|2 |2023-02-01 14:00:00|2023-02-01 09:00:00|
|3 |2023-03-01 15:00:00|2023-03-01 10:00:00|
+-------+-------------------+-------------------+

Bash

COPY

As you can see, the from_utc_timestamp function correctly converted our


UTC times to New York local times considering the time difference.

Remember that PySpark supports all timezones that are available in


Python. To list all available timezones, you can use pytz library:

import pytz
for tz in pytz.all_timezones:
print(tz)

PySpark : Fixing ‘TypeError: an integer is required (got type


bytes)’ Error in PySpark with Spark 2.4.4
 USER  JULY 21, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : FIXING ‘TYPEERROR: AN INTEGER IS REQUIRED
(GOT TYPE BYTES)’ ERROR IN PYSPARK WITH SPARK 2.4.4
Apache Spark is an open-source distributed general-purpose cluster-computing
framework. PySpark is the Python library for Spark, and it provides an easy-to-use
API for Spark programming. However, sometimes, you might run into an error
like TypeError: an integer is required (got type bytes) when trying to use
PySpark after installing Spark 2.4.4.
This issue is typically related to a Python version compatibility problem, especially
if you are using Python 3.7 or later versions. Fortunately, there’s a straightforward
way to address it. This article will guide you through the process of fixing this
error so that you can run your PySpark applications smoothly.
Let’s assume we’re trying to run the following simple PySpark code that reads a
CSV file and displays its content:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("CSV Reader").getOrCreate()
data = spark.read.csv('sample.csv', inferSchema=True, header=True)
data.show()

Python

COPY

OR with hardcoded values

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.types import StructType, StructField, IntegerType, StringType
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("DataFrame Creator").getOrCreate()
data = [("John", 1), ("Doe", 2)]
schema = StructType([
StructField("Name", StringType(), True),
StructField("ID", IntegerType(), True)
])
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, schema)
df.show()

Python

COPY

We will have this error message:

TypeError: an integer is required (got type bytes)

Bash

COPY

How to resolve
First you can try installing again

pip install --upgrade pyspark

Bash

COPY

The issue occurs due to a compatibility problem with Python 3.7 or later versions
and PySpark with Spark 2.4.4. PySpark uses an outdated method to check for a file
type, which leads to this TypeError.
A quick fix for this issue is to downgrade your Python version to 3.6. However, if
you don’t want to downgrade your Python version, you can apply a patch to
PySpark’s codebase.
The patch involves modifying the pyspark/serializers.py file in your PySpark
directory:
1. Open the pyspark/serializers.py file in a text editor. The exact path depends on
your PySpark installation.
2. Find the following function definition (around line 377):
def _read_with_length(stream):
length = read_int(stream)
if length == SpecialLengths.END_OF_DATA_SECTION:
return None
return stream.read(length)

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3. Replace the return stream.read(length) line with the following code:

result = stream.read(length)
if length and not result:
raise EOFError
return result

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4. Save and close the file.


This patch adds a check to ensure that the stream has not reached the end before
attempting to read from it, which is the cause of the TypeError.
Now, try running your PySpark code again. The error should be resolved, and you
should be able to run your PySpark application successfully.
 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Converting Decimal to Integer in PySpark: A


Detailed Guide
 USER  JULY 15, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : CONVERTING DECIMAL TO INTEGER IN
PYSPARK: A DETAILED GUIDE
One of PySpark’s capabilities is the conversion of decimal values to
integers. This conversion is beneficial when you need to eliminate fractional
parts of numbers for specific calculations or simplify your data for particular
analyses. PySpark allows for this conversion, and importantly, treats NULL
inputs to produce NULL outputs, preserving the integrity of your data.

In this article, we will walk you through a step-by-step guide to convert


decimal values to integer numbers in PySpark.

PySpark’s Integer Casting Function.


The conversion of decimal to integer in PySpark is facilitated using the cast
function. The cast function allows us to change the data type of a
DataFrame column to another type. In our case, we are changing a decimal
type to an integer type.

Here’s the general syntax to convert a decimal column to integer:

from pyspark.sql.functions import col


df.withColumn("integer_column", col("decimal_column").cast("integer"))

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In the above code:
df is your DataFrame.
integer_column is the new column with integer values.
decimal_column is the column you want to convert from decimal to integer.
Now, let’s illustrate this process with a practical example. We will first initialize a
PySpark session and create a DataFrame:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import col
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("DecimalToIntegers").getOrCreate()
data = [("Sachin", 10.5), ("Ram", 20.8), ("Vinu", 30.3), (None, None)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Name", "Score"])
df.show()

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+------+-----+
| Name|Score|
+------+-----+
|Sachin| 10.5|
| Ram| 20.8|
| Vinu| 30.3|
| null| null|
+------+-----+

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Let’s convert the ‘Score’ column to integer:

df = df.withColumn("Score", col("Score").cast("integer"))
df.show()

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+------+-----+
| Name|Score|
+------+-----+
|Sachin| 10|
| Ram| 20|
| Vinu| 30|
| null| null|
+------+-----+
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The ‘Score’ column values are now converted into integers. The decimal parts
have been truncated, and not rounded. Also, observe how the NULL value
remained NULL after the conversion.
PySpark’s flexible and powerful data manipulation functions, like cast, make it a
highly capable tool for data analysis.
PySpark : A Comprehensive Guide to Converting Expressions
to Fixed-Point Numbers in PySpark
 USER  JULY 15, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO CONVERTING
EXPRESSIONS TO FIXED-POINT NUMBERS IN PYSPARK

Among PySpark’s numerous features, one that stands out is its ability to convert
input expressions into fixed-point numbers. This feature comes in handy when
dealing with data that requires a high level of precision or when we want to control
the decimal places of numbers to maintain consistency across datasets.
In this article, we will walk you through a detailed explanation of how to convert
input expressions to fixed-point numbers using PySpark. Note that PySpark’s
fixed-point function, when given a NULL input, will output NULL.
Understanding Fixed-Point Numbers
Before we get started, it’s essential to understand what fixed-point numbers are. A
fixed-point number has a specific number of digits before and after the decimal
point. Unlike floating-point numbers, where the decimal point can ‘float’, in fixed-
point numbers, the decimal point is ‘fixed’.
PySpark’s Fixed-Point Function
PySpark uses the cast function combined with the DecimalType function to
convert an expression to a fixed-point number. DecimalType allows you to specify
the total number of digits as well as the number of digits after the decimal point.
Here is the syntax for converting an expression to a fixed-point number:

from pyspark.sql.functions import col


from pyspark.sql.types import DecimalType
df.withColumn("fixed_point_column", col("input_column").cast(DecimalType(precision,
scale)))

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In the above code:


df is the DataFrame.
fixed_point_column is the new column with the fixed-point number.
input_column is the column you want to convert.
precision is the total number of digits.
scale is the number of digits after the decimal point.
A Practical Example
Let’s work through an example to demonstrate this.
Firstly, let’s initialize a PySpark session and create a DataFrame:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import col
from pyspark.sql.types import DecimalType
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("FixedPointNumbers").getOrCreate()
data = [("Sachin", 10.123456), ("James", 20.987654), ("Smitha ", 30.111111), (None, None)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Name", "Score"])
df.show()

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+-------+---------+
| Name| Score|
+-------+---------+
| Sachin|10.123456|
| James|20.987654|
|Smitha |30.111111|
| null| null|
+-------+---------+

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Next, let’s convert the ‘Score’ column to a fixed-point number with a total of 5
digits, 2 of which are after the decimal point:
df = df.withColumn("Score", col("Score").cast(DecimalType(5, 2)))
df.show()

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+-------+-----+
| Name|Score|
+-------+-----+
| Sachin|10.12|
| James|20.99|
|Smitha |30.11|
| null| null|
+-------+-----+

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The score column values are now converted into fixed-point numbers. Notice how
the NULL value remained NULL after the conversion, which adheres to PySpark’s
rule of NULL input leading to NULL output.
 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Skipping Sundays in Date Computations


 USER  JULY 15, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : SKIPPING SUNDAYS IN DATE COMPUTATIONS

When working with data in fields such as finance or certain business


operations, it’s often the case that weekends or specific days of the week,
such as Sundays, are considered non-working days or holidays. In these
situations, you might need to compute the next business day from a given
date or timestamp, excluding these non-working days. This article will walk
you through the process of accomplishing this task using PySpark, the
Python library for Apache Spark. We’ll provide a detailed example to
ensure a clear understanding of this operation.
Setting Up the Environment
Firstly, we need to set up our PySpark environment. Assuming you’ve
properly installed Spark and PySpark, you can initialize a SparkSession as
follows:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("Freshers.in Learning @ Skipping Sundays in Date Computations") \
.getOrCreate()

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Understanding date_add, date_format Functions and


Conditional Statements
The functions we’ll be using in this tutorial are PySpark’s built-
in date_add and date_format functions, along with the when function for
conditional logic. The date_add function adds a number of days to a date or
timestamp, while the date_format function converts a date or timestamp to
a string based on a given format. The when function allows us to create a
new column based on conditional logic.
Creating a DataFrame with Timestamps
Let’s start by creating a DataFrame that contains some sample
timestamps:

from pyspark.sql import functions as F


from pyspark.sql.types import TimestampType
data = [("2023-01-14 13:45:30",), ("2023-02-25 08:20:00",), ("2023-07-07 22:15:00",), ("2023-07-08
22:15:00",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Timestamp"])
df = df.withColumn("Timestamp", F.col("Timestamp").cast(TimestampType()))
df.show(truncate=False)

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+-------------------+
|Timestamp |
+-------------------+
|2023-01-14 13:45:30|
|2023-02-25 08:20:00|
|2023-07-07 22:15:00|
|2023-07-08 22:15:00|
+-------------------+

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Getting the Next Day Excluding Sundays


To get the next day from each timestamp, excluding Sundays, we first use
the date_add function to compute the next day. Then we use date_format to get
the day of the week. If this day is a Sunday, we use date_add again to get the
following day:

df = df.withColumn("Next_Day", F.date_add(F.col("Timestamp"), 1))


df = df.withColumn("Next_Day",
F.when(F.date_format(F.col("Next_Day"), "EEEE") == "Sunday",
F.date_add(F.col("Next_Day"), 1))
.otherwise(F.col("Next_Day")))
df.show(truncate=False)

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Result 

+-------------------+----------+
|Timestamp |Next_Day |
+-------------------+----------+
|2023-01-14 13:45:30|2023-01-16|
|2023-02-25 08:20:00|2023-02-27|
|2023-07-07 22:15:00|2023-07-08|
|2023-07-08 22:15:00|2023-07-10|
+-------------------+----------+

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In the Next_Day column, you’ll see that if the next day would have been a Sunday,
it has been replaced with the following Monday.
The use of date_add, date_format, and conditional logic with when function
enables us to easily compute the next business day from a given date or timestamp,
while excluding non-working days like Sundays.
PySpark : Getting the Next and Previous Day from a
Timestamp
 USER  JULY 15, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : GETTING THE NEXT AND PREVIOUS DAY FROM A
TIMESTAMP

In data processing and analysis, there can often arise situations where you
might need to compute the next day or the previous day from a given date
or timestamp. This article will guide you through the process of
accomplishing these tasks using PySpark, the Python library for Apache
Spark. Detailed examples will be provided to ensure a clear understanding
of these operations.
Setting Up the Environment
Firstly, we need to set up our PySpark environment. Assuming you have
properly installed Spark and PySpark, you can initialize a SparkSession as
follows:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("Freshers.in Learning @ Next Day and Previous Day") \
.getOrCreate()

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Creating a DataFrame with Timestamps


Let’s start by creating a DataFrame containing some sample timestamps:

from pyspark.sql import functions as F


from pyspark.sql.types import TimestampType
data = [("2023-01-15 13:45:30",), ("2023-02-22 08:20:00",), ("2023-07-07 22:15:00",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Timestamp"])
df = df.withColumn("Timestamp", F.col("Timestamp").cast(TimestampType()))
df.show(truncate=False)

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+-------------------+
|Timestamp |
+-------------------+
|2023-01-15 13:45:30|
|2023-02-22 08:20:00|
|2023-07-07 22:15:00|
+-------------------+

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Getting the Next Day


To get the next day from each timestamp, we use the date_add function,
passing in the timestamp column and the number 1 to indicate that we want
to add one day:
df.withColumn("Next_Day", F.date_add(F.col("Timestamp"), 1)).show(truncate=False)

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+-------------------+----------+
|Timestamp |Next_Day |
+-------------------+----------+
|2023-01-15 13:45:30|2023-01-16|
|2023-02-22 08:20:00|2023-02-23|
|2023-07-07 22:15:00|2023-07-08|
+-------------------+----------+

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The Next_Day column shows the date of the day after each timestamp.

Getting the Previous Day


To get the previous day, we use the date_sub function, again passing in the
timestamp column and the number 1 to indicate that we want to subtract
one day:

df.withColumn("Previous_Day", F.date_sub(F.col("Timestamp"), 1)).show(truncate=False)

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+-------------------+------------+
|Timestamp |Previous_Day|
+-------------------+------------+
|2023-01-15 13:45:30|2023-01-14 |
|2023-02-22 08:20:00|2023-02-21 |
|2023-07-07 22:15:00|2023-07-06 |
+-------------------+------------+

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The Previous_Day column shows the date of the day before each


timestamp.
PySpark provides simple yet powerful functions for manipulating dates and
timestamps. The date_add and date_sub functions allow us to easily
compute the next day and previous day from a given date or timestamp.

PySpark : Determining the Last Day of the Month and Year


from a Timestamp
 USER  JULY 15, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : DETERMINING THE LAST DAY OF THE MONTH
AND YEAR FROM A TIMESTAMP

Working with dates and times is a common operation in data processing.


Sometimes, it’s necessary to compute the last day of a month or year based on a
given date or timestamp. This article will guide you through how to accomplish
these tasks using PySpark, the Python library for Apache Spark, with examples to
enhance your understanding.
Setting up the Environment
Firstly, it’s important to set up our PySpark environment. Assuming you’ve
installed Spark and PySpark correctly, you can initialize a SparkSession as
follows:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("freshers.in Learning : Date and Time Operations") \
.getOrCreate()
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Understanding last_day and year Functions


The functions we’ll be utilizing in this tutorial are PySpark’s built-in last_day and
year functions. The last_day function takes a date column and returns the last day
of the month. The year function returns the year of a date as a number.
Getting the Last Day of the Month
To demonstrate, let’s create a DataFrame with some sample timestamps:

data = [("2023-01-15 13:45:30",), ("2023-02-22 08:20:00",), ("2023-07-07 22:15:00",)]


df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Timestamp"])
df = df.withColumn("Timestamp", F.col("Timestamp").cast(TimestampType()))
df.show(truncate=False)

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+-------------------+
|Timestamp |
+-------------------+
|2023-01-15 13:45:30|
|2023-02-22 08:20:00|
|2023-07-07 22:15:00|
+-------------------+

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Now, we can use the last_day function to get the last day of the month for each
timestamp:

df.withColumn("Last_Day_of_Month", F.last_day(F.col("Timestamp"))).show(truncate=False)

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+-------------------+-----------------+
|Timestamp |Last_Day_of_Month|
+-------------------+-----------------+
|2023-01-15 13:45:30|2023-01-31 |
|2023-02-22 08:20:00|2023-02-28 |
|2023-07-07 22:15:00|2023-07-31 |
+-------------------+-----------------+
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The new Last_Day_of_Month column shows the last day of the month for each
corresponding timestamp.
Getting the Last Day of the Year
Determining the last day of the year is slightly more complex, as there isn’t a built-
in function for this in PySpark. However, we can accomplish it by combining the
year function with some string manipulation. Here’s how:

df.withColumn("Year", F.year(F.col("Timestamp")))\
.withColumn("Last_Day_of_Year", F.expr("make_date(Year, 12, 31)"))\
.show(truncate=False)

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In the code above, we first extract the year from the timestamp using the year
function. Then, we construct a new date representing the last day of that year using
the make_date function. The make_date function creates a date from the year,
month, and day values.
PySpark’s last_day function makes it straightforward to determine the last day of
the month for a given date or timestamp, finding the last day of the year requires a
bit more creativity. By combining the year and make_date functions, however, you
can achieve this with relative ease.

+-------------------+----+----------------+
|Timestamp |Year|Last_Day_of_Year|
+-------------------+----+----------------+
|2023-01-15 13:45:30|2023|2023-12-31 |
|2023-02-22 08:20:00|2023|2023-12-31 |
|2023-07-07 22:15:00|2023|2023-12-31 |
+-------------------+----+----------------+

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Spark important urls to refer


PySpark : Adding and Subtracting Months to a Date or
Timestamp while Preserving End-of-Month Information
 USER  JULY 15, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : ADDING AND SUBTRACTING MONTHS TO A
DATE OR TIMESTAMP WHILE PRESERVING END-OF-MONTH INFORMATION

This article will explain how to add or subtract a specific number of months
from a date or timestamp while preserving end-of-month information. This
is especially useful when dealing with financial, retail, or similar data, where
preserving the end-of-month status of a date is critical.

Setting up the Environment


Before we begin, we must set up our PySpark environment. Assuming
you’ve installed Spark and PySpark properly, you should be able to
initialize a SparkSession as follows:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("freshers.in Learning Adding and Subtracting Months
").getOrCreate()

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Understanding add_months and date_add Functions


We will utilize PySpark’s built-in
functions add_months and date_add or date_sub for our operations.
The add_months function adds a specified number of months to a date, and
if the original date was the last day of the month, the resulting date will also
be the last day of the new month.
The date_add or date_sub function, on the other hand, adds or subtracts a
certain number of days from a date, which is not ideal for preserving end-
of-month information.

Using add_months Function


To demonstrate, let’s create a DataFrame with some sample dates:

from pyspark.sql import functions as F


from pyspark.sql.types import DateType
data = [("2023-01-31",), ("2023-02-28",), ("2023-07-15",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Date"])
df = df.withColumn("Date", F.col("Date").cast(DateType()))
df.show()

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+----------+
| Date|
+----------+
|2023-01-31|
|2023-02-28|
|2023-07-15|
+----------+

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Now, we will add two months to each date using add_months:

df.withColumn("New_Date", F.add_months(F.col("Date"), 2)).show()

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+----------+----------+
| Date| New_Date|
+----------+----------+
|2023-01-31|2023-03-31|
|2023-02-28|2023-04-28|
|2023-07-15|2023-09-15|
+----------+----------+

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Note how the dates originally at the end of a month are still at the end of
the month in the New_Date column.
Subtracting Months
Subtracting months is as simple as adding months. We simply use a
negative number as the second parameter to the add_months function:

df.withColumn("New_Date", F.add_months(F.col("Date"), -2)).show()

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+----------+----------+
| Date| New_Date|
+----------+----------+
|2023-01-31|2022-11-30|
|2023-02-28|2022-12-28|
|2023-07-15|2023-05-15|
+----------+----------+

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Adding or Subtracting Months to a Timestamp


To work with timestamps instead of dates, we need to cast our column to a
TimestampType. Let’s create a new DataFrame to demonstrate:

from pyspark.sql.types import TimestampType


data = [("2023-01-31 13:45:30",), ("2023-02-28 08:20:00",), ("2023-07-15 22:15:00",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Timestamp"])
df = df.withColumn("Timestamp", F.col("Timestamp").cast(TimestampType()))
df.show(truncate=False)

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+-------------------+
|Timestamp |
+-------------------+
|2023-01-31 13:45:30|
|2023-02-28 08:20:00|
|2023-07-15 22:15:00|
+-------------------+

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Then, we can add or subtract months as before:

df.withColumn("New_Timestamp", F.add_months(F.col("Timestamp"), 2)).show(truncate=False)


df.withColumn("New_Timestamp", F.add_months(F.col("Timestamp"), -
2)).show(truncate=False)

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+-------------------+-------------+
|Timestamp |New_Timestamp|
+-------------------+-------------+
|2023-01-31 13:45:30|2023-03-31 |
|2023-02-28 08:20:00|2023-04-28 |
|2023-07-15 22:15:00|2023-09-15 |
+-------------------+-------------+

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+-------------------+-------------+
|Timestamp |New_Timestamp|
+-------------------+-------------+
|2023-01-31 13:45:30|2022-11-30 |
|2023-02-28 08:20:00|2022-12-28 |
|2023-07-15 22:15:00|2023-05-15 |
+-------------------+-------------+

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PySpark’s built-in add_months function provides a straightforward way to add or subtract a specified


number of months from dates and timestamps, preserving end-of-month information.
 POSTED INSPARK
PySpark : Understanding Joins in PySpark using DataFrame
API
 USER  JULY 6, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : UNDERSTANDING JOINS IN PYSPARK USING
DATAFRAME API

Apache Spark, a fast and general-purpose cluster computing system, provides


high-level APIs in various programming languages like Java, Scala, Python, and R,
along with an optimized engine supporting general computation graphs. One of the
many powerful functionalities that PySpark provides is the ability to perform
various types of join operations on datasets.
This article will explore how to perform the following types of join operations in
PySpark using the DataFrame API:
 Inner Join
 Left Join
 Right Join
 Full Outer Join
 Left Semi Join
 Left Anti Join
 Joins with Multiple Conditions

To illustrate these join operations, we will use two sample data frames –
‘freshers_personal_details’ and ‘freshers_academic_details’.
Sample Data

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('JoinExample').getOrCreate()
freshers_personal_details = spark.createDataFrame([
('1', 'Sachin', 'New York'),
('2', 'Shekar', 'Bangalore'),
('3', 'Antony', 'Chicago'),
('4', 'Sharat', 'Delhi'),
('5', 'Vijay', 'London'),
], ['Id', 'Name', 'City'])
freshers_academic_details = spark.createDataFrame([
('1', 'Computer Science', 'MIT', '3.8'),
('2', 'Electrical Engineering', 'Stanford', '3.5'),
('3', 'Physics', 'Princeton', '3.9'),
('6', 'Mathematics', 'Harvard', '3.7'),
('7', 'Chemistry', 'Yale', '3.6'),
], ['Id', 'Major', 'University', 'GPA'])

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We have ‘Id’ as a common column between the two data frames which we will use as a key for joining.

Inner Join
The inner join in PySpark returns rows from both data frames where key records of
the first data frame match the key records of the second data frame.

inner_join_df = freshers_personal_details.join(freshers_academic_details,
on=['Id'], how='inner')
inner_join_df.show()

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Output

+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+---+
| Id| Name| City| Major|University|GPA|
+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+---+
| 1|Sachin| New York| Computer Science| MIT|3.8|
| 2|Shekar|Bangalore|Electrical Engine...| Stanford|3.5|
| 3|Antony| Chicago| Physics| Princeton|3.9|
+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+---+

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Left Join (Left Outer Join)


The left join in PySpark returns all rows from the first data frame along with the
matching rows from the second data frame. If there is no match, the result is NULL
on the right side.

left_join_df = freshers_personal_details.join(freshers_academic_details,
on=['Id'], how='left')
left_join_df.show()

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Output

+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+----+
| Id| Name| City| Major|University| GPA|
+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+----+
| 1|Sachin| New York| Computer Science| MIT| 3.8|
| 2|Shekar|Bangalore|Electrical Engine...| Stanford| 3.5|
| 3|Antony| Chicago| Physics| Princeton| 3.9|
| 5| Vijay| London| null| null|null|
| 4|Sharat| Delhi| null| null|null|
+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+----+

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Right Join (Right Outer Join)


The right join in PySpark returns all rows from the second data frame and the
matching rows from the first data frame. If there is no match, the result is NULL
on the left side.

right_join_df = freshers_personal_details.join(freshers_academic_details,
on=['Id'], how='right')
right_join_df.show()

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Output

+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+---+
| Id| Name| City| Major|University|GPA|
+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+---+
| 1|Sachin| New York| Computer Science| MIT|3.8|
| 2|Shekar|Bangalore|Electrical Engine...| Stanford|3.5|
| 7| null| null| Chemistry| Yale|3.6|
| 3|Antony| Chicago| Physics| Princeton|3.9|
| 6| null| null| Mathematics| Harvard|3.7|
+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+---+

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Full Outer Join


The full outer join in PySpark returns all rows from both data frames where there is
a match in either of the data frames.

full_outer_join_df = freshers_personal_details.join(freshers_academic_details,
on=['Id'], how='outer')
full_outer_join_df.show()

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Output

+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+----+
| Id| Name| City| Major|University| GPA|
+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+----+
| 1|Sachin| New York| Computer Science| MIT| 3.8|
| 2|Shekar|Bangalore|Electrical Engine...| Stanford| 3.5|
| 3|Antony| Chicago| Physics| Princeton| 3.9|
| 4|Sharat| Delhi| null| null|null|
| 5| Vijay| London| null| null|null|
| 6| null| null| Mathematics| Harvard| 3.7|
| 7| null| null| Chemistry| Yale| 3.6|
+---+------+---------+--------------------+----------+----+

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Left Semi Join


The left semi join in PySpark returns all the rows from the first data frame where
there is a match in the second data frame on the key.

left_semi_join_df = freshers_personal_details.join(freshers_academic_details,
on=['Id'], how='leftsemi')
left_semi_join_df.show()

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+---+------+---------+
| Id| Name| City|
+---+------+---------+
| 1|Sachin| New York|
| 2|Shekar|Bangalore|
| 3|Antony| Chicago|
+---+------+---------+

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Left Anti Join


The left anti join in PySpark returns all the rows from the first data frame where there is no match in the
second data frame on the key.

left_anti_join_df = freshers_personal_details.join(freshers_academic_details,
on=['Id'], how='leftanti')
left_anti_join_df.show()

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Output

+---+------+------+
| Id| Name| City|
+---+------+------+
| 5| Vijay|London|
| 4|Sharat| Delhi|
+---+------+------+

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Joins with Multiple Conditions


In PySpark, we can also perform join operations based on multiple conditions.

freshers_additional_details = spark.createDataFrame([
('1', 'Sachin', 'Python'),
('2', 'Shekar', 'Java'),
('3', 'Sanjo', 'C++'),
('6', 'Rakesh', 'Scala'),
('7', 'Sorya', 'JavaScript'),
], ['Id', 'Name', 'Programming_Language'])
# Perform inner join based on multiple conditions
multi_condition_join_df = freshers_personal_details.join(
freshers_additional_details,
(freshers_personal_details['Id'] == freshers_additional_details['Id']) &
(freshers_personal_details['Name'] == freshers_additional_details['Name']),
how='inner'
)
multi_condition_join_df.show()

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Output

+---+------+---------+---+------+--------------------+
| Id| Name| City| Id| Name|Programming_Language|
+---+------+---------+---+------+--------------------+
| 1|Sachin| New York| 1|Sachin| Python|
| 2|Shekar|Bangalore| 2|Shekar| Java|
+---+------+---------+---+------+--------------------+

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Note : When working with larger datasets, as the choice of join types and the order of operations can have
a significant impact on the performance of the Spark application.

PySpark : Reversing the order of lists in a dataframe column


using PySpark
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DATAFRAME COLUMN USING PYSPARK

pyspark.sql.functions.reverse
Collection function: returns a reversed string or an array with reverse order of
elements.
In order to reverse the order of lists in a dataframe column, we can use the PySpark
function reverse() from pyspark.sql.functions. Here’s an example.
Let’s start by creating a sample dataframe with a list of strings.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import reverse
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
#Create a sample data
data = [("Sachin", ["Python", "C", "Go"]),
("Renjith", ["RedShift", "Snowflake", "Oracle"]),
("Ahamed", ["Android", "MacOS", "Windows"])]
#Create DataFrame
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Name", "Techstack"])
df.show()

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Output

+-------+--------------------+
| Name| Techstack|
+-------+--------------------+
| Sachin| [Python, C, Go]|
|Renjith|[RedShift, Snowfl...|
| Ahamed|[Android, MacOS, ...|
+-------+--------------------+

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Now, we can apply the reverse() function to the “Techstack” column to reverse the
order of the list.

df_reversed = df.withColumn("Fruits", reverse(df["Techstack"]))


df_reversed.show()

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Output

+-------+--------------------+
| Name| Techstack|
+-------+--------------------+
| Sachin| [Go, C, Python]|
|Renjith|[Oracle, Snowflak...|
| Ahamed|[Windows, MacOS, ...|
+-------+--------------------+

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As you can see, the order of the elements in each list in the “Techstack” column
has been reversed. The withColumn() function is used to add a new column or
replace an existing column (with the same name) in the dataframe. Here, we are
replacing the “Fruits” column with a new column where the lists have been
reversed.
PySpark : Reversing the order of strings in a list using
PySpark
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USING PYSPARK

Lets create a sample data in the form of a list of strings.

from pyspark import SparkContext, SparkConf


from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
conf = SparkConf().setAppName('Reverse String @ Freshers.in Learning')
sc = SparkContext.getOrCreate();
spark = SparkSession(sc)
# Sample data
data = ['Sachin', 'Narendra', 'Arun', 'Oracle', 'Redshift']
# Parallelize the data with Spark
rdd = sc.parallelize(data)

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Now, we can apply a map operation on this RDD (Resilient Distributed


Datasets, the fundamental data structure of Spark). The map operation
applies a given function to each element of the RDD and returns a new
RDD.

We will use the built-in Python function reversed() inside a map operation
to reverse the order of each string. reversed() returns a reverse iterator, so
we have to join it back into a string with ”.join().

# Apply map operation to reverse the strings


reversed_rdd = rdd.map(lambda x: ''.join(reversed(x)))

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The lambda function here is a simple anonymous function that takes one
argument, x, and returns the reversed string. x is each element of the RDD
(each string in this case).

After this operation, we have a new RDD where each string from the
original RDD has been reversed. You can collect the results back to the
driver program using the collect() action.

# Collect the results


reversed_data = reversed_rdd.collect()

# Print the reversed strings


for word in reversed_data:
print(word)

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As you can see, the order of characters in each string from the list has
been reversed. Note that Spark operations are lazily evaluated, meaning
the actual computations (like reversing the strings) only happen when an
action (like collect()) is called. This feature allows Spark to optimize the
overall data processing workflow.

Complete code

from pyspark import SparkContext, SparkConf


from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
conf = SparkConf().setAppName('Reverse String @ Freshers.in Learning')
sc = SparkContext.getOrCreate();
spark = SparkSession(sc)
#Sample data for testing
data = ['Sachin', 'Narendra', 'Arun', 'Oracle', 'Redshift']
#Parallelize the data with Spark
rdd = sc.parallelize(data)
reversed_rdd = rdd.map(lambda x: ''.join(reversed(x)))
#Collect the results
reversed_data = reversed_rdd.collect()
#Print the reversed strings
for word in reversed_data:
print(word)

PySpark : Generating a 64-bit hash value in PySpark


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Introduction to 64-bit Hashing


A hash function is a function that can be used to map data of arbitrary size to fixed-
size values. The values returned by a hash function are called hash codes, hash
values, or simply hashes.
When we say a hash value is a “signed 64-bit” value, it means the hash function
outputs a 64-bit integer that can represent both positive and negative numbers. In
computing, a 64-bit integer can represent a vast range of numbers, from -
9,223,372,036,854,775,808 to 9,223,372,036,854,775,807.
A 64-bit hash function can be useful in a variety of scenarios, particularly when
working with large data sets. It can be used for quickly comparing complex data
structures, indexing data, and checking data integrity.
Use of 64-bit Hashing in PySpark
While PySpark does not provide a direct function for 64-bit hashing, it does
provide a function hash() that returns a hash as an integer, which is usually a 32-bit
hash. For a 64-bit hash, we can consider using the murmur3 hash function from
Python’s mmh3 library, which produces a 128-bit hash and can be trimmed down
to 64-bit. You can install the library using pip:

pip install mmh3

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Here is an example of how to generate a 64-bit hash value in PySpark:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import udf
from pyspark.sql.types import LongType
import mmh3

#Create a Spark session


spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("freshers.in Learning for 64-bit Hashing in PySpark
").getOrCreate()

#Creating sample data


data = [("Sachin",), ("Ramesh",), ("Babu",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Name"])

#Function to generate 64-bit hash


def hash_64(input):
return mmh3.hash64(input.encode('utf-8'))[0]

#Create a UDF for the 64-bit hash function


hash_64_udf = udf(lambda z: hash_64(z), LongType())

#Apply the UDF to the DataFrame


df_hashed = df.withColumn("Name_hashed", hash_64_udf(df['Name']))

#Show the DataFrame


df_hashed.show()

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In this example, we create a Spark session and a DataFrame df with a single


column “Name”. Then, we define the function hash_64 to generate a 64-bit hash of
an input string. After that, we create a user-defined function (UDF) hash_64_udf
using PySpark SQL functions. Finally, we apply this UDF to the column “Name”
in the DataFrame df and create a new DataFrame df_hashed with the 64-bit hashed
values of the names.
Advantages and Drawbacks of 64-bit Hashing
Advantages:
1. Large Range: A 64-bit hash value has a very large range of possible values, which can help reduce
hash collisions (different inputs producing the same hash output).
2. Fast Comparison and Lookup: Hashing can turn time-consuming operations such as string
comparison into a simple integer comparison, which can significantly speed up certain operations
like data lookups.
3. Data Integrity Checks: Hash values can provide a quick way to check if data has been altered.

Drawbacks:
1. Collisions: While the possibility is reduced, hash collisions can still occur where different inputs
produce the same hash output.
2. Not for Security: A hash value is not meant for security purposes. It can be reverse-engineered to
get the original input.
3. Data Loss: Hashing is a one-way function. Once data is hashed, it cannot be converted back to the
original input.
PySpark : Create an MD5 hash of a certain string column in
PySpark.
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COLUMN IN PYSPARK.
Introduction to MD5 Hash
MD5 (Message Digest Algorithm 5) is a widely used cryptographic hash function
that produces a 128-bit (16-byte) hash value. It is commonly used to check the
integrity of files. However, MD5 is not collision-resistant; as of 2021, it is possible
to find different inputs that hash to the same output, which makes it unsuitable for
functions such as SSL certificates or encryption that require a high degree of
security.
An MD5 hash is typically expressed as a 32-digit hexadecimal number.
Use of MD5 Hash in PySpark
Yes, you can use PySpark to generate a 32-character hex-encoded string containing
the 128-bit MD5 message digest. PySpark does not have a built-in MD5 function,
but you can easily use Python’s built-in libraries to create a User Defined Function
(UDF) for this purpose.
Here is how you can create an MD5 hash of a certain string column in PySpark.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import udf
from pyspark.sql.types import StringType
import hashlib

#Create a Spark session


spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("freshers.in Learning MD5 hash ").getOrCreate()
#Creating sample data
data = [("Sachin",), ("Ramesh",), ("Krishna",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Name"])

#Function for generating MD5 hash


def md5_hash(input):
return hashlib.md5(input.encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()

#UDF for the MD5 function


md5_udf = udf(lambda z: md5_hash(z), StringType())

#Apply the above UDF to the DataFrame


df_hashed = df.withColumn("Name_hashed", md5_udf(df['Name']))

df_hashed.show(20,False)

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In this example, we first create a Spark session and a DataFrame df with a single
column “Name”. Then, we define the function md5_hash to generate an MD5 hash
of an input string. After that, we create a user-defined function (UDF) md5_udf
using PySpark SQL functions. Finally, we apply this UDF to the column “Name”
in the DataFrame df and create a new DataFrame df_hashed with the MD5 hashed
values of the names.
Output

+----+--------------------------------+
|Name|Name_hashed |
+----+--------------------------------+
|John|61409aa1fd47d4a5332de23cbf59a36f|
|Jane|2b95993380f8be6bd4bd46bf44f98db9|
|Mike|1b83d5da74032b6a750ef12210642eea|
+----+--------------------------------+

 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Introduction to BASE64_ENCODE and its


Applications in PySpark
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APPLICATIONS IN PYSPARK
Introduction to BASE64_ENCODE and its Applications in
PySpark
BASE64 is a group of similar binary-to-text encoding schemes that represent
binary data in an ASCII string format by translating it into a radix-64
representation. It is designed to carry data stored in binary formats across channels
that are designed to deal with text. This ensures that the data remains intact without
any modification during transport.
BASE64_ENCODE is a function used to encode data into this base64 format.
Where is BASE64_ENCODE used?
Base64 encoding schemes are commonly used when there is a need to encode
binary data, especially when that data needs to be stored or sent over media that are
designed to deal with text. This encoding helps to ensure that the data remains
intact without modification during transport.
Base64 is used commonly in a number of applications including email via MIME,
as well as storing complex data in XML or JSON.
Advantages of BASE64_ENCODE
1. Data Integrity: Base64 ensures that data remains intact without modification during transport.
2. Usability: It can be used to send binary data, such as images or files, over channels designed to
transmit text-based data.
3. Security: While it’s not meant to be a secure encryption method, it does provide a layer of
obfuscation.
How to Encode the Input Using Base64 Encoding in
PySpark
PySpark, the Python library for Spark programming, does not natively support
Base64 encoding functions until the version that’s available as of my knowledge
cutoff in September 2021. However, PySpark can easily use Python’s built-in
libraries, and we can create a User Defined Function (UDF) to perform
Base64 encoding. Below is a sample way of how you can achieve that.

from pyspark.sql.functions import udf


from pyspark.sql.types import StringType
import base64

def base64_encode(input):
try:
return base64.b64encode(input.encode('utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
except Exception as e:
return None

base64_encode_udf = udf(lambda z: base64_encode(z), StringType())

df_encoded = df.withColumn('encoded_column', base64_encode_udf(df['column_to_encode']))

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Example with Data

The BASE64_ENCODE function is a handy tool for preserving binary data integrity when it needs to be
stored and transferred over systems that are designed to handle text.

# Import the required libraries


from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.functions import udf
from pyspark.sql.types import StringType
import base64
# Start a Spark Session
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("freshers.in Learning for BASE64_ENCODE
").getOrCreate()
# Create a sample DataFrame
data = [('Sachin', 'Tendulkar', '[email protected]'),
('Mahesh', 'Babu', '[email protected]'),
('Mohan', 'Lal', '[email protected]')]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["First Name", "Last Name", "Email"])
# Display original DataFrame
df.show(20,False)
# Define the base64 encode function
def base64_encode(input):
try:
return base64.b64encode(input.encode('utf-8')).decode('utf-8')
except Exception as e:
return None
# Create a UDF for the base64 encode function
base64_encode_udf = udf(lambda z: base64_encode(z), StringType())
# Add a new column to the DataFrame with the encoded email
df_encoded = df.withColumn('Encoded Email', base64_encode_udf(df['Email']))
# Display the DataFrame with the encoded column
df_encoded.show(20,False)

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Output

+----------+---------+----------------------------+
|First Name|Last Name|Email |
+----------+---------+----------------------------+
|Sachin |Tendulkar|[email protected]|
|Mahesh |Babu |[email protected] |
|Mohan |Lal |[email protected] |
+----------+---------+----------------------------+

+----------+---------+----------------------------
+----------------------------------------+
|First Name|Last Name|Email |Encoded Email
|
+----------+---------+----------------------------
+----------------------------------------+
|Sachin |Tendulkar|[email protected]|
c2FjaGluLnRlbmR1bGthckBmcmVzaGVycy5pbg==|
|Mahesh |Babu |[email protected] |
bWFoZXNoLmJhYnVAZnJlc2hlcnMuaW4= |
|Mohan |Lal |[email protected] |bW9oYW4ubGFsQGZyZXNoZXJzLmlu
|
+----------+---------+----------------------------
+----------------------------------------+

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In this script, we first create a SparkSession, which is the entry point to any
functionality in Spark. We then create a DataFrame with some sample
data.

The base64_encode function takes an input string and returns the Base64
encoded version of the string. We then create a user-defined function
(UDF) out of this, which can be applied to our DataFrame.
Finally, we create a new DataFrame, df_encoded, which includes a new
column ‘Encoded Email’. This column is the result of applying our UDF to
the ‘Email’ column of the original DataFrame.

When you run the df.show() and df_encoded.show(), it will display the
original and the base64 encoded DataFrames respectively.

PySpark : Understanding the PySpark next_day Function


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FUNCTION

Time series data often involves handling and manipulating dates. Apache Spark,
through its PySpark interface, provides an arsenal of date-time functions that
simplify this task. One such function is next_day(), a powerful function used to
find the next specified day of the week from a given date. This article will provide
an in-depth look into the usage and application of the next_day() function in
PySpark.
The next_day() function takes two arguments: a date and a day of the week. The
function returns the next specified day after the given date. For instance, if the
given date is a Monday and the specified day is ‘Thursday’, the function will return
the date of the coming Thursday.
The next_day() function recognizes the day of the week case-insensitively, and
both in full (like ‘Monday’) and abbreviated form (like ‘Mon’). 
To begin with, let’s initialize a SparkSession, the entry point to any Spark
functionality.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


# Initialize SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()

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Create a DataFrame with a single column date filled with some hardcoded date
values.

data = [("2023-07-04",),
("2023-12-31",),
("2022-02-28",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["date"])
df.show()

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Output

+----------+
| date|
+----------+
|2023-07-04|
|2023-12-31|
|2022-02-28|
+----------+

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Given the dates are in string format, we need to convert them into date type using
the to_date function.

from pyspark.sql.functions import col, to_date


df = df.withColumn("date", to_date(col("date"), "yyyy-MM-dd"))
df.show()

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Use the next_day() function to find the next Sunday from the given date.

from pyspark.sql.functions import next_day


df = df.withColumn("next_sunday", next_day("date", 'Sunday'))
df.show()

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Result DataFrame 

+----------+-----------+
| date|next_sunday|
+----------+-----------+
|2023-07-04| 2023-07-09|
|2023-12-31| 2024-01-07|
|2022-02-28| 2022-03-05|
+----------+-----------+

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The next_day() function in PySpark is a powerful tool for manipulating date-time


data, particularly when you need to perform operations based on the days of the
week.
 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Extracting the Month from a Date in PySpark


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PYSPARK
Working with dates and time is a common task in data analysis. Apache Spark
provides a variety of functions to manipulate date and time data types, including a
function to extract the month from a date. In this article, we will explore how to
use the month() function in PySpark to extract the month of a given date as an
integer.
The month() function extracts the month part from a given date and returns it as an
integer. For example, if you have a date “2023-07-04”, applying the month()
function to this date will return the integer value 7.
Firstly, let’s start by setting up a SparkSession, which is the entry point to any
Spark functionality.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


# Initialize SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()

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Create a DataFrame with a single column called date that contains some hard-
coded date values.

data = [("2023-07-04",),
("2023-12-31",),
("2022-02-28",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["date"])
df.show()

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Output

+----------+
| date|
+----------+
|2023-07-04|
|2023-12-31|
|2022-02-28|
+----------+

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As our dates are in string format, we need to convert them into date type using
the to_date function.

from pyspark.sql.functions import col, to_date


df = df.withColumn("date", to_date(col("date"), "yyyy-MM-dd"))
df.show()

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Let’s use the month() function to extract the month from the date column.

from pyspark.sql.functions import month


df = df.withColumn("month", month("date"))
df.show()

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Result

+----------+
| date|
+----------+
|2023-07-04|
|2023-12-31|
|2022-02-28|
+----------+

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As you can see, the month column contains the month part of the corresponding
date in the date column. The month() function in PySpark provides a simple and
effective way to retrieve the month part from a date, making it a valuable tool in a
data scientist’s arsenal. This function, along with other date-time functions in
PySpark, simplifies the process of handling date-time data.
PySpark : Calculating the Difference Between Dates with
PySpark: The months_between Function
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DATES WITH PYSPARK: THE MONTHS_BETWEEN FUNCTION

When working with time series data, it is often necessary to calculate the time
difference between two dates. Apache Spark provides an extensive collection of
functions to perform date-time manipulations, and months_between is one of
them. This function computes the number of months between two dates. If the first
date (date1) is later than the second one (date2), the result will be positive.
Notably, if both dates are on the same day of the month, the function will return a
precise whole number. This article will guide you on how to utilize this function in
PySpark.
Firstly, we need to create a SparkSession, which is the entry point to any
functionality in Spark.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


# Initialize SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()

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Let’s create a DataFrame with hardcoded dates for illustration purposes. We’ll
create two columns, date1 and date2, which will contain our dates in string format.

data = [("2023-07-04", "2022-07-04"),


("2023-12-31", "2022-01-01"),
("2022-02-28", "2021-02-28")]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["date1", "date2"])
df.show()

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Output

+----------+----------+
| date1| date2|
+----------+----------+
|2023-07-04|2022-07-04|
|2023-12-31|2022-01-01|
|2022-02-28|2021-02-28|
+----------+----------+

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In this DataFrame, date1 is always later than date2. Now, we need to convert the
date strings to date type using the to_date function.

from pyspark.sql.functions import col, to_date


df = df.withColumn("date1", to_date(col("date1"), "yyyy-MM-dd"))
df = df.withColumn("date2", to_date(col("date2"), "yyyy-MM-dd"))
df.show()

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Let’s use the months_between function to calculate the number of months


between date1 and date2.

from pyspark.sql.functions import months_between


df = df.withColumn("months_between", months_between("date1", "date2"))
df.show()

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Result

+----------+----------+--------------+
| date1| date2|months_between|
+----------+----------+--------------+
|2023-07-04|2022-07-04| 12.0|
|2023-12-31|2022-01-01| 23.96774194|
|2022-02-28|2021-02-28| 12.0|
+----------+----------+--------------+

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months_between returns a floating-point number indicating the number of months


between the two dates. The function considers the day of the month as well, hence
for the first and the last row where the day of the month is the same for date1 and
date2, the returned number is a whole number.
PySpark : Retrieving Unique Elements from two arrays in
PySpark
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ARRAYS IN PYSPARK
Let’s start by creating a DataFrame named freshers_in. We’ll make it contain two
array columns named ‘array1’ and ‘array2’, filled with hard-coded values.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import array

# Initialize SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()

data = [(["java", "c++", "python"], ["python", "java", "scala"]),


(["javascript", "c#", "java"], ["java", "javascript", "php"]),
(["ruby", "php", "c++"], ["c++", "ruby", "perl"])]

# Create DataFrame
freshers_in = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["array1", "array2"])
freshers_in.show(truncate=False)

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The show() function will display the DataFrame freshers_in, which should look
something like this:

+-------------------+-------------------+
|array1 |array2 |
+-------------------+-------------------+
|[java, c++, python]|[python, java, scala]|
|[javascript, c#, java]|[java, javascript, php]|
|[ruby, php, c++]|[c++, ruby, perl]|
+-------------------+-------------------+

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To create a new array column containing unique elements from ‘array1’ and ‘array2’, we can utilize
the concat() function to merge the arrays and the array_distinct() function to extract the unique
elements.

from pyspark.sql.functions import array_distinct, concat


# Add 'unique_elements' column
freshers_in = freshers_in.withColumn("unique_elements",
array_distinct(concat("array1", "array2")))
freshers_in.show(truncate=False)

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Result 

+-------------------+-------------------+-----------------------------------+
|array1 |array2 |unique_elements |
+-------------------+-------------------+-----------------------------------+
|[java, c++, python]|[python, java, scala]|[java, c++, python, scala] |
|[javascript, c#, java]|[java, javascript, php]|[javascript, c#, java, php] |
|[ruby, php, c++]|[c++, ruby, perl]|[ruby, php, c++, perl] |
+-------------------+-------------------+-----------------------------------+

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unique_elements column is a unique combination of the elements from the ‘array1’


and ‘array2’ columns.
Note that PySpark’s array functions treat NULLs as valid array elements. If your
arrays could contain NULLs, and you want to exclude them from the result, you
should filter them out before applying the array_distinct and concat operations.
Extracting Unique Values From Array Columns in PySpark
 USER  JUNE 28, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON EXTRACTING UNIQUE VALUES FROM ARRAY COLUMNS IN
PYSPARK
When dealing with data in Spark, you may find yourself needing to extract
distinct values from array columns. This can be particularly challenging
when working with large datasets, but PySpark’s array and dataframe
functions can make this process much easier.

In this article, we’ll walk you through how to extract an array containing the
distinct values from arrays in a column in PySpark. We will demonstrate
this process using some sample data, which you can execute directly.

Let’s create a PySpark DataFrame to illustrate this process:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import *

spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()

data = [("James", ["Java", "C++", "Python"]),


("Michael", ["Python", "Java", "C++", "Java"]),
("Robert", ["CSharp", "VB", "Python", "Java", "Python"])]

df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Name", "Languages"])


df.show(truncate=False)

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Result
+-------+-------------------------+
|Name |Languages |
+-------+-------------------------+
|James |[Java, C++, Python] |
|Michael|[Python, Java, C++, Java]|
|Robert |[CSharp, VB, Python, Java, Python]|
+-------+-------------------------+

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Here, the column Languages is an array type column containing


programming languages known by each person. As you can see, there are
some duplicate values in each array. Now, let’s extract the distinct values
from this array.

Using explode and distinct Functions


The first method involves using the explode function to convert the array
into individual rows and then using the distinct function to remove
duplicates:

df2 = df.withColumn("Languages", explode(df["Languages"]))\


.dropDuplicates(["Name", "Languages"])

df2.show(truncate=False)

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Result

+-------+---------+
|Name |Languages|
+-------+---------+
|James |Python |
|James |Java |
|James |C++ |
|Michael|Java |
|Robert |Java |
|Robert |CSharp |
|Robert |Python |
|Robert |VB |
|Michael|C++ |
|Michael|Python |
+-------+---------+

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Here, the explode function creates a new row for each element in the given
array or map column, and the dropDuplicates function eliminates duplicate
rows.

However, the result is not an array but rather individual rows. To get an
array of distinct values for each person, we can group the data by the
‘Name’ column and use the collect_list function:

df3 = df2.groupBy("Name").agg(collect_list("Languages").alias("DistinctLanguages"))
df3.show(truncate=False)

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Result

+-------+--------------------------+
|Name |DistinctLanguages |
+-------+--------------------------+
|James |[Python, Java, C++] |
|Michael|[Java, C++, Python] |
|Robert |[Java, CSharp, Python, VB]|
+-------+--------------------------+

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You want to get the list of all the Languages without duplicate , you can
perform the below

df4 = df.select(explode(df["Languages"])).dropDuplicates(["col"])
df4.show(truncate=False)

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Python

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+------+
|col |
+------+
|C++ |
|Python|
|Java |
|CSharp|
|VB |
+------+

PySpark : Returning an Array that Contains Matching


Elements in Two Input Arrays in PySpark
 USER  JUNE 24, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : RETURNING AN ARRAY THAT CONTAINS
MATCHING ELEMENTS IN TWO INPUT ARRAYS IN PYSPARK

This article will focus on a particular use case: returning an array that contains the
matching elements in two input arrays in PySpark. To illustrate this, we’ll use
PySpark’s built-in functions and DataFrame transformations.
PySpark does not provide a direct function to compare arrays and return the
matching elements. However, you can achieve this by utilizing some of its in-built
functions like explode, collect_list, and array_intersect.
Let’s assume we have a DataFrame that has two columns, both of which contain
arrays:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import array
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
data = [
("1", list(["apple", "banana", "cherry"]), list(["banana", "cherry", "date"])),
("2", list(["pear", "mango", "peach"]), list(["mango", "peach", "lemon"])),
]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["id", "Array1", "Array2"])
df.show()

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DataFrame is created successfully.


To return an array with the matching elements in ‘Array1’ and ‘Array2’, use
the array_intersect function:

from pyspark.sql.functions import array_intersect

df_with_matching_elements = df.withColumn("MatchingElements",
array_intersect(df.Array1, df.Array2))
df_with_matching_elements.show(20,False)

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The ‘MatchingElements’ column will contain the matching elements in ‘Array1’


and ‘Array2’ for each row.
Using the PySpark array_intersect function, you can efficiently find matching
elements in two arrays. This function is not only simple and efficient but also
scalable, making it a great tool for processing and analyzing big data with PySpark.
It’s important to remember, however, that this approach works on a row-by-row
basis. If you want to find matches across all rows in the DataFrame, you’ll need to
apply a different technique.

+---+-----------------------+----------------------+----------------+
|id |Array1 |Array2 |MatchingElements|
+---+-----------------------+----------------------+----------------+
|1 |[apple, banana, cherry]|[banana, cherry, date]|[banana, cherry]|
|2 |[pear, mango, peach] |[mango, peach, lemon] |[mango, peach] |
+---+-----------------------+----------------------+----------------+

 POSTED INSPARK
PySpark : Creating Ranges in PySpark DataFrame with
Custom Start, End, and Increment Values
 USER  JUNE 22, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : CREATING RANGES IN PYSPARK DATAFRAME
WITH CUSTOM START, END, AND INCREMENT VALUES

In PySpark, there isn’t a built-in function to create an array sequence given a start,
end, and increment value. In PySpark, you can use the range function, but it’s only
available for integer values. For float values, PySpark doesn’t provide such an
option. But, we can use a workaround and apply an UDF (User-Defined Function)
to create a list between the start_val and end_val with increments of increment_val.
Here’s how to do it:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import udf
from pyspark.sql.types import ArrayType, IntegerType
# Create a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
# Create a DataFrame
df = spark.createDataFrame([(1, 10, 2), (3, 6, 1), (10, 20, 5)], ['start_val', 'end_val',
'increment_val'])
# Define UDF to create the range
def create_range(start, end, increment):
return list(range(start, end + 1, increment))
create_range_udf = udf(create_range, ArrayType(IntegerType()))
# Apply the UDF
df = df.withColumn('range', create_range_udf(df['start_val'], df['end_val'],
df['increment_val']))
# Show the DataFrame
df.show(truncate=False)

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This will create a new column called range in the DataFrame that contains a list
from start_val to end_val with increments of increment_val.
Result

+---------+-------+-------------+------------------+
|start_val|end_val|increment_val|range |
+---------+-------+-------------+------------------+
|1 |10 |2 |[1, 3, 5, 7, 9] |
|3 |6 |1 |[3, 4, 5, 6] |
|10 |20 |5 |[10, 15, 20] |
+---------+-------+-------------+------------------+

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Remember that using Python UDFs might have a performance impact when
dealing with large volumes of data, as data needs to be moved from the JVM to
Python, which is an expensive operation. It is usually a good idea to profile your
Spark application and ensure the performance is acceptable.
Second Option [This below method is not suggested] Just for your information

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import udf
from pyspark.sql.types import ArrayType, IntegerType
import numpy as np
# Start SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName('Array Sequence Generator') \
.getOrCreate()
# Sample DataFrame
df = spark.createDataFrame([
(1, 10, 2),
(5, 20, 3),
(0, 15, 5)
], ["start_val", "end_val", "increment_val"])
# Define UDF
def sequence_array(start, end, step):
return list(np.arange(start, end, step))
sequence_array_udf = udf(sequence_array, ArrayType(IntegerType()))
# Use the UDF
df = df.withColumn("sequence", sequence_array_udf(df.start_val, df.end_val,
df.increment_val))
# Show the DataFrame
df.show(truncate=False)

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In this example, the sequence_array function uses numpy’s arange function to


generate a sequence of numbers given a start, end, and step value. The udf function
is used to convert this function into a UDF that can be used with PySpark
DataFrames.
The DataFrame df is created with three columns: start_val, end_val, and
increment_val. The UDF sequence_array_udf is then used to generate a new
column “sequence” in the DataFrame, which contains arrays of numbers starting at
start_val, ending at end_val (exclusive), and incrementing by increment_val.
PySpark : How to Prepending an Element to an Array on
specific condition in PySpark
 USER  JUNE 16, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW TO PREPENDING AN ELEMENT TO AN
ARRAY ON SPECIFIC CONDITION IN PYSPARK

If you want to prepend an element to the array only when the array contains a
specific word, you can achieve this with the help of PySpark’s when() and
otherwise() functions along with array_contains(). The when() function allows you
to specify a condition, the array_contains() function checks if an array contains a
certain value, and the otherwise() function allows you to specify what should
happen if the condition is not met.
Here is the example to prepend an element only when the array contains the word
“four”.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import array
from pyspark.sql.functions import when, array_contains, lit, array, concat
# Initialize a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
# Create a DataFrame
data = [("fruits", ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "date", "elderberry"]),
("numbers", ["one", "two", "three", "four", "five"]),
("colors", ["red", "blue", "green", "yellow", "pink"])]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Category", "Items"])
df.show()
######################
# Element to prepend
#####################
element = "zero"
# Prepend the element only when the array contains "four"
df = df.withColumn("Items", when(array_contains(df["Items"], "four"),
concat(array(lit(element)), df["Items"]))
.otherwise(df["Items"]))
df.show(20,False)

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Source Data

+--------+-----------------------------------------+
|Category|Items |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+
|fruits |[apple, banana, cherry, date, elderberry]|
|numbers |[one, two, three, four, five] |
|colors |[red, blue, green, yellow, pink] |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+

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Output
+--------+-----------------------------------------+
|Category|Items |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+
|fruits |[apple, banana, cherry, date, elderberry]|
|numbers |[zero, one, two, three, four, five] |
|colors |[red, blue, green, yellow, pink] |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+

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In this code, when(array_contains(df[“Items”], “four”),


concat(array(lit(element)), df[“Items”])) prepends the element to the array if the
array contains “four“. If the array does not contain
“four“, otherwise(df[“Items”]) leaves the array as it is.
This results in a new DataFrame where “zero” is prepended to the array in the
“Items” column only if the array contains “four“.
 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Prepending an Element to an Array in PySpark


 USER  JUNE 16, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : PREPENDING AN ELEMENT TO AN ARRAY IN
PYSPARK

When dealing with arrays in PySpark, a common requirement is to prepend


an element at the beginning of an array, effectively creating a new array
that includes the new element as well as all elements from the source
array. PySpark, doesn’t have a built-in function for prepending. However,
you can achieve this by using a combination of existing PySpark functions.
This article guides you through this process with a working example.

Creating the DataFrame

Let’s first create a PySpark DataFrame with an array column to use in the
demonstration:

Creating the DataFrame

Let’s first create a PySpark DataFrame with an array column to use in the
demonstration:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import array
# Initialize a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
# Create a DataFrame
data = [("fruits", ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "date", "elderberry"]),
("numbers", ["one", "two", "three", "four", "five"]),
("colors", ["red", "blue", "green", "yellow", "pink"])]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Category", "Items"])
df.show()

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Source data output

+--------+-----------------------------------------+
|Category|Items |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+
|fruits |[apple, banana, cherry, date, elderberry]|
|numbers |[one, two, three, four, five] |
|colors |[red, blue, green, yellow, pink] |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+

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Prepending an Element to an Array


The approach to prepending an element to an array in PySpark involves
combining the array() and concat() functions. We will create a new array
with the element to prepend and concatenate it with the original array:

from pyspark.sql.functions import array, concat


# Element to prepend
element = "zero"
# Prepend the element
df = df.withColumn("Items", concat(array(lit(element)), df["Items"]))
df.show(20,False)

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This code creates a new column “Items” by concatenating a new array


containing the element to prepend (“zero”) with the existing “Items” array.

The lit() function is used to create a column of literal value. The array()
function is used to create an array with the literal value, and the concat()
function is used to concatenate two arrays.

This results in a new DataFrame where “zero” is prepended to each array


in the “Items” column.

While PySpark doesn’t provide a built-in function for prepending an element


to an array, we can achieve the same result by creatively using the
functions available. We walked through an example of how to prepend an
element to an array in a PySpark DataFrame. This method highlights the
flexibility of PySpark and how it can handle a variety of data manipulation
tasks by combining its available functions.

+--------+-----------------------------------------------+
|Category|Items |
+--------+-----------------------------------------------+
|fruits |[zero, apple, banana, cherry, date, elderberry]|
|numbers |[zero, one, two, three, four, five] |
|colors |[zero, red, blue, green, yellow, pink] |
+--------+-----------------------------------------------+

 POSTED INSPARK
PySpark : Finding the Index of the First Occurrence of an
Element in an Array in PySpark
 USER  JUNE 16, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : FINDING THE INDEX OF THE FIRST OCCURRENCE
OF AN ELEMENT IN AN ARRAY IN PYSPARK

This article will walk you through the steps on how to find the index of the first
occurrence of an element in an array in PySpark with a working example.
Installing PySpark
Before we get started, you’ll need to have PySpark installed. You can install it via
pip:

pip install pyspark

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Creating the DataFrame


Let’s first create a PySpark DataFrame with an array column for
demonstration purposes.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import array
# Initiate a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
# Create a DataFrame
data = [("fruits", ["apple", "banana", "cherry", "date", "elderberry"]),
("numbers", ["one", "two", "three", "four", "five"]),
("colors", ["red", "blue", "green", "yellow", "pink"])]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Category", "Items"])
df.show(20,False)

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Source data

+--------+-----------------------------------------+
|Category|Items |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+
|fruits |[apple, banana, cherry, date, elderberry]|
|numbers |[one, two, three, four, five] |
|colors |[red, blue, green, yellow, pink] |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+

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Defining the UDF


Since PySpark doesn’t have a built-in function to find the index of an element in an
array, we’ll need to create a User-Defined Function (UDF).

from pyspark.sql.functions import udf


from pyspark.sql.types import IntegerType
# Define the UDF to find the index
def find_index(array, item):
try:
return array.index(item)
except ValueError:
return None
# Register the UDF
find_index_udf = udf(find_index, IntegerType())

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This UDF takes two arguments: an array and an item. It tries to return the index of
the item in the array. If the item is not found, it returns None.
Applying the UDF
To pass a literal value to the UDF, you should use the lit function from
pyspark.sql.functions. Here’s how you should modify your code:
Finally, we’ll apply the UDF to our DataFrame to find the index of an element.

from pyspark.sql.functions import lit


# Use the UDF to find the index
df = df.withColumn("ItemIndex", find_index_udf(df["Items"], lit("three")))
df.show(20,False)

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Final Output

+--------+-----------------------------------------+---------+
|Category|Items |ItemIndex|
+--------+-----------------------------------------+---------+
|fruits |[apple, banana, cherry, date, elderberry]|null |
|numbers |[one, two, three, four, five] |2 |
|colors |[red, blue, green, yellow, pink] |null |
+--------+-----------------------------------------+---------+

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This will add a new column to the DataFrame, “ItemIndex”, that contains the index
of the first occurrence of “three” in the “Items” column. If “three” is not found in
an array, the corresponding entry in the “ItemIndex” column will be null.
lit(“three”) creates a Column of literal value “three”, which is then passed to the UDF. This ensures that
the UDF correctly interprets “three” as a string value, not a column name.
 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Returning the input values, pivoted into an ARRAY


 USER  JUNE 15, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : RETURNING THE INPUT VALUES, PIVOTED INTO
AN ARRAY
To pivot data in PySpark into an array, you can use a combination of groupBy,
pivot, and collect_list functions. The groupBy function is used to group the
DataFrame using the specified columns, pivot can be used to pivot a column of the
DataFrame and perform a specified aggregation, and collect_list function collects
and returns a list of non-unique elements.
Below is an example where I create a DataFrame, and then pivot the ‘value’
column into an array based on ‘id’ and ‘type’.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import collect_list
# Spark session
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('pivot_to_array').getOrCreate()
# Creating DataFrame
data = [("1", "type1", "value1"), ("1", "type2", "value2"), ("2", "type1", "value3"), ("2", "type2",
"value4")]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["id", "type", "value"])
# DataFrame
df.show()

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Result

+---+-----+------+
| id| type| value|
+---+-----+------+
| 1|type1|value1|
| 1|type2|value2|
| 2|type1|value3|
| 2|type2|value4|
+---+-----+------+

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# Pivot and collect values into array


df_pivot = df.groupBy("id").pivot("type").agg(collect_list("value"))
# Pivoted DataFrame
df_pivot.show()

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Final Output
In this example, groupBy(“id”) groups the DataFrame by ‘id’, pivot(“type”) pivots
the ‘type’ column, and agg(collect_list(“value”)) collects the ‘value’ column into
an array for each group. The resulting DataFrame will have one row for each
unique ‘id’, and a column for each unique ‘type’, with the values in these columns
being arrays of the corresponding ‘value’ entries.
‘collect_list’ collects all values including duplicates. If you want to collect only
unique values, use ‘collect_set’ instead.
PySpark : Extract values from JSON strings within a
DataFrame in PySpark [json_tuple]
 USER  MAY 26, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : EXTRACT VALUES FROM JSON STRINGS WITHIN
A DATAFRAME IN PYSPARK [JSON_TUPLE]
pyspark.sql.functions.json_tuple
PySpark provides a powerful function called json_tuple that allows you to extract
values from JSON strings within a DataFrame. This function is particularly useful
when you’re working with JSON data and need to retrieve specific values or
attributes from the JSON structure. In this article, we will explore the json_tuple
function in PySpark and demonstrate its usage with an example.
Understanding json_tuple
The json_tuple function in PySpark extracts the values of specified attributes from
JSON strings within a DataFrame. It takes two or more arguments: the first
argument is the input column containing JSON strings, and the subsequent
arguments are the attribute names you want to extract from the JSON.
The json_tuple function returns a tuple of columns, where each column represents
the extracted value of the corresponding attribute from the JSON string.
Example Usage
Let’s dive into an example to understand how to use json_tuple in PySpark.
Consider the following sample data:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


# Create a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
# Sample data as a DataFrame
data = [
('{"name": "Sachin", "age": 30}',),
('{"name": "Narendra", "age": 25}',),
('{"name": "Jacky", "age": 40}',)
]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ['json_data'])
# Show the DataFrame
df.show(truncate=False)

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Output:

+-----------------------+
|json_data |
+-----------------------+
|{"name": "Sachin", "age": 30}|
|{"name": "Narendra", "age": 25}|
|{"name": "Jacky", "age": 40} |
+-----------------------+

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In this example, we have a DataFrame named df with a single column called


‘json_data’, which contains JSON strings representing people’s information.
Now, let’s use the json_tuple function to extract the values of the ‘name’ and ‘age’
attributes from the JSON strings:

from pyspark.sql.functions import json_tuple


# Extract 'name' and 'age' attributes using json_tuple
extracted_data = df.select(json_tuple('json_data', 'name', 'age').alias('name', 'age'))
# Show the extracted data
extracted_data.show(truncate=False)

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Output

+----+---+
|name|age|
+----+---+
|Sachin|30 |
|Narendra|25 |
|Jacky |40 |
+----+---+

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In the above code, we use the json_tuple function to extract the ‘name’ and ‘age’
attributes from the ‘json_data’ column. We specify the attribute names as
arguments to json_tuple (‘name’ and ‘age’), and use the alias method to assign
meaningful column names to the extracted attributes.
The resulting extracted_data DataFrame contains two columns: ‘name’ and ‘age’
with the extracted values from the JSON strings.
The json_tuple function in PySpark is a valuable tool for working with JSON data
in DataFrames. It allows you to extract specific attributes or values from JSON
strings efficiently. By leveraging the power of json_tuple, you can easily process
and analyze JSON data within your PySpark pipelines, gaining valuable insights
from structured JSON information.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 15

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PySpark : Finding the cube root of the given value using
PySpark
 USER  MAY 26, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : FINDING THE CUBE ROOT OF THE GIVEN VALUE
USING PYSPARK
The pyspark.sql.functions.cbrt(col) function in PySpark computes the cube root of
the given value. It takes a column as input and returns a new column with the cube
root values.
Here’s an example to illustrate the usage of pyspark.sql.functions.cbrt(col):
To use the cbrt function in PySpark, you need to import it from the
pyspark.sql.functions module. Here’s the corrected code:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import col, cbrt
# Create a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
# Create a DataFrame with a column of values
data = [(1,), (8,), (27,), (64,)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ['value'])
# Apply the cube root transformation using cbrt() function
transformed_df = df.withColumn('cbrt_value', cbrt(col('value')))
# Show the transformed DataFrame
transformed_df.show()

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Output

+-----+----------+
|value|cbrt_value|
+-----+----------+
| 1| 1.0|
| 8| 2.0|
| 27| 3.0|
| 64| 4.0|
+-----+----------+

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We import the cbrt function from pyspark.sql.functions. Then, we use the cbrt()
function directly in the withColumn method to apply the cube root transformation
to the ‘value’ column. The col(‘value’) expression retrieves the column ‘value’,
and cbrt(col(‘value’)) computes the cube root of that column.
Now, the transformed_df DataFrame will contain the expected cube root values in
the ‘cbrt_value’ column.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 1

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PySpark : Identify the grouping level in data after performing
a group by operation with cube or rollup in PySpark
[grouping_id]
 USER  MAY 23, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : IDENTIFY THE GROUPING LEVEL IN DATA AFTER
PERFORMING A GROUP BY OPERATION WITH CUBE OR ROLLUP IN PYSPARK [GROUPING_ID]

pyspark.sql.functions.grouping_id(*cols)
This function is valuable when you need to identify the grouping level in data after
performing a group by operation with cube or rollup. In this article, we will delve
into the details of the grouping_id function and its usage with an example.
The grouping_id function signature in PySpark is as follows:

pyspark.sql.functions.grouping_id(*cols)

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This function doesn’t require any argument, but it’s often used with columns in a
DataFrame.
The grouping_id function is used in conjunction with the cube or rollup operations,
and it provides an ID to indicate the level of grouping. The more columns the data
is grouped by, the smaller the grouping ID will be.
Example Usage
Let’s go through a simple example to understand the usage of the grouping_id
function.
Suppose we have a DataFrame named df containing three columns: ‘City’,
‘Product’, and ‘Sales’.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
data = [("New York", "Apple", 100),
("Los Angeles", "Orange", 200),
("New York", "Banana", 150),
("Los Angeles", "Apple", 120),
("New York", "Orange", 75),
("Los Angeles", "Banana", 220)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["City", "Product", "Sales"])
df.show()

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Result : DataFrame

+-----------+-------+-----+
| City|Product|Sales|
+-----------+-------+-----+
| New York| Apple| 100|
|Los Angeles| Orange| 200|
| New York| Banana| 150|
|Los Angeles| Apple| 120|
| New York| Orange| 75|
|Los Angeles| Banana| 220|
+-----------+-------+-----+

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Now, let’s perform a cube operation on the ‘City’ and ‘Product’ columns and
compute the total ‘Sales’ for each group. Also, let’s add a grouping_id column to
identify the level of grouping.

from pyspark.sql.functions import sum, grouping_id


df_grouped = df.cube("City", "Product").agg(sum("Sales").alias("TotalSales"),
grouping_id().alias("GroupingID"))
df_grouped.orderBy("GroupingID").show()

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The orderBy function is used here to sort the result by the ‘GroupingID’ column.
The output will look something like this:

+-----------+-------+----------+----------+
| City|Product|TotalSales|GroupingID|
+-----------+-------+----------+----------+
| New York| Banana| 150| 0|
|Los Angeles| Orange| 200| 0|
|Los Angeles| Apple| 120| 0|
| New York| Apple| 100| 0|
| New York| Orange| 75| 0|
|Los Angeles| Banana| 220| 0|
| New York| null| 325| 1|
|Los Angeles| null| 540| 1|
| null| Apple| 220| 2|
| null| Banana| 370| 2|
| null| Orange| 275| 2|
| null| null| 865| 3|
+-----------+-------+----------+----------+

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As you can see, the grouping_id function provides a numerical identifier that
describes the level of grouping in the DataFrame, with smaller values
corresponding to more columns being used for grouping.
The grouping_id function is a powerful tool for understanding the level of
grouping in your data when using cube or rollup operations in PySpark. It provides
valuable insights, especially when dealing with complex datasets with multiple
levels of aggregation.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
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 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Calculating the exponential of a given column in


PySpark [exp]
 USER  MAY 23, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : CALCULATING THE EXPONENTIAL OF A GIVEN
COLUMN IN PYSPARK [EXP]

PySpark offers the exp function in its pyspark.sql.functions module, which


calculates the exponential of a given column.
In this article, we will delve into the details of this function, exploring its usage
through an illustrative example.
Function Signature
The exp function signature in PySpark is as follows:

pyspark.sql.functions.exp(col)

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The function takes a single argument:


col: A column expression representing a column in a DataFrame. The column
should contain numeric data for which you want to compute the exponential.
Example Usage
Let’s examine a practical example to better understand the exp function. Suppose
we have a DataFrame named df containing a single column, col1, with five
numeric values.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import lit
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
data = [(1.0,), (2.0,), (3.0,), (4.0,), (5.0,)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["col1"])
df.show()

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Result :  DataFrame:

+----+
|col1|
+----+
| 1.0|
| 2.0|
| 3.0|
| 4.0|
| 5.0|
+----+

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Now, we wish to compute the exponential of each value in the col1 column. We
can achieve this using the exp function:
from pyspark.sql.functions import exp
df_exp = df.withColumn("col1_exp", exp(df["col1"]))
df_exp.show()

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In this code, the withColumn function is utilized to add a new column to the
DataFrame. This new column, col1_exp, will contain the exponential of each value
in the col1 column. The output will resemble the following:

+----+------------------+
|col1| col1_exp|
+----+------------------+
| 1.0|2.7182818284590455|
| 2.0| 7.38905609893065|
| 3.0|20.085536923187668|
| 4.0|54.598150033144236|
| 5.0| 148.4131591025766|
+----+------------------+

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As you can see, the col1_exp column now holds the exponential of the values in
the col1 column.
PySpark’s exp function is a beneficial tool for computing the exponential of
numeric data. It is a must-have in the toolkit of data scientists and engineers
dealing with large datasets, as it empowers them to perform complex
transformations with ease.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
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PySpark : An Introduction to the PySpark encode Function
 USER  MAY 23, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PYSPARK ENCODE
FUNCTION
PySpark provides the encode function in its pyspark.sql.functions module,
which is useful for encoding a column of strings into a binary column using
a specified character set.
In this article, we will discuss this function in detail and walk through an
example of how it can be used in a real-world scenario.

Function Signature
The encode function signature in PySpark is as follows:

pyspark.sql.functions.encode(col, charset)

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This function takes two arguments:


col: A column expression representing a column in a DataFrame. This
column should contain string data to be encoded into binary.
charset: A string representing the character set to be used for encoding.
This can be one of US-ASCII, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE,
or UTF-16.
Example Usage
Let’s walk through a simple example to understand how to use this
function.
Assume we have a DataFrame named df containing one column, col1,
which has two rows of strings: ‘Hello’ and ‘World’.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import lit
spark = SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()
data = [("Hello",), ("World",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["col1"])
df.show()

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This will display the following DataFrame:

+-----+
|col1 |
+-----+
|Hello|
|World|
+-----+

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Now, let’s say we want to encode these strings into a binary format using
the UTF-8 charset. We can do this using the encode function as follows:

from pyspark.sql.functions import encode


df_encoded = df.withColumn("col1_encoded", encode(df["col1"], "UTF-8"))
df_encoded.show()

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The withColumn function is used here to add a new column to the


DataFrame. This new column, col1_encoded, will contain the binary
encoded representation of the strings in the col1 column. The output will
look something like this:
+-----+-------------+
|col1 |col1_encoded |
+-----+-------------+
|Hello|[48 65 6C 6C 6F]|
|World|[57 6F 72 6C 64]|
+-----+-------------+

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The col1_encoded column now contains the binary representation of the


strings in the col1 column, encoded using the UTF-8 character set.

PySpark’s encode function is a useful tool for converting string data into
binary format, and it’s incredibly flexible with its ability to support multiple
character sets. It’s a valuable tool for any data scientist or engineer who is
working with large datasets and needs to perform transformations at scale.

Spark important urls to refer


1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
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 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Subtracting a specified number of days from a


given date in PySpark [date_sub]
 USER  MAY 22, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : SUBTRACTING A SPECIFIED NUMBER OF DAYS
FROM A GIVEN DATE IN PYSPARK [DATE_SUB]
In this article, we will delve into the date_sub function in PySpark. This
versatile function allows us to subtract a specified number of days from a
given date, enabling us to perform date-based operations and gain
valuable insights from our data.

from pyspark.sql.functions import date_sub


Understanding date_sub:
The date_sub function in PySpark facilitates date subtraction by subtracting
a specified number of days from a given date. It helps us analyze historical
data, calculate intervals, and perform various time-based computations
within our Spark applications.

Syntax:
The syntax for using date_sub in PySpark is as follows:

date_sub(start_date, days)

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Here, start_date represents the initial date from which we want to subtract
days, and days indicates the number of days to subtract.
Example Usage:
To illustrate the usage of date_sub in PySpark, let’s consider a scenario
where we have a dataset containing sales records. We want to analyze
sales data from the past 7 days.
Step 1: Importing the necessary libraries and creating a
SparkSession.
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.functions import date_sub

# Create a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("date_sub Example at Freshers.in") \
.getOrCreate()

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Step 2: Creating a sample DataFrame with hardcoded


values.
# Sample DataFrame with hardcoded values
data = [("Product A", "2023-05-15", 100),
("Product B", "2023-05-16", 150),
("Product C", "2023-05-17", 200),
("Product D", "2023-05-18", 120),
("Product E", "2023-05-19", 90),
("Product F", "2023-05-20", 180),
("Product G", "2023-05-21", 210),
("Product H", "2023-05-22", 160)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Product", "Date", "Sales"])

# Show the initial DataFrame


df.show()

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Result 

+---------+----------+-----+
| Product | Date |Sales|
+---------+----------+-----+
|Product A|2023-05-15| 100|
|Product B|2023-05-16| 150|
|Product C|2023-05-17| 200|
|Product D|2023-05-18| 120|
|Product E|2023-05-19| 90|
|Product F|2023-05-20| 180|
|Product G|2023-05-21| 210|
|Product H|2023-05-22| 160|
+---------+----------+-----+

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Step 3: Subtracting days using date_sub.


# Subtract 7 days from the current date
df_subtracted = df.withColumn("SubtractedDate", date_sub(df.Date, 7))

# Show the resulting DataFrame


df_subtracted.show()

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Result 

+---------+----------+-----+--------------+
| Product| Date|Sales|SubtractedDate|
+---------+----------+-----+--------------+
|Product A|2023-05-15| 100| 2023-05-08|
|Product B|2023-05-16| 150| 2023-05-09|
|Product C|2023-05-17| 200| 2023-05-10|
|Product D|2023-05-18| 120| 2023-05-11|
|Product E|2023-05-19| 90| 2023-05-12|
|Product F|2023-05-20| 180| 2023-05-13|
|Product G|2023-05-21| 210| 2023-05-14|
|Product H|2023-05-22| 160| 2023-05-15|
+---------+----------+-----+--------------+

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In the above code snippet, we used the


`date_sub` function to subtract 7 days from the “Date” column in the
DataFrame. The resulting column, “SubtractedDate,” contains the dates
obtained after subtracting 7 days.
Step 4: Filtering data based on the subtracted date.
# Filter sales data from the past 7 days
recent_sales = df_subtracted.filter(df_subtracted.SubtractedDate >= '2023-05-15')

# Show the filtered DataFrame


recent_sales.show()

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Result

+---------+----------+-----+--------------+
| Product | Date |Sales|SubtractedDate|
+---------+----------+-----+--------------+
|Product H|2023-05-22| 160| 2023-05-15|
+---------+----------+-----+--------------+

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By filtering the DataFrame based on the “SubtractedDate” column, we


obtained sales data from the past 7 days. In this case, we selected records
where the subtracted date was greater than or equal to ‘2023-05-15’.

Here we explored the functionality of PySpark’s date_sub function, which


allows us to subtract a specified number of days from a given date. By
incorporating this powerful function into our PySpark workflows, we can
perform date-based operations, analyze historical data, and gain valuable
insights from our datasets. Whether it’s calculating intervals, filtering data
based on specific timeframes, or performing time-based computations, the
date_sub function proves to be an invaluable tool for date subtraction in
PySpark applications.

Spark important urls to refer


1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 22

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PySpark : A Comprehensive Guide to PySpark’s current_date
and current_timestamp Functions
 USER  MAY 22, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO PYSPARK’S
CURRENT_DATE AND CURRENT_TIMESTAMP FUNCTIONS
PySpark enables data engineers and data scientists to perform distributed data
processing tasks efficiently. In this article, we will explore two essential PySpark
functions: current_date and current_timestamp. These functions allow us to
retrieve the current date and timestamp within a Spark application, enabling us to
perform time-based operations and gain valuable insights from our data.
Understanding current_date and current_timestamp:
Before diving into the details, let’s take a moment to understand the purpose of
these functions:
current_date: This function returns the current date as a date type in the format
‘yyyy-MM-dd’. It retrieves the date based on the system clock of the machine
running the Spark application.
current_timestamp: This function returns the current timestamp as a timestamp
type in the format ‘yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.sss’. It provides both the date and
time information based on the system clock of the machine running the Spark
application.
Example Usage:
To demonstrate the usage of current_date and current_timestamp in PySpark, let’s
consider a scenario where we have a dataset containing customer orders. We want
to analyze the orders placed on the current date and timestamp.
Step 1: Importing the necessary libraries and creating a SparkSession.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import current_date, current_timestamp

# Create a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("Current Date and Timestamp Example at Freshers.in") \
.getOrCreate()

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Step 2: Creating a sample DataFrame.

# Sample DataFrame
data = [("Alice", 1), ("Bob", 2), ("Charlie", 3)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Name", "OrderID"])

# Adding current date and timestamp columns


df_with_date = df.withColumn("CurrentDate", current_date())
df_with_timestamp = df_with_date.withColumn("CurrentTimestamp",
current_timestamp())

# Show the resulting DataFrame


df_with_timestamp.show()

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Output

+-------+------+------------+--------------------+
| Name|OrderID|CurrentDate | CurrentTimestamp |
+-------+------+------------+--------------------+
| Alice| 1| 2023-05-22|2023-05-22 10:15:...|
| Bob| 2| 2023-05-22|2023-05-22 10:15:...|
|Charlie| 3| 2023-05-22|2023-05-22 10:15:...|
+-------+------+------------+--------------------+

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As seen in the output, we added two new columns to the DataFrame:
“CurrentDate” and “CurrentTimestamp.” These columns contain the current date
and timestamp for each row in the DataFrame.
Step 3: Filtering data based on the current date.

# Filter orders placed on the current date


current_date_orders = df_with_timestamp.filter(df_with_timestamp.CurrentDate ==
current_date())

# Show the filtered DataFrame


current_date_orders.show()

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Output:

+-------+------+------------+--------------------+
| Name|OrderID|CurrentDate | CurrentTimestamp |
+-------+------+------------+--------------------+
| Alice| 1| 2023-05-22|2023-05-22 10:15:...|
| Bob| 2| 2023-05-22|2023-05-22 10:15:...|
|Charlie| 3| 2023-05-22|2023-05-22 10:15:...|
+-------+------+------------+--------------------+

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Step 4: Performing time-based operations using current_timestamp.

# Calculate the time difference between current timestamp and order placement time
df_with_timestamp = df_with_timestamp.withColumn("TimeElapsed",
current_timestamp() - df_with_timestamp.CurrentTimestamp)

# Show the DataFrame with the time elapsed


df_with_timestamp.show()

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Output

+-------+------+------------+--------------------+-------------------+
| Name|OrderID|CurrentDate | CurrentTimestamp | TimeElapsed |
+-------+------+------------+--------------------+-------------------+
| Alice| 1| 2023-05-22|2023-05-22 10:15:...| 00:01:23.456789 |
| Bob| 2| 2023-05-22|2023-05-22 10:15:...| 00:00:45.678912 |
|Charlie| 3| 2023-05-22|2023-05-22 10:15:...| 00:02:10.123456 |
+-------+------+------------+--------------------+-------------------+

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In the above code snippet, we calculate the time elapsed between the current
timestamp and the order placement time for each row in the DataFrame. The
resulting column, “TimeElapsed,” shows the duration in the format
‘HH:mm:ss.sss’. This can be useful for analyzing time-based metrics and
understanding the timing patterns of the orders.
In this article, we explored the powerful PySpark functions current_date and
current_timestamp. These functions provide us with the current date and timestamp
within a Spark application, enabling us to perform time-based operations and gain
valuable insights from our data. By incorporating these functions into our PySpark
workflows, we can effectively handle time-related tasks and leverage temporal
information for various data processing and analysis tasks.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 8

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PySpark : Understanding the ‘take’ Action in PySpark with
Examples. [Retrieves a specified number of elements from the
beginning of an RDD or DataFrame]
 USER  APRIL 29, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : UNDERSTANDING THE ‘TAKE’ ACTION IN
PYSPARK WITH EXAMPLES. [RETRIEVES A SPECIFIED NUMBER OF ELEMENTS FROM THE BEGINNING OF
AN RDD OR DATAFRAME]

In this article, we will focus on the ‘take’ action, which is commonly used in
PySpark operations. We’ll provide a brief explanation of the ‘take’ action,
followed by a simple example to help you understand its usage.
What is the ‘take’ Action in PySpark?
The ‘take’ action in PySpark retrieves a specified number of elements from the
beginning of an RDD (Resilient Distributed Dataset) or DataFrame. It is an action
operation, which means it triggers the execution of any previous transformations
on the data, returning the result to the driver program. This operation is particularly
useful for previewing the contents of an RDD or DataFrame without having to
collect all the elements, which can be time-consuming and memory-intensive for
large datasets.
Syntax:
take(num)
Where num is the number of elements to retrieve from the RDD or DataFrame.
Simple Example
Let’s go through a simple example using the ‘take’ action in PySpark. First, we’ll
create a PySpark RDD and then use the ‘take’ action to retrieve a specified number
of elements.
RDD Version
Step 1: Start a PySpark session
Before starting with the example, you’ll need to start a PySpark session:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("Understanding the 'take' action in PySpark") \
.getOrCreate()

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Step 2: Create an RDD

Now, let’s create an RDD containing some numbers:

data = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]


rdd = spark.sparkContext.parallelize(data)

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data = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
rdd = spark.sparkContext.parallelize(data)

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Step 3: Use the ‘take’ action


We’ll use the ‘take’ action to retrieve the first 5 elements of the RDD:

first_five_elements = rdd.take(5)
print("The first five elements of the RDD are:", first_five_elements)

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Output:

The first five elements of the RDD are: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

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We introduced the ‘take’ action in PySpark, which allows you to retrieve a


specified number of elements from the beginning of an RDD or DataFrame.
We provided a simple example to help you understand how the ‘take’
action works. It is a handy tool for previewing the contents of an RDD or
DataFrame, especially when working with large datasets, and can be a
valuable part of your PySpark toolkit.
DataFrame Version
Let’s go through an example using a DataFrame and the ‘take’ action in PySpark. We’ll create a
DataFrame with some sample data, and then use the ‘take’ action to retrieve a specified number of rows.

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("Understanding the 'take' action in PySpark with DataFrames") \
.getOrCreate()
from pyspark.sql import Row
data = [
Row(name="Alice", age=30, city="New York"),
Row(name="Bob", age=28, city="San Francisco"),
Row(name="Cathy", age=25, city="Los Angeles"),
Row(name="David", age=32, city="Chicago"),
Row(name="Eva", age=29, city="Seattle")
]
schema = "name STRING, age INT, city STRING"
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, schema=schema)
first_three_rows = df.take(3)
print("The first three rows of the DataFrame are:")
for row in first_three_rows:
print(row)

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Output

The first three rows of the DataFrame are:


Row(name='Alice', age=30, city='New York')
Row(name='Bob', age=28, city='San Francisco')
Row(name='Cathy', age=25, city='Los Angeles')

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We created a DataFrame with some sample data and used the ‘take’ action to retrieve a specified number
of rows. This operation is useful for previewing the contents of a DataFrame, especially when working
with large datasets.

Spark important urls to refer


1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
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 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Exploring PySpark’s joinByKey on DataFrames:


[combining data from two different DataFrames] – A
Comprehensive Guide
 USER  APRIL 13, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : EXPLORING PYSPARK’S JOINBYKEY ON
DATAFRAMES: [COMBINING DATA FROM TWO DIFFERENT DATAFRAMES] – A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE
In PySpark, join operations are a fundamental technique for combining data from
two different DataFrames based on a common key. While there isn’t a specific
joinByKey function, PySpark provides various join functions that are applicable to
DataFrames. In this article, we will explore the different types of join operations
available in PySpark for DataFrames and provide a concrete example with
hardcoded values instead of reading from a file.
Types of Join Operations in PySpark for DataFrames
1. Inner join: Combines rows from both DataFrames that have matching keys.
2. Left outer join: Retains all rows from the left DataFrame and matching rows from the right
DataFrame, filling with null values when there is no match.
3. Right outer join: Retains all rows from the right DataFrame and matching rows from the left
DataFrame, filling with null values when there is no match.
4. Full outer join: Retains all rows from both DataFrames, filling with null values when there is no
match.
Inner join using DataFrames
Suppose we have two datasets, one containing sales data for a chain of stores, and
the other containing store information. The sales data includes store ID, product
ID, and the number of units sold, while the store information includes store ID and
store location. Our goal is to combine these datasets based on store ID.

#Exploring PySpark's joinByKey on DataFrames: A Comprehensive Guide @ Freshers.in


from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql import Row
# Initialize the Spark session
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("join example @ Freshers.in ").getOrCreate()

# Sample sales data as (store_id, product_id, units_sold)


sales_data = [
Row(store_id=1, product_id=6567876, units_sold=5),
Row(store_id=2, product_id=6567876, units_sold=7),
Row(store_id=1, product_id=102, units_sold=3),
Row(store_id=2, product_id=9878767, units_sold=10),
Row(store_id=3, product_id=6567876, units_sold=4),
Row(store_id=3, product_id=5565455, units_sold=6),
Row(store_id=4, product_id=9878767, units_sold=6),
Row(store_id=4, product_id=5565455, units_sold=6),
Row(store_id=4, product_id=9878767, units_sold=6),
Row(store_id=5, product_id=5565455, units_sold=6),
]

# Sample store information as (store_id, store_location)


store_info = [
Row(store_id=1, store_location="New York"),
Row(store_id=2, store_location="Los Angeles"),
Row(store_id=3, store_location="Chicago"),
Row(store_id=1, store_location="Maryland"),
Row(store_id=2, store_location="Texas")
]

# Create DataFrames from the sample data


sales_df = spark.createDataFrame(sales_data)
store_info_df = spark.createDataFrame(store_info)

# Perform the join operation


joined_df = sales_df.join(store_info_df, on="store_id", how="inner")

# Collect the results and print


for row in joined_df.collect():
print(f"Store {row.store_id} ({row.store_location}) sales data: (Product {row.product_id}, Units
Sold {row.units_sold})")

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Output:

Store 1 (New York) sales data: (Product 6567876, Units Sold 5)


Store 1 (Maryland) sales data: (Product 6567876, Units Sold 5)
Store 1 (New York) sales data: (Product 102, Units Sold 3)
Store 1 (Maryland) sales data: (Product 102, Units Sold 3)
Store 2 (Los Angeles) sales data: (Product 6567876, Units Sold 7)
Store 2 (Texas) sales data: (Product 6567876, Units Sold 7)
Store 2 (Los Angeles) sales data: (Product 9878767, Units Sold 10)
Store 2 (Texas) sales data: (Product 9878767, Units Sold 10)
Store 3 (Chicago) sales data: (Product 6567876, Units Sold 4)
Store 3 (Chicago) sales data: (Product 5565455, Units Sold 6)

Bash

COPY

Spark important urls to refer


1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
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PySpark : Exploring PySpark’s joinByKey on RDD : A
Comprehensive Guide
 USER  APRIL 13, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : EXPLORING PYSPARK’S JOINBYKEY ON RDD : A
COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE

In PySpark, join operations are a fundamental technique for combining data from
two different RDDs based on a common key. Although there isn’t a specific
joinByKey function, PySpark provides several join functions that are applicable to
Key-Value pair RDDs. In this article, we will explore the different types of join
operations available in PySpark and provide a concrete example with hardcoded
values instead of reading from a file.
Types of Join Operations in PySpark
1. join: Performs an inner join between two RDDs based on matching keys.
2. leftOuterJoin: Performs a left outer join between two RDDs, retaining all keys from the left RDD
and matching keys from the right RDD.
3. rightOuterJoin: Performs a right outer join between two RDDs, retaining all keys from the right
RDD and matching keys from the left RDD.
4. fullOuterJoin: Performs a full outer join between two RDDs, retaining all keys from both RDDs.

Example: Inner join using ‘join’


Suppose we have two datasets, one containing sales data for a chain of stores, and
the other containing store information. The sales data includes store ID, product
ID, and the number of units sold, while the store information includes store ID and
store location. Our goal is to combine these datasets based on store ID.

#PySpark's joinByKey on RDD: A Comprehensive Guide @ Freshers.in


from pyspark import SparkContext
# Initialize the Spark context
sc = SparkContext("local", "join @ Freshers.in")

# Sample sales data as (store_id, (product_id, units_sold))


sales_data = [
(1, (6567876, 5)),
(2, (6567876, 7)),
(1, (4643987, 3)),
(2, (4643987, 10)),
(3, (6567876, 4)),
(4, (9878767, 6)),
(4, (5565455, 6)),
(4, (9878767, 6)),
(5, (5565455, 6)),
]

# Sample store information as (store_id, store_location)


store_info = [
(1, "New York"),
(2, "Los Angeles"),
(3, "Chicago"),
(4, "Maryland"),
(5, "Texas")
]

# Create RDDs from the sample data


sales_rdd = sc.parallelize(sales_data)
store_info_rdd = sc.parallelize(store_info)

# Perform the join operation


joined_rdd = sales_rdd.join(store_info_rdd)

# Collect the results and print


for store_id, (sales, location) in joined_rdd.collect():
print(f"Store {store_id} ({location}) sales data: {sales}")

Python

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Output:

Store 2 (Los Angeles) sales data: (6567876, 7)


Store 2 (Los Angeles) sales data: (4643987, 10)
Store 4 (Maryland) sales data: (9878767, 6)
Store 4 (Maryland) sales data: (5565455, 6)
Store 4 (Maryland) sales data: (9878767, 6)
Store 1 (New York) sales data: (6567876, 5)
Store 1 (New York) sales data: (4643987, 3)
Store 3 (Chicago) sales data: (6567876, 4)
Store 5 (Texas) sales data: (5565455, 6)

Bash

COPY

In this article, we explored the different types of join operations in PySpark for
Key-Value pair RDDs. We provided a concrete example using hardcoded values
for an inner join between two RDDs based on a common key. By leveraging join
operations in PySpark, you can combine data from various sources, enabling more
comprehensive data analysis and insights.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 6

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PySpark : Unraveling PySpark’s groupByKey: A
Comprehensive Guide
 USER  APRIL 13, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : UNRAVELING PYSPARK’S GROUPBYKEY: A
COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE
In this article, we will explore the groupByKey transformation in PySpark.
groupByKey is an essential tool when working with Key-Value pair RDDs
(Resilient Distributed Datasets), as it allows developers to group the values for
each key. We will discuss the syntax, usage, and provide a concrete example with
hardcoded values instead of reading from a file.
What is groupByKey?
groupByKey is a transformation operation in PySpark that groups the values for
each key in a Key-Value pair RDD. This operation takes no arguments and returns
an RDD of (key, values) pairs, where ‘values’ is an iterable of all values associated
with a particular key.
Syntax
The syntax for the groupByKey function is as follows:
groupByKey()

Example
Let’s dive into an example to better understand the usage of groupByKey. Suppose
we have a dataset containing sales data for a chain of stores. The data includes
store ID, product ID, and the number of units sold. Our goal is to group the sales
data by store ID.
#Unraveling PySpark's groupByKey: A Comprehensive Guide @ Freshers.in
from pyspark import SparkContext
# Initialize the Spark context
sc = SparkContext("local", "groupByKey @ Freshers.in")

# Sample sales data as (store_id, (product_id, units_sold))


sales_data = [
(1, (6567876, 5)),
(2, (6567876, 7)),
(1, (4643987, 3)),
(2, (4643987, 10)),
(3, (6567876, 4)),
(4, (9878767, 6)),
(4, (5565455, 6)),
(4, (9878767, 6)),
(5, (5565455, 6)),
]

# Create the RDD from the sales_data list


sales_rdd = sc.parallelize(sales_data)

# Perform the groupByKey operation


grouped_sales_rdd = sales_rdd.groupByKey()

# Collect the results and print


for store_id, sales in grouped_sales_rdd.collect():
sales_list = list(sales)
print(f"Store {store_id} sales data: {sales_list}")

Python

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Output:

Store 1 sales data: [(6567876, 5), (4643987, 3)]


Store 2 sales data: [(6567876, 7), (4643987, 10)]
Store 3 sales data: [(6567876, 4)]
Store 4 sales data: [(9878767, 6), (5565455, 6), (9878767, 6)]
Store 5 sales data: [(5565455, 6)]

Bash

COPY

Here, we have explored the groupByKey transformation in PySpark. This


powerful function allows developers to group values by their corresponding
keys in Key-Value pair RDDs. We covered the syntax, usage, and provided
an example using hardcoded values. By leveraging groupByKey, you can
effectively organize and process your data in PySpark, making it an
indispensable tool in your Big Data toolkit.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 5

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In this article, we will explore the reduceByKey transformation in PySpark.


reduceByKey is a crucial tool when working with Key-Value pair RDDs (Resilient
Distributed Datasets), as it allows developers to aggregate data by keys using a
given function. We will discuss the syntax, usage, and provide a concrete example
with hardcoded values instead of reading from a file.
What is reduceByKey?
reduceByKey is a transformation operation in PySpark that enables the aggregation
of values for each key in a Key-Value pair RDD. This operation takes a single
argument: the function to perform the aggregation. It applies the aggregation
function cumulatively to the values of each key.
Syntax
The syntax for the reduceByKey function is as follows:
reduceByKey(func)

where:
 func: The function that will be used to aggregate the values for each key

Example

Let’s dive into an example to better understand the usage of reduceByKey.


Suppose we have a dataset containing sales data for a chain of stores. The
data includes store ID, product ID, and the number of units sold. Our goal is
to calculate the total units sold for each store.

#Mastering PySpark's reduceByKey: A Comprehensive Guide @ Freshers.in


from pyspark import SparkContext

# Initialize the Spark context


sc = SparkContext("local", "reduceByKey @ Freshers.in ")

# Sample sales data as (store_id, (product_id, units_sold))


sales_data = [
(1, (6567876, 5)),
(2, (6567876, 7)),
(1, (4643987, 3)),
(2, (4643987, 10)),
(3, (6567876, 4)),
(4, (9878767, 6)),
(4, (5565455, 6)),
(4, (9878767, 6)),
(5, (5565455, 6)),
]

# Create the RDD from the sales_data list


sales_rdd = sc.parallelize(sales_data)

# Map the data to (store_id, units_sold) pairs


store_units_rdd = sales_rdd.map(lambda x: (x[0], x[1][1]))

# Define the aggregation function


def sum_units(a, b):
return a + b

# Perform the reduceByKey operation


total_sales_rdd = store_units_rdd.reduceByKey(sum_units)

# Collect the results and print


for store_id, total_units in total_sales_rdd.collect():
print(f"Store {store_id} sold a total of {total_units} units.")
Python

COPY

Output:

Store 1 sold a total of 8 units.


Store 2 sold a total of 17 units.
Store 3 sold a total of 4 units.
Store 4 sold a total of 18 units.
Store 5 sold a total of 6 units.

Bash

COPY

Here we have explored the reduceByKey transformation in PySpark. This


powerful function allows developers to perform aggregations on Key-Value
pair RDDs efficiently. We covered the syntax, usage, and provided an
example using hardcoded values. By leveraging reduceByKey, you can
simplify and optimize your data processing tasks in PySpark.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 6

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PySpark : Harnessing the Power of PySparks
foldByKey[aggregate data by keys using a given function]
 USER  APRIL 13, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HARNESSING THE POWER OF PYSPARKS
FOLDBYKEY[AGGREGATE DATA BY KEYS USING A GIVEN FUNCTION]
In this article, we will explore the foldByKey transformation in PySpark.
foldByKey is an essential tool when working with Key-Value pair RDDs (Resilient
Distributed Datasets), as it allows developers to aggregate data by keys using a
given function. We will discuss the syntax, usage, and provide a concrete example
with hardcoded values instead of reading from a file.
What is foldByKey?
foldByKey is a transformation operation in PySpark that enables the aggregation of
values for each key in a Key-Value pair RDD. This operation takes two arguments:
the initial zero value and the function to perform the aggregation. It applies the
aggregation function cumulatively to the values of each key, starting with the
initial zero value.
Syntax
The syntax for the foldByKey function is as follows:
foldByKey(zeroValue, func)

where:
 zeroValue: The initial value used for the aggregation (commonly known as the zero value)
 func: The function that will be used to aggregate the values for each key

Example
Let’s dive into an example to better understand the usage of foldByKey. Suppose
we have a dataset containing sales data for a chain of stores. The data includes
store ID, product ID, and the number of units sold. Our goal is to calculate the total
units sold for each store.

#Harnessing the Power of PySpark: A Deep Dive into foldByKey @ Freshers.in


from pyspark import SparkContext
# Initialize the Spark context
sc = SparkContext("local", "foldByKey @ Freshers.in ")
# Sample sales data as (store_id, (product_id, units_sold))
sales_data = [
(1, (189876, 5)),
(2, (189876, 7)),
(1, (267434, 3)),
(2, (267434, 10)),
(3, (189876, 4)),
(3, (267434, 6)),
]
# Create the RDD from the sales_data list
sales_rdd = sc.parallelize(sales_data)

# Define the aggregation function


def sum_units(a, b):
return a + b[1]

# Perform the foldByKey operation


total_sales_rdd = sales_rdd.foldByKey(0, sum_units)

# Collect the results and print


for store_id, total_units in total_sales_rdd.collect():
print(f"Store {store_id} sold a total of {total_units} units.")

Python

COPY

Output:

Store 1 sold a total of 8 units.


Store 2 sold a total of 17 units.
Store 3 sold a total of 10 units.

Bash

COPY

Here we have explored the foldByKey transformation in PySpark. This powerful


function allows developers to perform aggregations on Key-Value pair RDDs
efficiently. We covered the syntax, usage, and provided an example using
hardcoded values. By leveraging foldByKey, you can simplify and optimize your
data processing tasks in PySpark, making it an essential tool in your Big Data
toolkit.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 0

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 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Aggregation operations on key-value pair RDDs


[combineByKey in PySpark]
 USER  APRIL 13, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : AGGREGATION OPERATIONS ON KEY-VALUE
PAIR RDDS [COMBINEBYKEY IN PYSPARK]
In this article, we will explore the use of combineByKey in PySpark, a powerful and
flexible method for performing aggregation operations on key-value pair RDDs.
We will provide a detailed example.
First, let’s create a PySpark RDD:

# Using combineByKey in PySpark with a Detailed Example


from pyspark import SparkContext
sc = SparkContext("local", "combineByKey Example")
data = [("America", 1), ("Botswana", 2), ("America", 3), ("Botswana", 4), ("America", 5),
("Egypt", 6)]
rdd = sc.parallelize(data)

Python

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Using combineByKey
Now, let’s use the combineByKey method to compute the average value for each
key in the RDD:

def create_combiner(value):
return (value, 1)

def merge_value(acc, value):


sum, count = acc
return (sum + value, count + 1)

def merge_combiners(acc1, acc2):


sum1, count1 = acc1
sum2, count2 = acc2
return (sum1 + sum2, count1 + count2)

result_rdd = rdd.combineByKey(create_combiner, merge_value, merge_combiners)


average_rdd = result_rdd.mapValues(lambda acc: acc[0] / acc[1])
result_data = average_rdd.collect()

print("Average values per key:")


for key, value in result_data:
print(f"{key}: {value:.2f}")

Python

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In this example, we used the combineByKey method on the RDD, which requires
three functions as arguments:
1. A function that initializes the accumulator for each key. In our case, it creates a tuple with the value
and a count of 1.
2. merge_value: A function that updates the accumulator for a key with a new value. It takes the
current accumulator and the new value, then updates the sum and count.
3. merge_combiners: A function that merges two accumulators for the same key. It takes two
accumulators and combines their sums and counts.

We then use mapValues to compute the average value for each key by dividing the
sum by the count.
The output will be:

Average values per key:


America: 3.00
Botswana: 3.00
Egypt: 6.00

Bash

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Notes: 

RDD.combineByKey(createCombiner: Callable[[V], U], mergeValue: Callable[[U, V],


U], mergeCombiners: Callable[[U, U], U], numPartitions: Optional[int] = None,
partitionFunc: Callable[[K], int] = <function portable_hash>) →
pyspark.rdd.RDD[Tuple[K, U]]

Bash

COPY

Turns an RDD[(K, V)] into a result of type RDD[(K, C)], for a “combined type” C.
Here users can control the partitioning of the output RDD.
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2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
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 USER  APRIL 13, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : RETRIEVES THE KEY-VALUE PAIRS FROM AN
RDD AS A DICTIONARY [COLLECTASMAP IN PYSPARK]

In this article, we will explore the use of collectAsMap in PySpark, a method that
retrieves the key-value pairs from an RDD as a dictionary. We will provide a
detailed example using hardcoded values as input.
First, let’s create a PySpark RDD:

#collectAsMap in PySpark @ Freshers.in


from pyspark import SparkContext
sc = SparkContext("local", "collectAsMap @ Freshers.in ")
data = [("America", 1), ("Botswana", 2), ("Costa Rica", 3), ("Denmark", 4), ("Egypt", 5)]
rdd = sc.parallelize(data)

Python

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Using collectAsMap
Now, let’s use the collectAsMap method to retrieve the key-value pairs from the
RDD as a dictionary:
result_map = rdd.collectAsMap()
print("Result as a Dictionary:")
for key, value in result_map.items():
print(f"{key}: {value}")

Python

COPY

In this example, we used the collectAsMap method on the RDD, which returns a
dictionary containing the key-value pairs in the RDD. This can be useful when you
need to work with the RDD data as a native Python dictionary.
Output will be:

Result as a Dictionary:
America: 1
Botswana: 2
Costa Rica: 3
Denmark: 4
Egypt: 5

Bash

COPY

The resulting dictionary contains the key-value pairs from the RDD, which can
now be accessed and manipulated using standard Python dictionary operations.
Keep in mind that using collectAsMap can cause the driver to run out of memory
if the RDD has a large number of key-value pairs, as it collects all data to the
driver. Use this method judiciously and only when you are certain that the
resulting dictionary can fit into the driver’s memory.
Here, we explored the use of collectAsMap in PySpark, a method that retrieves the
key-value pairs from an RDD as a dictionary. We provided a detailed example
using hardcoded values as input, showcasing how to create an RDD with key-value
pairs, use the collectAsMap method, and interpret the results. collectAsMap can be
useful in various scenarios when you need to work with RDD data as a native
Python dictionary, but it’s important to be cautious about potential memory issues
when using this method on large RDDs.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
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 USER  APRIL 13, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK :REMOVE ANY KEY-VALUE PAIR THAT HAS A
KEY PRESENT IN ANOTHER RDD [SUBTRACTBYKEY]

In this article, we will explore the use of subtractByKey in PySpark, a


transformation that returns an RDD consisting of key-value pairs from one RDD
by removing any pair that has a key present in another RDD. We will provide a
detailed example using hardcoded values as input.
First, let’s create two PySpark RDDs

#Using subtractByKey in PySpark @Freshers.in


from pyspark import SparkContext
sc = SparkContext("local", "subtractByKey @ Freshers.in ")
data1 = [("America", 1), ("Botswana", 2), ("Costa Rica", 3), ("Denmark", 4), ("Egypt", 5)]
data2 = [("Botswana", 20), ("Denmark", 40), ("Finland", 60)]

rdd1 = sc.parallelize(data1)
rdd2 = sc.parallelize(data2)

Python

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Using subtractByKey
Now, let’s use the subtractByKey method to create a new RDD by removing key-
value pairs from rdd1 that have keys present in rdd2:
result_rdd = rdd1.subtractByKey(rdd2)
result_data = result_rdd.collect()
print("Result of subtractByKey:")
for element in result_data:
print(element)

Python

COPY

In this example, we used the subtractByKey method on rdd1 and passed rdd2 as an
argument. The method returns a new RDD containing key-value pairs from rdd1
after removing any pair with a key present in rdd2. The collect method is then used
to retrieve the results.
Interpreting the Results

Result of subtractByKey:
('Costa Rica', 3)
('America', 1)
('Egypt', 5)

Bash

COPY

The resulting RDD contains key-value pairs from rdd1 with the key-value pairs
having keys “Botswana” and “Denmark” removed, as these keys are present in
rdd2.
In this article, we explored the use of subtractByKey in PySpark, a transformation
that returns an RDD consisting of key-value pairs from one RDD by removing any
pair that has a key present in another RDD. We provided a detailed example using
hardcoded values as input, showcasing how to create two RDDs with key-value
pairs, use the subtractByKey method, and interpret the results. subtractByKey can
be useful in various scenarios, such as filtering out unwanted data based on keys or
performing set-like operations on key-value pair RDDs.
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2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
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 USER  APRIL 12, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : ASSIGNING A UNIQUE IDENTIFIER TO EACH
ELEMENT IN AN RDD [ ZIPWITHUNIQUEID IN PYSPARK]
In this article, we will explore the use of zipWithUniqueId in PySpark, a method
that assigns a unique identifier to each element in an RDD. We will provide a
detailed example using hardcoded values as input.
Prerequisites
 Python 3.7 or higher
 PySpark library
 Java 8 or higher

First, let’s create a PySpark RDD

#Using zipWithUniqueId in PySpark at Freshers.in


from pyspark import SparkContext
sc = SparkContext("local", "zipWithUniqueId @ Freshers.in")
data = ["America", "Botswana", "Costa Rica", "Denmark", "Egypt"]
rdd = sc.parallelize(data)

Python

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Using zipWithUniqueId
Now, let’s use the zipWithUniqueId method to assign a unique identifier to each
element in the RDD:

unique_id_rdd = rdd.zipWithUniqueId()
unique_id_data = unique_id_rdd.collect()
print("Data with Unique IDs:")
for element in unique_id_data:
print(element)
Python

COPY

In this example, we used the zipWithUniqueId method on the RDD, which creates
a new RDD containing tuples of the original elements and their corresponding
unique identifier. The collect method is then used to retrieve the results.
Interpreting the Results

Data with Unique IDs:


('America', 0)
('Botswana', 1)
('Costa Rica', 2)
('Denmark', 3)
('Egypt', 4)

Bash

COPY

Spark important urls to refer


1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 10

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TRANSFORMATIONS]
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using hardcoded values as input.
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 Python 3.7 or higher
 PySpark library
 Java 8 or higher
 A local directory to store checkpoint files

Let’s create a PySpark RDD

from pyspark import SparkContext

sc = SparkContext("local", "Checkpoint Example")


sc.setCheckpointDir("checkpoint_directory") # Replace with the path to your local checkpoint
directory

data = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
rdd = sc.parallelize(data)

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Performing Transformations
Now, let’s apply several transformations to the RDD:

rdd1 = rdd.map(lambda x: x * 2)
rdd2 = rdd1.filter(lambda x: x > 2)
rdd3 = rdd2.map(lambda x: x * 3)

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Applying Checkpoint
Next, let’s apply a checkpoint to rdd2:

rdd2.checkpoint()

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By calling the checkpoint method on rdd2, we request PySpark to truncate the


lineage of rdd2 during the next action. This will save the state of rdd2 to the
checkpoint directory, and subsequent operations on rdd2 and its derived RDDs will
use the checkpointed data instead of computing the full lineage.
Executing an Action
Finally, let’s execute an action on rdd3 to trigger the checkpoint:

result = rdd3.collect()
print("Result:", result)

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Output

Result: [12, 18, 24, 30]

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When executing the collect action on rdd3, PySpark will process the checkpoint for
rdd2. The lineage of rdd3 will now be based on the checkpointed data instead of
the full lineage from the original RDD.
Analyzing the Benefits of Checkpointing
Checkpointing can be helpful in situations where you have a long chain of
transformations, leading to a large lineage graph. A large lineage graph may result
in performance issues due to the overhead of tracking dependencies and can also
cause stack overflow errors during recursive operations.
By applying checkpoints, you can truncate the lineage, reducing the overhead of
tracking dependencies and mitigating the risk of stack overflow errors.
However, checkpointing comes at the cost of writing data to the checkpoint
directory, which can be a slow operation, especially when using distributed file
systems like HDFS. Therefore, it’s essential to use checkpointing judiciously and
only when necessary.
In this article, we explored checkpointing in PySpark, a feature that allows you to
truncate the lineage of RDDs. We provided a detailed example using hardcoded
values as input, showcasing how to create an RDD, apply transformations, set up
checkpointing, and execute an action that triggers the checkpoint. Checkpointing
can be beneficial when dealing with long chains of transformations that may cause
performance issues or stack overflow errors. However, it’s important to consider
the trade-offs and use checkpointing only when necessary, as it can introduce
additional overhead due to writing data to the checkpoint directory.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 11

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PySpark : Assigning an index to each element in an RDD
[zipWithIndex in PySpark]
 USER  APRIL 11, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : ASSIGNING AN INDEX TO EACH ELEMENT IN AN
RDD [ZIPWITHINDEX IN PYSPARK]
In this article, we will explore the use of zipWithIndex in PySpark, a method that
assigns an index to each element in an RDD. We will provide a detailed example
using hardcoded values as input.
First, let’s create a PySpark RDD

from pyspark import SparkContext


sc = SparkContext("local", "zipWithIndex Example @ Freshers.in")
data = ["USA", "INDIA", "CHINA", "JAPAN", "CANADA"]
rdd = sc.parallelize(data)

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Using zipWithIndex
Now, let’s use the zipWithIndex method to assign an index to each element
in the RDD:

indexed_rdd = rdd.zipWithIndex()
indexed_data = indexed_rdd.collect()
print("Indexed Data:")
for element in indexed_data:
print(element)

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In this example, we used the zipWithIndex method on the RDD, which creates a
new RDD containing tuples of the original elements and their corresponding index.
The collect method is then used to retrieve the results.
Interpreting the Results
The output of the example will be:

Indexed Data:
('USA', 0)
('INDIA', 1)
('CHINA', 2)
('JAPAN', 3)
('CANADA', 4)

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Each element in the RDD is now paired with an index, starting from 0. The
zipWithIndex method assigns the index based on the position of each element in
the RDD.
Keep in mind that zipWithIndex might cause a performance overhead since it
requires a full pass through the RDD to assign indices. Consider using alternatives
such as zipWithUniqueId if unique identifiers are sufficient for your use case, as it
avoids this performance overhead.
In this article, we explored the use of zipWithIndex in PySpark, a method that
assigns an index to each element in an RDD. We provided a detailed example
using hardcoded values as input, showcasing how to create an RDD, use the
zipWithIndex method, and interpret the results. zipWithIndex can be useful when
you need to associate an index with each element in an RDD, but be cautious about
the potential performance overhead it may introduce.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 20

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PySpark : Covariance Analysis in PySpark with a detailed
example
 USER  APRIL 11, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : COVARIANCE ANALYSIS IN PYSPARK WITH A
DETAILED EXAMPLE
In this article, we will explore covariance analysis in PySpark, a statistical measure
that describes the degree to which two continuous variables change together. We
will provide a detailed example using hardcoded values as input.
Prerequisites
 Python 3.7 or higher
 PySpark library
 Java 8 or higher

First, let’s create a PySpark DataFrame with hardcoded values:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.types import StructType, StructField, StringType, DoubleType

spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("Covariance Analysis Example") \
.getOrCreate()

data_schema = StructType([
StructField("name", StringType(), True),
StructField("variable1", DoubleType(), True),
StructField("variable2", DoubleType(), True),
])

data = spark.createDataFrame([
("A", 1.0, 2.0),
("B", 2.0, 3.0),
("C", 3.0, 4.0),
("D", 4.0, 5.0),
("E", 5.0, 6.0),
], data_schema)

data.show()

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Output

+----+---------+---------+
|name|variable1|variable2|
+----+---------+---------+
| A| 1.0| 2.0|
| B| 2.0| 3.0|
| C| 3.0| 4.0|
| D| 4.0| 5.0|
| E| 5.0| 6.0|
+----+---------+---------+

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Calculating Covariance

Now, let’s calculate the covariance between variable1 and variable2:

covariance_value = data.stat.cov("variable1", "variable2")


print(f"Covariance between variable1 and variable2: {covariance_value:.2f}")

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Output

Covariance between variable1 and variable2: 2.50

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In this example, we used the cov function from the stat module of the
DataFrame API to calculate the covariance between the two variables.

Interpreting the Results

Covariance values can be positive, negative, or zero, depending on the


relationship between the two variables:
 Positive covariance: Indicates that as one variable increases, the other variable also increases.
 Negative covariance: Indicates that as one variable increases, the other variable decreases.
 Zero covariance: Indicates that the two variables are independent and do not change together.

In our example, the covariance value is 2.5, which indicates a positive


relationship between variable1 and variable2. This means that as variable1
increases, variable2 also increases, and vice versa.

It’s important to note that covariance values are not standardized, making
them difficult to interpret in isolation. For a standardized measure of the
relationship between two variables, you may consider using correlation
analysis instead.

Here we explored covariance analysis in PySpark, a statistical measure


that describes the degree to which two continuous variables change
together. We provided a detailed example using hardcoded values as input,
showcasing how to create a DataFrame, calculate the covariance between
two variables, and interpret the results. Covariance analysis can be useful
in various fields to understand the relationships between variables and
make data-driven decisions. However, due to the lack of standardization,
it’s often more informative to use correlation analysis for comparing the
strength of relationships between different pairs of variables.

Spark important urls to refer


1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 9

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 USER  APRIL 11, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : CORRELATION ANALYSIS IN PYSPARK WITH A
DETAILED EXAMPLE

In this article, we will explore correlation analysis in PySpark, a statistical


technique used to measure the strength and direction of the relationship between
two continuous variables. We will provide a detailed example using hardcoded
values as input.
Prerequisites
 Python 3.7 or higher
 PySpark library
 Java 8 or higher
Creating a PySpark DataFrame with Hardcoded Values
First, let’s create a PySpark DataFrame with hardcoded values:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.types import StructType, StructField, StringType, DoubleType

spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("Correlation Analysis Example") \
.getOrCreate()

data_schema = StructType([
StructField("name", StringType(), True),
StructField("variable1", DoubleType(), True),
StructField("variable2", DoubleType(), True),
])

data = spark.createDataFrame([
("A", 1.0, 2.0),
("B", 2.0, 3.0),
("C", 3.0, 4.0),
("D", 4.0, 5.0),
("E", 5.0, 6.0),
], data_schema)

data.show()

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Output

+----+---------+---------+
|name|variable1|variable2|
+----+---------+---------+
| A| 1.0| 2.0|
| B| 2.0| 3.0|
| C| 3.0| 4.0|
| D| 4.0| 5.0|
| E| 5.0| 6.0|
+----+---------+---------+

Bash

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Calculating Correlation
Now, let’s calculate the correlation between variable1 and variable2:

from pyspark.ml.stat import Correlation


from pyspark.ml.feature import VectorAssembler
vector_assembler = VectorAssembler(inputCols=["variable1", "variable2"],
outputCol="features")
data_vector = vector_assembler.transform(data).select("features")

correlation_matrix = Correlation.corr(data_vector, "features").collect()[0][0]


correlation_value = correlation_matrix[0, 1]
print(f"Correlation between variable1 and variable2: {correlation_value:.2f}")

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Output

Correlation between variable1 and variable2: 1.00

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In this example, we used the VectorAssembler to combine the two variables into a single feature vector
column called features. Then, we used the Correlation module from pyspark.ml.stat to calculate the
correlation between the two variables. The corr function returns a correlation matrix, from which we can
extract the correlation value between variable1 and variable2.

Interpreting the Results


The correlation value ranges from -1 to 1, where:
 -1 indicates a strong negative relationship
 0 indicates no relationship
 1 indicates a strong positive relationship

In our example, the correlation value is 1.0, which indicates a strong positive
relationship between variable1 and variable2. This means that
as variable1 increases, variable2 also increases, and vice versa.
In this article, we explored correlation analysis in PySpark, a statistical technique
used to measure the strength and direction of the relationship between two
continuous variables. We provided a detailed example using hardcoded values as
input, showcasing how to create a DataFrame, calculate the correlation between
two variables, and interpret the results. Correlation analysis can be useful in
various fields, such as finance, economics, and social sciences, to understand the
relationships between variables and make data-driven decisions.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 25

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 USER  APRIL 11, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : UNDERSTANDING BROADCAST JOINS IN
PYSPARK WITH A DETAILED EXAMPLE

In this article, we will explore broadcast joins in PySpark, which is an optimization


technique used when joining a large DataFrame with a smaller DataFrame. This
method reduces the data shuffling between nodes, resulting in improved
performance. We will provide a detailed example using hardcoded values as input.
Prerequisites
 Python 3.7 or higher
 PySpark library
 Java 8 or higher
Let’s create two PySpark DataFrames with hardcoded
values:
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.types import StructType, StructField, StringType, IntegerType

spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("Broadcast Join Example @ Freshers.in") \
.getOrCreate()

orders_schema = StructType([
StructField("order_id", IntegerType(), True),
StructField("customer_id", IntegerType(), True),
StructField("product_id", IntegerType(), True),
])

orders_data = spark.createDataFrame([
(1, 101, 1001),
(2, 102, 1002),
(3, 103, 1001),
(4, 104, 1003),
(5, 105, 1002),
], orders_schema)

products_schema = StructType([
StructField("product_id", IntegerType(), True),
StructField("product_name", StringType(), True),
StructField("price", IntegerType(), True),
])

products_data = spark.createDataFrame([
(1001, "Product A", 50),
(1002, "Product B", 60),
(1003, "Product C", 70),
], products_schema)

orders_data.show()
products_data.show()

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Performing Broadcast Join


Now, let’s use the broadcast join to join the orders_data DataFrame with the
products_data DataFrame:

from pyspark.sql.functions import broadcast

joined_data = orders_data.join(broadcast(products_data), on="product_id",


how="inner")
joined_data.show()

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In this example, we used the broadcast function from pyspark.sql.functions to


indicate that the products_data DataFrame should be broadcasted to all worker
nodes. This is useful when joining a small DataFrame (in this case, products_data)
with a large DataFrame (in this case, orders_data). Broadcasting the smaller
DataFrame reduces the amount of data shuffling and network overhead, resulting
in improved performance.
It’s essential to broadcast only small DataFrames because broadcasting a large
DataFrame can cause memory issues due to the replication of data across all
worker nodes.
Analyzing the Join Results
The resulting joined_data DataFrame contains the following columns:
 order_id
 customer_id
 product_id
 product_name
 price

This DataFrame provides a combined view of the orders and products, allowing for
further analysis, such as calculating the total order value or finding the most
popular products.
In this article, we explored broadcast joins in PySpark, an optimization technique
for joining a large DataFrame with a smaller DataFrame. We provided a detailed
example using hardcoded values as input to create two DataFrames and perform a
broadcast join. This method can significantly improve performance by reducing
data shuffling and network overhead during join operations. However, it’s crucial
to use broadcast joins only with small DataFrames, as broadcasting large
DataFrames can cause memory issues.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 14

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PySpark : Splitting a DataFrame into multiple smaller
DataFrames [randomSplit function in PySpark]
 USER  APRIL 11, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : SPLITTING A DATAFRAME INTO MULTIPLE
SMALLER DATAFRAMES [RANDOMSPLIT FUNCTION IN PYSPARK]
In this article, we will discuss the randomSplit function in PySpark, which is useful
for splitting a DataFrame into multiple smaller DataFrames based on specified
weights. This function is particularly helpful when you need to divide a dataset
into training and testing sets for machine learning tasks. We will provide a detailed
example using hardcoded values as input.
First, let’s create a PySpark DataFrame :

from datetime import datetime


from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.types import StructType, StructField, StringType, IntegerType,
TimestampType

spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("RandomSplit @ Freshers.in Example") \
.getOrCreate()

schema = StructType([
StructField("name", StringType(), True),
StructField("age", IntegerType(), True),
StructField("timestamp", TimestampType(), True)
])

data = spark.createDataFrame([
("Sachin", 30, datetime.strptime("2022-12-01 12:30:15.123", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f")),
("Barry", 25, datetime.strptime("2023-01-10 16:45:35.789", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f")),
("Charlie", 35, datetime.strptime("2023-02-07 09:15:30.246", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f")),
("David", 28, datetime.strptime("2023-03-15 18:20:45.567", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f")),
("Eva", 22, datetime.strptime("2023-04-21 10:34:25.890", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f"))
], schema)

data.show(20,False)

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Output

+-------+---+--------------------+
| name|age| timestamp|
+-------+---+--------------------+
| Sachin| 30|2022-12-01 12:30:...|
| Barry| 25|2023-01-10 16:45:...|
|Charlie| 35|2023-02-07 09:15:...|
| David| 28|2023-03-15 18:20:...|
| Eva| 22|2023-04-21 10:34:...|
+-------+---+--------------------+

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Using randomSplit Function


Now, let’s use the randomSplit function to split the DataFrame into two smaller
DataFrames. In this example, we will split the data into 70% for training and 30%
for testing:

train_data, test_data = data.randomSplit([0.7, 0.3], seed=42)


train_data.show()
test_data.show()

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Output

+------+---+-----------------------+
|name |age|timestamp |
+------+---+-----------------------+
|Barry |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|
|Sachin|30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|
|David |28 |2023-03-15 18:20:45.567|
|Eva |22 |2023-04-21 10:34:25.89 |
+------+---+-----------------------+
+-------+---+-----------------------+
|name |age|timestamp |
+-------+---+-----------------------+
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|
+-------+---+-----------------------+

Bash

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The randomSplit function accepts two arguments: a list of weights for each
DataFrame and a seed for reproducibility. In this example, we’ve used the weights
[0.7, 0.3] to allocate approximately 70% of the data to the training set and 30% to
the testing set. The seed value 42 ensures that the split will be the same every time
we run the code.
Please note that the actual number of rows in the resulting DataFrames might not
exactly match the specified weights due to the random nature of the function.
However, with a larger dataset, the split will be closer to the specified weights.
Here we demonstrated how to use the randomSplit function in PySpark to divide a
DataFrame into smaller DataFrames based on specified weights. This function is
particularly useful for creating training and testing sets for machine learning tasks.
We provided an example using hardcoded values as input, showcasing how to
create a DataFrame and perform the random split.
Spark important urls to refer
1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 91

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PySpark : Using randomSplit Function in PySpark for train
and test data
 USER  APRIL 11, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : USING RANDOMSPLIT FUNCTION IN PYSPARK
FOR TRAIN AND TEST DATA
In this article, we will discuss the randomSplit function in PySpark, which is useful
for splitting a DataFrame into multiple smaller DataFrames based on specified
weights. This function is particularly helpful when you need to divide a dataset
into training and testing sets for machine learning tasks. We will provide a detailed
example using hardcoded values as input.
Prerequisites
 Python 3.7 or higher
 PySpark library
 Java 8 or higher

Loading the Dataset with Hardcoded Values


First, let’s create a PySpark DataFrame with hardcoded values:

from datetime import datetime


from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.types import StructType, StructField, StringType, IntegerType,
TimestampType

spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("RandomSplit @ Freshers.in Example") \
.getOrCreate()
schema = StructType([
StructField("name", StringType(), True),
StructField("age", IntegerType(), True),
StructField("timestamp", TimestampType(), True)
])
data = spark.createDataFrame([
("Sachin", 30, datetime.strptime("2022-12-01 12:30:15.123", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f")),
("Barry", 25, datetime.strptime("2023-01-10 16:45:35.789", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f")),
("Charlie", 35, datetime.strptime("2023-02-07 09:15:30.246", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f")),
("David", 28, datetime.strptime("2023-03-15 18:20:45.567", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f")),
("Eva", 22, datetime.strptime("2023-04-21 10:34:25.890", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.%f"))
], schema)
data.show(20,False)

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Output

+-------+---+--------------------+
| name|age| timestamp|
+-------+---+--------------------+
| Sachin| 30|2022-12-01 12:30:...|
| Barry| 25|2023-01-10 16:45:...|
|Charlie| 35|2023-02-07 09:15:...|
| David| 28|2023-03-15 18:20:...|
| Eva| 22|2023-04-21 10:34:...|
+-------+---+--------------------+

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Using randomSplit Function


Now, let’s use the randomSplit function to split the DataFrame into two smaller
DataFrames. In this example, we will split the data into 70% for training and 30%
for testing:

train_data, test_data = data.randomSplit([0.7, 0.3], seed=42)


train_data.show()
test_data.show()

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The randomSplit function accepts two arguments: a list of weights for each
DataFrame and a seed for reproducibility. In this example, we’ve used the weights
[0.7, 0.3] to allocate approximately 70% of the data to the training set and 30% to
the testing set. The seed value 42 ensures that the split will be the same every time
we run the code.
Please note that the actual number of rows in the resulting DataFrames
might not exactly match the specified weights due to the random nature of
the function. However, with a larger dataset, the split will be closer to the
specified weights.

In this article, we demonstrated how to use the randomSplit function in


PySpark to divide a DataFrame into smaller DataFrames based on
specified weights. This function is particularly useful for creating training
and testing sets for machine learning tasks. We provided an example using
hardcoded values as input, showcasing how to create a DataFrame and
perform the random split.

Spark important urls to refer


1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 15

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PySpark : Extracting Time Components and Converting
Timezones with PySpark
 USER  APRIL 11, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : EXTRACTING TIME COMPONENTS AND
CONVERTING TIMEZONES WITH PYSPARK
In this article, we will be working with a dataset containing a column with names,
ages, and timestamps. Our goal is to extract various time components from the
timestamps, such as hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, and more. We will also
demonstrate how to convert the timestamps to a specific timezone using PySpark.
To achieve this, we will use the PySpark and PySpark SQL functions.
Prerequisites
 Python 3.7 or higher
 PySpark library
 Java 8 or higher

Input Data
First, let’s load the dataset into a PySpark DataFrame:

#Extracting Time Components and Converting Timezones with PySpark


from datetime import datetime
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.types import StructType, StructField, StringType, IntegerType,
TimestampType
spark = SparkSession.builder \
.appName("Time Components and Timezone Conversion @ Freshers.in") \
.getOrCreate()
schema = StructType([
StructField("name", StringType(), True),
StructField("age", IntegerType(), True),
StructField("timestamp", TimestampType(), True)
])
#data = spark.read.csv("data.csv", header=True, inferSchema=True)
data = spark.createDataFrame([
("Sachin", 30, datetime.strptime("2022-12-01 12:30:15.123", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f")),
("Wilson", 25, datetime.strptime("2023-01-10 16:45:35.789", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f")),
("Johnson", 35, datetime.strptime("2023-02-07 09:15:30.246", "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S.
%f"))
], schema)
data.printSchema()
data.show(20, False)

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Input data results

Schema

root
|-- name: string (nullable = true)
|-- age: integer (nullable = true)
|-- timestamp: timestamp (nullable = true)

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Data frame output

+-------+---+-----------------------+
|name |age|timestamp |
+-------+---+-----------------------+
|Sachin |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|
|Wilson |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|
|Johnson|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|
+-------+---+-----------------------+

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Now, we will extract various time components from the ‘timestamp’ column using PySpark SQL
functions:

from pyspark.sql.functions import (


hour, minute, second, year, month, dayofmonth, weekofyear, quarter, substring)

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# 1. Extract hour

data.withColumn("hour", hour("timestamp")).show(20, False)

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Output

+-------+---+-----------------------+----+
|name |age|timestamp |hour|
+-------+---+-----------------------+----+
|Alice |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|12 |
|Bob |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|16 |
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|9 |
+-------+---+-----------------------+----+

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# 2. Extract minute
data.withColumn("minute", minute("timestamp")).show(20, False)

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Output

+-------+---+-----------------------+------+
|name |age|timestamp |minute|
+-------+---+-----------------------+------+
|Alice |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|30 |
|Bob |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|45 |
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|15 |
+-------+---+-----------------------+------+

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# 3. Extract second

data.withColumn("second", second("timestamp")).show(20, False)

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Output

+-------+---+-----------------------+------+
|name |age|timestamp |second|
+-------+---+-----------------------+------+
|Alice |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|15 |
|Bob |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|35 |
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|30 |
+-------+---+-----------------------+------+

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# 4. Extract millisecond

data.withColumn("millisecond", (substring("timestamp", 21, 3)).cast("int")).show(20, False)

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Output

+-------+---+-----------------------+-----------+
|name |age|timestamp |millisecond|
+-------+---+-----------------------+-----------+
|Alice |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|123 |
|Bob |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|789 |
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|246 |
+-------+---+-----------------------+-----------+

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# 5. Extract year

data.withColumn("year", year("timestamp")).show(20, False)

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Output

+-------+---+-----------------------+----+
|name |age|timestamp |year|
+-------+---+-----------------------+----+
|Alice |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|2022|
|Bob |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|2023|
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|2023|
+-------+---+-----------------------+----+

Bash

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# 6. Extract month

data.withColumn("month", month("timestamp")).show(20, False)

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Output

+-------+---+-----------------------+-----+
|name |age|timestamp |month|
+-------+---+-----------------------+-----+
|Alice |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|12 |
|Bob |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|1 |
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|2 |
+-------+---+-----------------------+-----+

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# 7. Extract day

data.withColumn("day", dayofmonth("timestamp")).show(20, False)

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Output

+-------+---+-----------------------+---+
|name |age|timestamp |day|
+-------+---+-----------------------+---+
|Alice |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|1 |
|Bob |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|10 |
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|7 |
+-------+---+-----------------------+---+

Bash

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# 8. Extract week

data.withColumn("week", weekofyear("timestamp")).show(20, False)

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Output

+-------+---+-----------------------+----+
|name |age|timestamp |week|
+-------+---+-----------------------+----+
|Alice |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|48 |
|Bob |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|2 |
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|6 |
+-------+---+-----------------------+----+

Bash

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# 9. Extract quarter

data.withColumn("quarter", quarter("timestamp")).show(20, False)

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Output
+-------+---+-----------------------+-------+
|name |age|timestamp |quarter|
+-------+---+-----------------------+-------+
|Alice |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|4 |
|Bob |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|1 |
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|1 |
+-------+---+-----------------------+-------+

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# 10. Convert timestamp to specific timezone

To convert the timestamps to a specific timezone, we will use the PySpark


SQL from_utc_timestamp function. In this example, we will convert the
timestamps to the ‘America/New_York’ timezone:

from pyspark.sql.functions import from_utc_timestamp


data.withColumn("timestamp_local", from_utc_timestamp("timestamp",
"America/New_York")).show(20, False)

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Output

+-------+---+-----------------------+-----------------------+
|name |age|timestamp |timestamp_local |
+-------+---+-----------------------+-----------------------+
|Alice |30 |2022-12-01 12:30:15.123|2022-12-01 07:30:15.123|
|Bob |25 |2023-01-10 16:45:35.789|2023-01-10 11:45:35.789|
|Charlie|35 |2023-02-07 09:15:30.246|2023-02-07 04:15:30.246|
+-------+---+-----------------------+-----------------------+

Bash

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Spark important urls to refer


1. Spark Examples
2. PySpark Blogs
3. Bigdata Blogs
4. Spark Interview Questions
5. Official Page
 Post Views: 16

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PySpark : Understanding PySpark’s map_from_arrays
Function with detailed examples
 USER  APRIL 10, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : UNDERSTANDING PYSPARK’S
MAP_FROM_ARRAYS FUNCTION WITH DETAILED EXAMPLES
PySpark provides a wide range of functions to manipulate and transform data
within DataFrames. In this article, we will focus on the map_from_arrays function,
which allows you to create a map column by combining two arrays. We will
discuss the functionality, syntax, and provide a detailed example with input data to
illustrate its usage.
1. The map_from_arrays Function in PySpark
The map_from_arrays function is a part of the PySpark SQL library, which
provides various functions to work with different data types. This function creates
a map column by combining two arrays, where the first array contains keys, and
the second array contains values. The resulting map column is useful for
representing key-value pairs in a compact format.
Syntax:

pyspark.sql.functions.map_from_arrays(keys, values)

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keys: An array column containing the map keys.


values: An array column containing the map values.

2. A Detailed Example of Using the map_from_arrays


Function
Let’s create a PySpark DataFrame with two array columns, representing keys and
values, and apply the map_from_arrays function to combine them into a map
column.
First, let’s import the necessary libraries and create a sample DataFrame:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import map_from_arrays
from pyspark.sql.types import StringType, ArrayType
# Create a Spark session
spark = SparkSession.builder.master("local").appName("map_from_arrays Function
Example").getOrCreate()
# Sample data
data = [(["a", "b", "c"], [1, 2, 3]), (["x", "y", "z"], [4, 5, 6])]
# Define the schema
schema = ["Keys", "Values"]
# Create the DataFrame
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, schema)

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Now that we have our DataFrame, let’s apply the map_from_arrays function to it:

# Apply the map_from_arrays function


df = df.withColumn("Map", map_from_arrays(df["Keys"], df["Values"]))
# Show the results
df.show(truncate=False)

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Output

+---------+---------+------------------------+
|Keys |Values |Map |
+---------+---------+------------------------+
|[a, b, c]|[1, 2, 3]|{a -> 1, b -> 2, c -> 3}|
|[x, y, z]|[4, 5, 6]|{x -> 4, y -> 5, z -> 6}|
+---------+---------+------------------------+

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In this example, we created a PySpark DataFrame with two array columns, “Keys” and “Values”, and
applied the map_from_arrays function to combine them into a “Map” column. The output DataFrame
displays the original keys and values arrays, as well as the resulting map column.
The PySpark map_from_arrays function is a powerful and convenient tool for
working with array columns and transforming them into a map column. With the
help of the detailed example provided in this article, you should be able to
effectively use the map_from_arrays function in your own PySpark projects
How to remove csv header using Spark (PySpark)
 USER  MAY 27, 2021  LEAVE A COMMENTON HOW TO REMOVE CSV HEADER USING SPARK (PYSPARK)

A common use case when dealing with CSV file is to remove the header
from the source to do data analysis. In PySpark  this can be done as
bellow.

Source Code ( PySpark – Python 3.6 and Spark 3, this is compatible with
spark 2.2+ ad Python 2.7)
from pyspark import SparkContext

import csv

sc = SparkContext()

readFile = sc.textFile("D:\\Users\\speedika\\PycharmProjects\\
sparkprojects\\sample_csv_01.csv")

readCSV = readFile.mapPartitions(lambda x : csv.reader(x))

file_with_indx = readCSV.zipWithIndex()

for data_with_idx in file_with_indx.collect():

print (data_with_idx)

rmHeader = file_with_indx.filter(lambda x : x[1] > 0).map(lambda x :


x[0])

for cleanse_data in rmHeader.collect():

print(cleanse_data)

Code Explanation
file_with_indx = readCSV.zipWithIndex()
The zipWithIndex() transformation appends the RDD with the element
indices. Each row in the CSV will have and index attached starting from 0.
rmHeader = file_with_indx.filter(lambda x : x[1] > 0).map(lambda x : x[0])
This will remove the rows with index less than 0. So if you want to skip ‘n’
number of rows you can use the same code as well.
Note: Here we use the print statements to show the functionality .
Sample data 
Name,Country,Phone
TOM,USA,343-098-292
JACK,CHINA,783-098-232
CHARLIE,INDIA,873-984-123
SUSAN,JAPAN,898-231-987
MIKE,UK,987-989-121

Result
['TOM', 'USA', '343-098-292']
['JACK', 'CHINA', '783-098-232']
['CHARLIE', 'INDIA', '873-984-123']
['SUSAN', 'JAPAN', '898-231-987']
['MIKE', 'UK', '987-989-121']
PySpark : How do I read a parquet file in Spark
 USER  JANUARY 27, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW DO I READ A PARQUET FILE IN SPARK

To read a Parquet file in Spark, you can use the spark.read.parquet() method,


which returns a DataFrame. Here is an example of how you can use this method to
read a Parquet file and display the contents:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession

# Create a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("ReadParquet").getOrCreate()

# Read the Parquet file


df = spark.read.parquet("path/to/file.parquet")

# Show the contents of the DataFrame


df.show()

# Stop the SparkSession


spark.stop()

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You can also read a parquet file from a hdfs directory,

df = spark.read.format("parquet").load("hdfs://path/to/directory")

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You can also read a parquet file with filtering using the where method

df = spark.read.parquet("freshers_path/to/freshers_in.parquet").where("column_name = 'value'")

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In addition to reading a single Parquet file, you can also read a directory containing
multiple Parquet files by specifying the directory path instead of a file path, like
this:

df = spark.read.parquet("freshers_path/to/directory")

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You can also use the schema option to specify the schema of the parquet file:

from pyspark.sql.types import StructType, StructField, IntegerType, StringType

schema = StructType([
StructField("name", StringType()),
StructField("age", IntegerType())
])
df = spark.read.schema(schema).parquet("freshers_path/to/file.parquet")

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By providing the schema, Spark will skip the expensive process of inferring the
schema from the parquet file, which can be useful when working with large
datasets.
In pyspark what is the difference between Spark spark.table()
and spark.read.table()
 USER  JANUARY 8, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON IN PYSPARK WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
SPARK SPARK.TABLE() AND SPARK.READ.TABLE()

In PySpark, spark.table() is used to read a table from the Spark catalog, whereas
spark.read.table() is used to read a table from a structured data source, such as a
data lake or a database.
The spark.table() method requires that you have previously created a table in the
Spark catalog and registered it using the spark.createTable() method or the
CREATE TABLE SQL statement. Once a table has been registered in the catalog,
you can use the spark.table() method to access it.
On the other hand, spark.read.table() reads a table from a structured data source
and returns a DataFrame. It requires a configuration specifying the data source and
the options to read the table.
Here is an example of using spark.read.table() to read a table from a database:

df = spark.read.format("jdbc") \
.option("url", "jdbc:postgresql://localhost/mydatabase") \
.option("dbtable", "mytable") \
.option("user", "username") \
.option("password", "password") \
.load()

How to remove csv header using Spark (PySpark)


 USER  MAY 27, 2021  LEAVE A COMMENTON HOW TO REMOVE CSV HEADER USING SPARK (PYSPARK)

A common use case when dealing with CSV file is to remove the header
from the source to do data analysis. In PySpark  this can be done as
bellow.

Source Code ( PySpark – Python 3.6 and Spark 3, this is compatible with
spark 2.2+ ad Python 2.7)
from pyspark import SparkContext

import csv

sc = SparkContext()

readFile = sc.textFile("D:\\Users\\speedika\\PycharmProjects\\
sparkprojects\\sample_csv_01.csv")

readCSV = readFile.mapPartitions(lambda x : csv.reader(x))

file_with_indx = readCSV.zipWithIndex()

for data_with_idx in file_with_indx.collect():

print (data_with_idx)

rmHeader = file_with_indx.filter(lambda x : x[1] > 0).map(lambda x :


x[0])

for cleanse_data in rmHeader.collect():

print(cleanse_data)
Code Explanation
file_with_indx = readCSV.zipWithIndex()
The zipWithIndex() transformation appends the RDD with the element
indices. Each row in the CSV will have and index attached starting from 0.
rmHeader = file_with_indx.filter(lambda x : x[1] > 0).map(lambda x : x[0])
This will remove the rows with index less than 0. So if you want to skip ‘n’
number of rows you can use the same code as well.
Note: Here we use the print statements to show the functionality .
Sample data 
Name,Country,Phone
TOM,USA,343-098-292
JACK,CHINA,783-098-232
CHARLIE,INDIA,873-984-123
SUSAN,JAPAN,898-231-987
MIKE,UK,987-989-121

Result
['TOM', 'USA', '343-098-292']
['JACK', 'CHINA', '783-098-232']
['CHARLIE', 'INDIA', '873-984-123']
['SUSAN', 'JAPAN', '898-231-987']
['MIKE', 'UK', '987-989-121']

Reference documentation  : zipWithIndex()


PySpark : How to decode in PySpark ?
 USER  FEBRUARY 3, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW TO DECODE IN PYSPARK ?
pyspark.sql.functions.decode
The pyspark.sql.functions.decode Function in PySpark
PySpark is a popular library for processing big data using Apache Spark. One of its
many functions is the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function, which is used to
convert binary data into a string using a specified character set. The
pyspark.sql.functions.decode function takes two arguments: the first argument is
the binary data to be decoded, and the second argument is the character set to use
for decoding the binary data.
The pyspark.sql.functions.decode function in PySpark supports the following
character sets: US-ASCII, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE, and UTF-
16. The character set specified in the second argument must match one of these
supported character sets in order to perform the decoding successfully.
Here’s a simple example to demonstrate the use of the
pyspark.sql.functions.decode function in PySpark:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import *

# Initializing Spark Session


spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("DecodeFunction").getOrCreate()

# Creating DataFrame with sample data


data = [("Team",),("Freshers.in",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["binary_data"])

# Decoding binary data


df = df.withColumn("string_data", decode(col("binary_data"), "UTF-8"))

# Showing the result


df.show()

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Output

+-----------+-----------+
|binary_data|string_data|
+-----------+-----------+
| Team| Team|
|Freshers.in|Freshers.in|
+-----------+-----------+

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In the above example, the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function is used to


decode binary data into a string. The first argument to
the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function is the binary data to be decoded,
which is stored in the “binary_data” column. The second argument is the
character set to use for decoding the binary data, which is “UTF-8“. The
function returns a new column “string_data” that contains the decoded
string data.
The pyspark.sql.functions.decode function is a useful tool for converting
binary data into a string format that can be more easily analyzed and
processed. It is important to specify the correct character set for the binary
data, as incorrect character sets can result in incorrect decoded data.
In conclusion, the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function in PySpark is a
valuable tool for converting binary data into a string format. It supports a
variety of character sets and is an important tool for processing binary data
in PySpark.
PySpark : Explanation of MapType in PySpark with Example
 USER  JANUARY 31, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : EXPLANATION OF MAPTYPE IN PYSPARK
WITH EXAMPLE

MapType in PySpark is a data type used to represent a value that maps


keys to values. It is similar to Python’s built-in dictionary data type. The
keys must be of a specific data type and the values must be of another
specific data type.

Advantages of MapType in PySpark:


 It allows for a flexible schema, as the number of keys and their values can vary for each row in a
DataFrame.
 MapType is particularly useful when working with semi-structured data, where there is a lot of
variability in the structure of the data.
Example: Let’s say we have a DataFrame with the following schema:

root
|-- name: string (nullable = true)
|-- age: integer (nullable = true)
|-- hobbies: map (nullable = true)
| |-- key: string
| |-- value: integer

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We can create this DataFrame using the following code:

from pyspark.sql.types import *


from pyspark.sql.functions import *
data = [("John", 30, {"reading": 3, "traveling": 5}),
("Jane", 25, {"cooking": 2, "painting": 4})]
schema = StructType([
StructField("name", StringType(), True),
StructField("age", IntegerType(), True),
StructField("hobbies", MapType(StringType(), IntegerType()), True)
])
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, schema)
df.show(20,False)

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Result

+----+---+------------------------------+
|name|age|hobbies |
+----+---+------------------------------+
|John|30 |[reading -> 3, traveling -> 5]|
|Jane|25 |[painting -> 4, cooking -> 2] |
+----+---+------------------------------+

 POSTED INSPARK

How to run dataframe as Spark SQL – PySpark


 USER  JUNE 14, 2021  LEAVE A COMMENTON HOW TO RUN DATAFRAME AS SPARK SQL – PYSPARK
If you have a situation that you can easily get the result using SQL/ SQL
already existing , then you can convert the dataframe to a table and do a
query on top of it. Converting dataframe to a table as bellow
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession

from pyspark import SparkContext

sc = SparkContext()

spark=SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()

myDF = spark.createDataFrame([("Tom", 400,50, "Teacher","IND"),("Jack",


420,60, "Finance","USA"),("Brack", 500,10, "Teacher","IND"),("Jim",
700,80, "Finance","JAPAN")],("name", "salary","cnt",
"department","country"))

myDF.registerTempTable("sql_df")

tot_salary = spark.sql("select department,sum(salary) as total_salary


from sql_df group by department ")

tot_salary.show(30,False)

+----------+------------+

|department|total_salary|

+----------+------------+

|Teacher |900 |
|Finance |1120 |

+----------+------------+

You can also try the bellow to get all the column from data frame
tot_salary.selectExpr('*').show()

tot_salary.select('*').show()

PySpark : How to read date datatype from CSV ?


 USER  JANUARY 4, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW TO READ DATE DATATYPE FROM CSV ?

We specify schema = true when a CSV file is being read. Spark determines


the data type of a column by setting this and using the values that are
stored there. However, because a spark cannot deduce a schema for date
and timestamp value fields, it reads these elements as strings instead. We
are concentrating on many approaches to solving this problem in this
recipe.
Here we explained in dataframe method as well as Spark SQL way of
converting to date datatype 
pyspark.sql.functions.to_date
A Column is transformed into pyspark.sql.types, using the optionally supplied
format, DateType. Formats should be specified using the date/time pattern. It
automatically adheres to the pyspark.sql.types casting conventions. This is similar
to col.cast (“date”).
Sample code to show how to_date works

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.types import StringType,IntegerType
from pyspark.sql.types import StructType,StructField
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('www.freshers.in training : to_date ').getOrCreate()
from pyspark.sql.functions import to_date
car_data = [
(1,"Japan","2023-01-11"),
(2,"Italy","2023-04-21"),
(3,"France","2023-05-22"),
(4,"India","2023-07-18"),
(5,"USA","2023-08-23"),
]
car_data_schema = StructType([
StructField("si_no",IntegerType(),True),
StructField("country_origin",StringType(),True),
StructField("car_make_year",StringType(),True)
])
car_df = spark.createDataFrame(data=car_data, schema=car_data_schema)
car_df.printSchema()

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root
|-- si_no: integer (nullable = true)
|-- country_origin: string (nullable = true)
|-- car_make_year: string (nullable = true)

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Applying to_date function 

car_df_updated = car_df.withColumn("car_make_year_dt",to_date("car_make_year"))
car_df_updated.show()

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+-----+--------------+-------------+----------------+
|si_no|country_origin|car_make_year|car_make_year_dt|
+-----+--------------+-------------+----------------+
| 1| Japan| 2023-01-11| 2023-01-11|
| 2| Italy| 2023-04-21| 2023-04-21|
| 3| France| 2023-05-22| 2023-05-22|
| 4| India| 2023-07-18| 2023-07-18|
| 5| USA| 2023-08-23| 2023-08-23|
+-----+--------------+-------------+----------------+

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Check the schema that is going to print , you can see the date data time for the new
column car_make_year_dt

car_df_updated.printSchema()

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root
|-- si_no: integer (nullable = true)
|-- country_origin: string (nullable = true)
|-- car_make_year: string (nullable = true)
<span style="color: #0000ff;"> |-- car_make_year_dt: date (nullable = true)</span>

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The above can be done in the SQL way as follows


by creating a TempView 
car_df.createOrReplaceTempView("car_table")
spark.sql("select si_no,country_origin, to_date(car_make_year) from car_table").show()

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+-----+--------------+----------------------------------+
|si_no|country_origin|to_date(car_table.`car_make_year`)|
+-----+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 1| Japan| 2023-01-11|
| 2| Italy| 2023-04-21|
| 3| France| 2023-05-22|
| 4| India| 2023-07-18|
| 5| USA| 2023-08-23|
+-----+--------------+----------------------------------+

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For checking the schema 

spark.sql("select si_no,country_origin, to_date(car_make_year) from car_table").printSchema()

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root
|-- si_no: integer (nullable = true)
|-- country_origin: string (nullable = true)
<span style="color: #0000ff;"> |-- to_date(car_table.`car_make_year`): date (nullable =
true)</

 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : How decode works in PySpark ?


 USER  FEBRUARY 9, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW DECODE WORKS IN PYSPARK ?

One of the important concepts in PySpark is data encoding and decoding, which
refers to the process of converting data into a binary format and then converting it
back into a readable format.
In PySpark, encoding and decoding are performed using various methods that are
available in the library. The most commonly used methods are base64 encoding
and decoding, which is a standard encoding scheme that is used for converting
binary data into ASCII text. This method is used for transmitting binary data over
networks, where text data is preferred over binary data.
Another popular method for encoding and decoding in PySpark is the JSON
encoding and decoding. JSON is a lightweight data interchange format that is easy
to read and write. In PySpark, JSON encoding is used for storing and exchanging
data between systems, whereas JSON decoding is used for converting the encoded
data back into a readable format.
Additionally, PySpark also provides support for encoding and decoding data in the
Avro format. Avro is a data serialization system that is used for exchanging data
between systems. It is similar to JSON encoding and decoding, but it is more
compact and efficient. Avro encoding and decoding in PySpark is performed using
the Avro library.
To perform encoding and decoding in PySpark, one must first create a Spark
context and then import the necessary libraries. The data to be encoded or decoded
must then be loaded into the Spark context, and the appropriate encoding or
decoding method must be applied to the data. Once the encoding or decoding is
complete, the data can be stored or transmitted as needed.
In conclusion, encoding and decoding are important concepts in PySpark, as they
are used for storing and exchanging data between systems. PySpark provides
support for base64 encoding and decoding, JSON encoding and decoding, and
Avro encoding and decoding, making it a powerful tool for big data analysis.
Whether you are a data scientist or a software engineer, understanding the basics of
PySpark encoding and decoding is crucial for performing effective big data
analysis.
Here is a sample PySpark program that demonstrates how to perform base64
decoding using PySpark:
from pyspark import SparkContext
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
import base64

# Initialize SparkContext and SparkSession


sc = SparkContext("local", "base64 decode example @ Freshers.in")
spark = SparkSession(sc)

# Load data into Spark dataframe


df = spark.createDataFrame([("data1", "ZGF0YTE="),("data2", "ZGF0YTI=")], ["key",
"encoded_data"])

# Create a UDF (User Defined Function) for decoding base64 encoded data
decode_udf = spark.udf.register("decode", lambda x: base64.b64decode(x).decode("utf-
8"))

# Apply the UDF to the "encoded_data" column


df = df.withColumn("decoded_data", decode_udf(df["encoded_data"]))

# Display the decoded data


df.show()

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Output

+-----+------------+------------+
| key|encoded_data|decoded_data|
+-----+------------+------------+
|data1| ZGF0YTE=| data1|
|data2| ZGF0YTI=| data2|
+-----+------------+------------+

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Explanation
1. The first step is to import the necessary
libraries, SparkContext and SparkSession from pyspark and base64 library.
2. Next, we initialize the SparkContext and SparkSession by creating an instance of SparkContext
with the name “local” and “base64 decode example” as the application name.
3. In the next step, we create a Spark dataframe with two columns, key and encoded_data, and
load some sample data into the dataframe.
4. Then, we create a UDF (User Defined Function) called decode which takes a base64 encoded
string as input and decodes it using the base64.b64decode method and returns the decoded
string. The .decode("utf-8") is used to convert the binary decoded data into a readable string
format.
5. After creating the UDF, we use the withColumn method to apply the UDF to
the encoded_data column of the dataframe and add a new column called decoded_data to
store the decoded data.
6. Finally, we display the decoded data using the show method.
In pyspark what is the difference between Spark spark.table()
and spark.read.table()
 USER  JANUARY 8, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON IN PYSPARK WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
SPARK SPARK.TABLE() AND SPARK.READ.TABLE()

In PySpark, spark.table() is used to read a table from the Spark catalog, whereas
spark.read.table() is used to read a table from a structured data source, such as a
data lake or a database.
The spark.table() method requires that you have previously created a table in the
Spark catalog and registered it using the spark.createTable() method or the
CREATE TABLE SQL statement. Once a table has been registered in the catalog,
you can use the spark.table() method to access it.
On the other hand, spark.read.table() reads a table from a structured data source
and returns a DataFrame. It requires a configuration specifying the data source and
the options to read the table.
Here is an example of using spark.read.table() to read a table from a database:

df = spark.read.format("jdbc") \
.option("url", "jdbc:postgresql://localhost/mydatabase") \
.option("dbtable", "mytable") \
.option("user", "username") \
.option("password", "password") \
.load()
 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Explanation of MapType in PySpark with Example


 USER  JANUARY 31, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : EXPLANATION OF MAPTYPE IN PYSPARK
WITH EXAMPLE

MapType in PySpark is a data type used to represent a value that maps


keys to values. It is similar to Python’s built-in dictionary data type. The
keys must be of a specific data type and the values must be of another
specific data type.

Advantages of MapType in PySpark:


 It allows for a flexible schema, as the number of keys and their values can vary for each row in a
DataFrame.
 MapType is particularly useful when working with semi-structured data, where there is a lot of
variability in the structure of the data.

Example: Let’s say we have a DataFrame with the following schema:

root
|-- name: string (nullable = true)
|-- age: integer (nullable = true)
|-- hobbies: map (nullable = true)
| |-- key: string
| |-- value: integer

Bash

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We can create this DataFrame using the following code:

from pyspark.sql.types import *


from pyspark.sql.functions import *
data = [("John", 30, {"reading": 3, "traveling": 5}),
("Jane", 25, {"cooking": 2, "painting": 4})]
schema = StructType([
StructField("name", StringType(), True),
StructField("age", IntegerType(), True),
StructField("hobbies", MapType(StringType(), IntegerType()), True)
])
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, schema)
df.show(20,False)

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Result
+----+---+------------------------------+
|name|age|hobbies |
+----+---+------------------------------+
|John|30 |[reading -> 3, traveling -> 5]|
|Jane|25 |[painting -> 4, cooking -> 2] |
+----+---+------------------------------+

PySpark : How to decode in PySpark ?


 USER  FEBRUARY 3, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW TO DECODE IN PYSPARK ?

pyspark.sql.functions.decode
The pyspark.sql.functions.decode Function in PySpark
PySpark is a popular library for processing big data using Apache Spark. One of its
many functions is the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function, which is used to
convert binary data into a string using a specified character set. The
pyspark.sql.functions.decode function takes two arguments: the first argument is
the binary data to be decoded, and the second argument is the character set to use
for decoding the binary data.
The pyspark.sql.functions.decode function in PySpark supports the following
character sets: US-ASCII, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE, and UTF-
16. The character set specified in the second argument must match one of these
supported character sets in order to perform the decoding successfully.
Here’s a simple example to demonstrate the use of the
pyspark.sql.functions.decode function in PySpark:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import *

# Initializing Spark Session


spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("DecodeFunction").getOrCreate()

# Creating DataFrame with sample data


data = [("Team",),("Freshers.in",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["binary_data"])

# Decoding binary data


df = df.withColumn("string_data", decode(col("binary_data"), "UTF-8"))

# Showing the result


df.show()

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Output

+-----------+-----------+
|binary_data|string_data|
+-----------+-----------+
| Team| Team|
|Freshers.in|Freshers.in|
+-----------+-----------+

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In the above example, the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function is used to


decode binary data into a string. The first argument to
the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function is the binary data to be decoded,
which is stored in the “binary_data” column. The second argument is the
character set to use for decoding the binary data, which is “UTF-8“. The
function returns a new column “string_data” that contains the decoded
string data.
The pyspark.sql.functions.decode function is a useful tool for converting
binary data into a string format that can be more easily analyzed and
processed. It is important to specify the correct character set for the binary
data, as incorrect character sets can result in incorrect decoded data.
In conclusion, the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function in PySpark is a
valuable tool for converting binary data into a string format. It supports a
variety of character sets and is an important tool for processing binary data
in PySpark.
PySpark : HiveContext in PySpark – A brief explanation
 USER  FEBRUARY 26, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HIVECONTEXT IN PYSPARK – A BRIEF
EXPLANATION

One of the key components of PySpark is the HiveContext, which provides a SQL-
like interface to work with data stored in Hive tables. The HiveContext provides a
way to interact with Hive from PySpark, allowing you to run SQL queries against
tables stored in Hive. Hive is a data warehousing system built on top of Hadoop,
and it provides a way to store and manage large datasets. By using the
HiveContext, you can take advantage of the power of Hive to query and analyze
data in PySpark.
The HiveContext is created using the SparkContext, which is the entry point for
PySpark. Once you have created a SparkContext, you can create a HiveContext as
follows:
from  pyspark . sql  import  HiveContext
hiveContext  =  HiveContext ( sparkContext )

The HiveContext provides a way to create DataFrame objects from Hive tables,
which can be used to perform various operations on the data. For example, you can
use the select method to select specific columns from a table, and you can use
the filter method to filter rows based on certain conditions.
# create a DataFrame from a Hive table  df  =  hiveContext . table ("my_table")   #
select specific columns from the DataFrame  df . select ("col1",   "col2")   # filter rows
based on a condition  df . filter ( df . col1  >   10)

You can also create temporary tables in the HiveContext, which are not persisted
to disk but can be used in subsequent queries. To create a temporary table, you can
use the registerTempTable method:
# create a temporary table from a
DataFrame  df . registerTempTable ("my_temp_table")   # query the temporary
table  hiveContext . sql ("SELECT * FROM my_temp_table WHERE col1 > 10")

In addition to querying and analyzing data, the HiveContext also provides a way to
write data back to Hive tables. You can use the saveAsTable method to write a
DataFrame to a new or existing Hive table:
# write a DataFrame to a Hive table  df . write . saveAsTable ("freshers_in_table")

the HiveContext in PySpark provides a powerful SQL-like interface for working


with data stored in Hive. It allows you to easily query and analyze large datasets,
and it provides a way to write data back to Hive tables. By using the HiveContext,
you can take advantage of the power of Hive in your PySpark applications.
PySpark : How to number up to the nearest integer
 USER  JANUARY 25, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW TO NUMBER UP TO THE NEAREST
INTEGER
pyspark.sql.functions.ceil
In PySpark, the ceil() function is used to round a number up to the nearest
integer. This function is a part of the pyspark.sql.functions module, and it
can be used on both column and numeric expressions.
Here is an example of using the ceil() function in PySpark:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import ceil

# Create a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("Ceil Example").getOrCreate()

# Create a DataFrame with some sample data


data = [(1.2,), (2.5,), (3.7,), (4.9,)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["num"])

# Use the ceil() function to round the numbers up


df = df.select(ceil(df["num"]).alias("rounded_num"))

# Show the result


df.show()

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This code creates a SparkSession and a DataFrame with a single column “num” containing some sample
decimal numbers. Then it uses the ceil() function to round these numbers up to the nearest integer and
create a new column “rounded_num” with the result. The DataFrame is then displayed and show the
rounded number.
The output of this code will be:

+-----------+
|rounded_num|
+-----------+
| 2|
| 3|
| 4|
| 5|
+-----------+

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The Ceil function rounds up the decimal number to nearest integer.


PySpark : What is predicate pushdown in Spark and how to
enable it ?
 USER  JANUARY 29, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : WHAT IS PREDICATE PUSHDOWN IN SPARK
AND HOW TO ENABLE IT ?

Predicate pushdown is a technique used in Spark to filter data as early as


possible in the query execution process, in order to minimize the amount of
data that needs to be shuffled and processed. It allows Spark to push down
filtering conditions (predicates) to the storage layer, where the data is
located. Which means instead of bringing all the data into the Spark cluster
first and then applying the filtering conditions.
Enabling predicate pushdown in Spark can significantly improve the
performance of queries that filter large amounts of data.

In Pyspark, predicate pushdown can be enabled by setting the

spark.sql.hive.convertMetastoreParquet

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and

spark.sql.hive.metastorePartitionPruning

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Its configuration properties need t set to to true.


Sample code:

from pyspark import SparkConf, SparkContext


conf = SparkConf().setAppName("MyApp").setMaster("local")
conf.set("spark.sql.hive.convertMetastoreParquet", "true")
conf.set("spark.sql.hive.metastorePartitionPruning", "true")
sc = SparkContext(conf=conf)

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You can also enable predicate pushdown while creating a Dataframe using
the .filter() method in the following way:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("pushdown").enableHiveSupport().getOrCreate()
df = spark.table("table_name")
df.filter("column_name = 'some value'").count()

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It’s worth noting that for this technique to work, the data must be stored in a
format that supports predicate pushdown, such as Parquet or ORC.
Additionally, the optimization only works when the filter conditions are
expressed in terms of the columns of the table, not on the result of an
expression.
It is also worth noting that when using Hive metastore, partition pruning
should be also enabled by
setting spark.sql.hive.metastorePartitionPruning to true in order to push
down the filtering conditions to the storage layer.
How to run dataframe as Spark SQL – PySpark
 USER  JUNE 14, 2021  LEAVE A COMMENTON HOW TO RUN DATAFRAME AS SPARK SQL – PYSPARK

If you have a situation that you can easily get the result using SQL/ SQL
already existing , then you can convert the dataframe to a table and do a
query on top of it. Converting dataframe to a table as bellow
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession

from pyspark import SparkContext

sc = SparkContext()

spark=SparkSession.builder.getOrCreate()

myDF = spark.createDataFrame([("Tom", 400,50, "Teacher","IND"),("Jack",


420,60, "Finance","USA"),("Brack", 500,10, "Teacher","IND"),("Jim",
700,80, "Finance","JAPAN")],("name", "salary","cnt",
"department","country"))
myDF.registerTempTable("sql_df")

tot_salary = spark.sql("select department,sum(salary) as total_salary


from sql_df group by department ")

tot_salary.show(30,False)

+----------+------------+

|department|total_salary|

+----------+------------+

|Teacher |900 |

|Finance |1120 |

+----------+------------+

You can also try the bellow to get all the column from data frame
tot_salary.selectExpr('*').show()

PySpark : How to read date datatype from CSV ?


 USER  JANUARY 4, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW TO READ DATE DATATYPE FROM CSV ?

We specify schema = true when a CSV file is being read. Spark determines


the data type of a column by setting this and using the values that are
stored there. However, because a spark cannot deduce a schema for date
and timestamp value fields, it reads these elements as strings instead. We
are concentrating on many approaches to solving this problem in this
recipe.
Here we explained in dataframe method as well as Spark SQL way of
converting to date datatype 
pyspark.sql.functions.to_date
A Column is transformed into pyspark.sql.types, using the optionally supplied
format, DateType. Formats should be specified using the date/time pattern. It
automatically adheres to the pyspark.sql.types casting conventions. This is similar
to col.cast (“date”).
Sample code to show how to_date works

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.types import StringType,IntegerType
from pyspark.sql.types import StructType,StructField
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('www.freshers.in training : to_date ').getOrCreate()
from pyspark.sql.functions import to_date
car_data = [
(1,"Japan","2023-01-11"),
(2,"Italy","2023-04-21"),
(3,"France","2023-05-22"),
(4,"India","2023-07-18"),
(5,"USA","2023-08-23"),
]
car_data_schema = StructType([
StructField("si_no",IntegerType(),True),
StructField("country_origin",StringType(),True),
StructField("car_make_year",StringType(),True)
])
car_df = spark.createDataFrame(data=car_data, schema=car_data_schema)
car_df.printSchema()

Python

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root
|-- si_no: integer (nullable = true)
|-- country_origin: string (nullable = true)
|-- car_make_year: string (nullable = true)

Bash
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Applying to_date function 

car_df_updated = car_df.withColumn("car_make_year_dt",to_date("car_make_year"))
car_df_updated.show()

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+-----+--------------+-------------+----------------+
|si_no|country_origin|car_make_year|car_make_year_dt|
+-----+--------------+-------------+----------------+
| 1| Japan| 2023-01-11| 2023-01-11|
| 2| Italy| 2023-04-21| 2023-04-21|
| 3| France| 2023-05-22| 2023-05-22|
| 4| India| 2023-07-18| 2023-07-18|
| 5| USA| 2023-08-23| 2023-08-23|
+-----+--------------+-------------+----------------+

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Check the schema that is going to print , you can see the date data time for the new
column car_make_year_dt

car_df_updated.printSchema()

Python

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root
|-- si_no: integer (nullable = true)
|-- country_origin: string (nullable = true)
|-- car_make_year: string (nullable = true)
<span style="color: #0000ff;"> |-- car_make_year_dt: date (nullable = true)</span>

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The above can be done in the SQL way as follows


by creating a TempView 
car_df.createOrReplaceTempView("car_table")
spark.sql("select si_no,country_origin, to_date(car_make_year) from car_table").show()

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+-----+--------------+----------------------------------+
|si_no|country_origin|to_date(car_table.`car_make_year`)|
+-----+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 1| Japan| 2023-01-11|
| 2| Italy| 2023-04-21|
| 3| France| 2023-05-22|
| 4| India| 2023-07-18|
| 5| USA| 2023-08-23|
+-----+--------------+----------------------------------+

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For checking the schema 

spark.sql("select si_no,country_origin, to_date(car_make_year) from car_table").printSchema()

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root
|-- si_no: integer (nullable = true)
|-- country_origin: string (nullable = true)
<span style="color: #0000ff;"> |-- to_date(car_table.`car_make_year`): date (nullable =
true)</

PySpark : How decode works in PySpark ?


 USER  FEBRUARY 9, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW DECODE WORKS IN PYSPARK ?
One of the important concepts in PySpark is data encoding and decoding, which
refers to the process of converting data into a binary format and then converting it
back into a readable format.
In PySpark, encoding and decoding are performed using various methods that are
available in the library. The most commonly used methods are base64 encoding
and decoding, which is a standard encoding scheme that is used for converting
binary data into ASCII text. This method is used for transmitting binary data over
networks, where text data is preferred over binary data.
Another popular method for encoding and decoding in PySpark is the JSON
encoding and decoding. JSON is a lightweight data interchange format that is easy
to read and write. In PySpark, JSON encoding is used for storing and exchanging
data between systems, whereas JSON decoding is used for converting the encoded
data back into a readable format.
Additionally, PySpark also provides support for encoding and decoding data in the
Avro format. Avro is a data serialization system that is used for exchanging data
between systems. It is similar to JSON encoding and decoding, but it is more
compact and efficient. Avro encoding and decoding in PySpark is performed using
the Avro library.
To perform encoding and decoding in PySpark, one must first create a Spark
context and then import the necessary libraries. The data to be encoded or decoded
must then be loaded into the Spark context, and the appropriate encoding or
decoding method must be applied to the data. Once the encoding or decoding is
complete, the data can be stored or transmitted as needed.
In conclusion, encoding and decoding are important concepts in PySpark, as they
are used for storing and exchanging data between systems. PySpark provides
support for base64 encoding and decoding, JSON encoding and decoding, and
Avro encoding and decoding, making it a powerful tool for big data analysis.
Whether you are a data scientist or a software engineer, understanding the basics of
PySpark encoding and decoding is crucial for performing effective big data
analysis.
Here is a sample PySpark program that demonstrates how to perform base64
decoding using PySpark:

from pyspark import SparkContext


from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
import base64

# Initialize SparkContext and SparkSession


sc = SparkContext("local", "base64 decode example @ Freshers.in")
spark = SparkSession(sc)

# Load data into Spark dataframe


df = spark.createDataFrame([("data1", "ZGF0YTE="),("data2", "ZGF0YTI=")], ["key",
"encoded_data"])

# Create a UDF (User Defined Function) for decoding base64 encoded data
decode_udf = spark.udf.register("decode", lambda x: base64.b64decode(x).decode("utf-
8"))

# Apply the UDF to the "encoded_data" column


df = df.withColumn("decoded_data", decode_udf(df["encoded_data"]))

# Display the decoded data


df.show()

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Output

+-----+------------+------------+
| key|encoded_data|decoded_data|
+-----+------------+------------+
|data1| ZGF0YTE=| data1|
|data2| ZGF0YTI=| data2|
+-----+------------+------------+

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Explanation
1. The first step is to import the necessary
libraries, SparkContext and SparkSession from pyspark and base64 library.
2. Next, we initialize the SparkContext and SparkSession by creating an instance of SparkContext
with the name “local” and “base64 decode example” as the application name.
3. In the next step, we create a Spark dataframe with two columns, key and encoded_data, and
load some sample data into the dataframe.
4. Then, we create a UDF (User Defined Function) called decode which takes a base64 encoded
string as input and decodes it using the base64.b64decode method and returns the decoded
string. The .decode("utf-8") is used to convert the binary decoded data into a readable string
format.
5. After creating the UDF, we use the withColumn method to apply the UDF to
the encoded_data column of the dataframe and add a new column called decoded_data to
store the decoded data.
6. Finally, we display the decoded data using the show method.
AWS Glue : Example on how to read a sample csv file with
PySpark
 USER  DECEMBER 28, 2021  LEAVE A COMMENTON AWS GLUE : EXAMPLE ON HOW TO READ A SAMPLE
CSV FILE WITH PYSPARK

Here assume that you have your CSV data in AWS S3 bucket. The next step is the
crawl the data that is in AWS S3 bucket. Once its done , you can find the crawler
has created a metadata table for your csv data. 
import sys

from awsglue.transforms import *

from awsglue.utils import getResolvedOptions

from pyspark.context import SparkContext

from awsglue.context import GlueContext

from awsglue.job import Job

glueContext = GlueContext(SparkContext.getOrCreate())

freshers_data = spark.read.format("com.databricks.spark.csv").option(
"header", "true").option(

"inferSchema", "true").load(

's3://freshers_in_datasets/training/students/final_year.csv')

freshers_data.printSchema()

Result
root

|-- Freshers def: string (nullable = true)

|-- student Id: string (nullable = true)

|-- student Name: string (nullable = true)

|-- student Street Address: string (nullable = true)

|-- student City: string (nullable = true)

|-- student State: string (nullable = true)

|-- student Zip Code: integer (nullable = true)

Spark Reference
PySpark : HiveContext in PySpark – A brief explanation
 USER  FEBRUARY 26, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HIVECONTEXT IN PYSPARK – A BRIEF
EXPLANATION
One of the key components of PySpark is the HiveContext, which provides a SQL-
like interface to work with data stored in Hive tables. The HiveContext provides a
way to interact with Hive from PySpark, allowing you to run SQL queries against
tables stored in Hive. Hive is a data warehousing system built on top of Hadoop,
and it provides a way to store and manage large datasets. By using the
HiveContext, you can take advantage of the power of Hive to query and analyze
data in PySpark.
The HiveContext is created using the SparkContext, which is the entry point for
PySpark. Once you have created a SparkContext, you can create a HiveContext as
follows:
from  pyspark . sql  import  HiveContext
hiveContext  =  HiveContext ( sparkContext )

The HiveContext provides a way to create DataFrame objects from Hive tables,
which can be used to perform various operations on the data. For example, you can
use the select method to select specific columns from a table, and you can use
the filter method to filter rows based on certain conditions.
# create a DataFrame from a Hive table  df  =  hiveContext . table ("my_table")   #
select specific columns from the DataFrame  df . select ("col1",   "col2")   # filter rows
based on a condition  df . filter ( df . col1  >   10)

You can also create temporary tables in the HiveContext, which are not persisted
to disk but can be used in subsequent queries. To create a temporary table, you can
use the registerTempTable method:
# create a temporary table from a
DataFrame  df . registerTempTable ("my_temp_table")   # query the temporary
table  hiveContext . sql ("SELECT * FROM my_temp_table WHERE col1 > 10")

In addition to querying and analyzing data, the HiveContext also provides a way to
write data back to Hive tables. You can use the saveAsTable method to write a
DataFrame to a new or existing Hive table:
# write a DataFrame to a Hive table  df . write . saveAsTable ("freshers_in_table")
the HiveContext in PySpark provides a powerful SQL-like interface for working
with data stored in Hive. It allows you to easily query and analyze large datasets,
and it provides a way to write data back to Hive tables. By using the HiveContext,
you can take advantage of the power of Hive in your PySpark applications.
PySpark : How to decode in PySpark ?
 USER  FEBRUARY 3, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW TO DECODE IN PYSPARK ?

pyspark.sql.functions.decode
The pyspark.sql.functions.decode Function in PySpark
PySpark is a popular library for processing big data using Apache Spark. One of its
many functions is the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function, which is used to
convert binary data into a string using a specified character set. The
pyspark.sql.functions.decode function takes two arguments: the first argument is
the binary data to be decoded, and the second argument is the character set to use
for decoding the binary data.
The pyspark.sql.functions.decode function in PySpark supports the following
character sets: US-ASCII, ISO-8859-1, UTF-8, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE, and UTF-
16. The character set specified in the second argument must match one of these
supported character sets in order to perform the decoding successfully.
Here’s a simple example to demonstrate the use of the
pyspark.sql.functions.decode function in PySpark:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import *

# Initializing Spark Session


spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("DecodeFunction").getOrCreate()

# Creating DataFrame with sample data


data = [("Team",),("Freshers.in",)]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["binary_data"])

# Decoding binary data


df = df.withColumn("string_data", decode(col("binary_data"), "UTF-8"))

# Showing the result


df.show()

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Output

+-----------+-----------+
|binary_data|string_data|
+-----------+-----------+
| Team| Team|
|Freshers.in|Freshers.in|
+-----------+-----------+

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In the above example, the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function is used to


decode binary data into a string. The first argument to
the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function is the binary data to be decoded,
which is stored in the “binary_data” column. The second argument is the
character set to use for decoding the binary data, which is “UTF-8“. The
function returns a new column “string_data” that contains the decoded
string data.
The pyspark.sql.functions.decode function is a useful tool for converting
binary data into a string format that can be more easily analyzed and
processed. It is important to specify the correct character set for the binary
data, as incorrect character sets can result in incorrect decoded data.
In conclusion, the pyspark.sql.functions.decode function in PySpark is a
valuable tool for converting binary data into a string format. It supports a
variety of character sets and is an important tool for processing binary data
in PySpark.
 POSTED INSPARK

PySpark : Explanation of MapType in PySpark with Example


 USER  JANUARY 31, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : EXPLANATION OF MAPTYPE IN PYSPARK
WITH EXAMPLE

MapType in PySpark is a data type used to represent a value that maps


keys to values. It is similar to Python’s built-in dictionary data type. The
keys must be of a specific data type and the values must be of another
specific data type.

Advantages of MapType in PySpark:


 It allows for a flexible schema, as the number of keys and their values can vary for each row in a
DataFrame.
 MapType is particularly useful when working with semi-structured data, where there is a lot of
variability in the structure of the data.

Example: Let’s say we have a DataFrame with the following schema:

root
|-- name: string (nullable = true)
|-- age: integer (nullable = true)
|-- hobbies: map (nullable = true)
| |-- key: string
| |-- value: integer

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We can create this DataFrame using the following code:

from pyspark.sql.types import *


from pyspark.sql.functions import *
data = [("John", 30, {"reading": 3, "traveling": 5}),
("Jane", 25, {"cooking": 2, "painting": 4})]
schema = StructType([
StructField("name", StringType(), True),
StructField("age", IntegerType(), True),
StructField("hobbies", MapType(StringType(), IntegerType()), True)
])
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, schema)
df.show(20,False)

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Result

+----+---+------------------------------+
|name|age|hobbies |
+----+---+------------------------------+
|John|30 |[reading -> 3, traveling -> 5]|
|Jane|25 |[painting -> 4, cooking -> 2] |
+----+---+------------------------------+

In pyspark what is the difference between Spark spark.table()


and spark.read.table()
 USER  JANUARY 8, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON IN PYSPARK WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
SPARK SPARK.TABLE() AND SPARK.READ.TABLE()

In PySpark, spark.table() is used to read a table from the Spark catalog, whereas
spark.read.table() is used to read a table from a structured data source, such as a
data lake or a database.
The spark.table() method requires that you have previously created a table in the
Spark catalog and registered it using the spark.createTable() method or the
CREATE TABLE SQL statement. Once a table has been registered in the catalog,
you can use the spark.table() method to access it.
On the other hand, spark.read.table() reads a table from a structured data source
and returns a DataFrame. It requires a configuration specifying the data source and
the options to read the table.
Here is an example of using spark.read.table() to read a table from a database:

df = spark.read.format("jdbc") \
.option("url", "jdbc:postgresql://localhost/mydatabase") \
.option("dbtable", "mytable") \
.option("user", "username") \
.option("password", "password") \
.load()

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Spark import urls to refer

PySpark : Function to perform simple column transformations


[expr]
 USER  FEBRUARY 14, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : FUNCTION TO PERFORM SIMPLE COLUMN
TRANSFORMATIONS [EXPR]
pyspark.sql.functions.expr
The expr module is part of the PySpark SQL module and is used to create column
expressions that can be used to perform operations on Spark dataframes. These
expressions can be used to transform columns, calculate new columns based on
existing columns, and perform various other operations on Spark dataframes.
One of the most common uses for expr is to perform simple column
transformations. For example, you can use the expr function to convert a string
column to a numeric column by using the cast function. Here is an example:

from pyspark.sql.functions import expr


df = spark.createDataFrame([(1, "100"), (2, "200"), (3, "300")], ["id", "value"])
df.printSchema()

Python

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root
|-- id: long (nullable = true)
|-- value: string (nullable = true)

Bash

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Use expr

df = df.withColumn("value", expr("cast(value as int)"))


df.printSchema()

Python

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root
|-- id: long (nullable = true)
|-- value: integer (nullable = true)

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In this example, we create a Spark dataframe with two columns, id and value. The
value column is a string column, but we want to convert it to a numeric column. To
do this, we use the expr function to create a column expression that casts the value
column as an integer. The result is a new Spark dataframe with the value column
converted to a numeric column.
Another common use for expr is to perform operations on columns. For example,
you can use expr to create a new column that is the result of a calculation involving
multiple columns. Here is an example:

from pyspark.sql.functions import expr


df = spark.createDataFrame([(1, 100, 10), (2, 200, 20), (3, 300, 30)], ["id", "value1",
"value2"])
df = df.withColumn("sum", expr("value1 + value2"))
df.show()

Python

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Result

+---+------+------+---+
| id|value1|value2|sum|
+---+------+------+---+
| 1| 100| 10|110|
| 2| 200| 20|220|
| 3| 300| 30|330|
+---+------+------+---+

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In this example, we create a Spark dataframe with three columns, id, value1, and
value2. We use the expr function to create a new column, sum, that is the result of
adding value1 and value2. The result is a new Spark dataframe with the sum
column containing the result of the calculation.
The expr module also provides a number of other functions that can be used to
perform operations on Spark dataframes. For example, you can use the coalesce
function to select the first non-null value from a set of columns, the ifnull function
to return a specified value if a column is null, and the case function to perform
conditional operations on columns.
In conclusion, the expr module in PySpark provides a convenient and flexible way
to perform operations on Spark dataframes. Whether you want to transform
columns, calculate new columns, or perform other operations, the expr module
provides the tools you need to do so
Explain dense_rank. How to use dense_rank function in
PySpark ?
 USER  JANUARY 16, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON EXPLAIN DENSE_RANK. HOW TO USE DENSE_RANK
FUNCTION IN PYSPARK ?

In PySpark, the dense_rank function is used to assign a rank to each row within a
result set, based on the values of one or more columns. It is a window function that
assigns a unique rank to each unique value within a result set, with no gaps in the
ranking values.
The dense_rank function is a window function that assigns a rank to each row
within a result set, based on the values in one or more columns. The rank assigned
is unique and dense, meaning that there are no gaps in the sequence of rank values.
For example, if there are three rows with the same value in the column used for
ranking, they will be assigned the same rank, and the next row will be assigned the
rank that is three greater than the previous rank. The dense_rank  function is
typically used in conjunction with an ORDER BY clause to sort the result set by
the column(s) used for ranking.
Here is an example of how to use the dense_rank function in PySpark:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql import Window
from pyspark.sql.functions import dense_rank, col

spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("dense_rank").getOrCreate()
data = [("Peter John", 25),("Wisdon Mike", 30),("Sarah Johns", 25),("Bob Beliver", 22),("Lucas
Marget", 30)]

df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["name", "age"])


df2 = df.select("name", "age", dense_rank().\
over(Window.partitionBy("age").\
orderBy("name")).\
alias("rank"))
df2.show()

Python

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In this example, the dense_rank function is used to assign a unique rank to each unique value of the “age”
column, based on the order of the “name” column. The output will be

+------------+---+----+
| name|age|rank|
+------------+---+----+
| Bob Beliver| 22| 1|
| Peter John| 25| 1|
| Sarah Johns| 25| 2|
|Lucas Marget| 30| 1|
| Wisdon Mike| 30| 2|
+------------+---+----+

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This means that Peter John and Sarah Johns have the same age with Peter John
having 1st rank and Sarah Johns having 2nd rank.
PySpark : Combine two or more arrays into a single array of
tuple
 USER  JANUARY 18, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : COMBINE TWO OR MORE ARRAYS INTO A
SINGLE ARRAY OF TUPLE
pyspark.sql.functions.arrays_zip
In PySpark, the arrays_zip function can be used to combine two or more arrays
into a single array of tuple. Each tuple in the resulting array contains elements from
the corresponding position in the input arrays. This will returns a merged array of
structs in which the N-th struct contains all N-th values of input arrays.

from pyspark.sql.functions import arrays_zip


df = spark.createDataFrame([(([1, 2, 3], ['Sam John', 'Perter Walter', 'Johns Mike']))], ['si_no',
'name'])
df.show(20,False)

Python

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+---------+-------------------------------------+
|si_no |name |
+---------+-------------------------------------+
|[1, 2, 3]|[Sam John, Perter Walter, Johns Mike]|
+---------+-------------------------------------+

Bash

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zipped_array = df.select(arrays_zip(df.si_no,df.name))
zipped_array.show(20,False)

Python

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Result

zipped_array = df.select(arrays_zip(df.si_no,df.name))
zipped_array.show(20,False)

Bash

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You can also use arrays_zip with more than two arrays as input. For example:

from pyspark.sql.functions import arrays_zip


df = spark.createDataFrame([(([1, 2, 3], ['Sam John', 'Perter Walter', 'Johns Mike'],[23,43,41]))],
['si_no', 'name','age'])
zipped_array = df.select(arrays_zip(df.si_no,df.name,df.age))
zipped_array.show(20,False)

Python

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Result

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|arrays_zip(si_no, name, age) |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|[[1, Sam John, 23], [2, Perter Walter, 43], [3, Johns Mike, 41]]|
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

Bash

COPY

Spark important urls


How to find difference between two arrays in
PySpark(array_except)
 USER  FEBRUARY 1, 2022  LEAVE A COMMENTON HOW TO FIND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TWO ARRAYS IN
PYSPARK(ARRAY_EXCEPT)
array_except
In PySpark , array_except will returns an array of the elements in one
column but not in another column and without duplicates.
Syntax :
array_except(array1, array2)

array1: An ARRAY of any type with comparable elements.


array2: An ARRAY of elements sharing a least common type with the
elements of array1.

Example
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession

from pyspark.sql import Row

from pyspark.sql.functions import array_except

spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('www.freshers.in
training').getOrCreate()

raw_data= [("Berkshire",["Alabama","Alaska","Arizona"],
["Alabama","Alaska","Arizona","Arkansas"]),

("Allianz",["California","Connecticut","Delaware"],
["California","Colorado","Connecticut","Delaware"]),
("Zurich",["Delaware","Florida","Georgia","Hawaii","Idaho"],
["Delaware","Florida","Georgia","Hawaii","Idaho"]),

("AIA",["Iowa","Kansas","Kentucky"],
["Iowa","Kansas","Kentucky","Louisiana"]),

("Munich",["Hawaii","Idaho","Illinois","Indiana"],
["Hawaii","Illinois","Indiana"])]

df =
spark.createDataFrame(data=raw_data,schema=["Insurace_Provider","Countr
y_2022","Country_2023"])

df.show(20,False)

df2=df.select(array_except(df.Country_2023,df.Country_2022))

df2.show(20,False)

df3=df.select(array_except(df.Country_2022,df.Country_2023))

df3.show(20,False)

df4= df.withColumn("Insurance_Company",df.Insurace_Provider)\

.withColumn("Newly_Introduced_Country",array_except(df.Country_2023,df.
Country_2022))\

.withColumn("Operation_Closed_Country",array_except(df.Country_2022

PySpark : Understanding PySpark’s LAG and LEAD Window


Functions with detailed examples
 USER  APRIL 10, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : UNDERSTANDING PYSPARK’S LAG AND LEAD
WINDOW FUNCTIONS WITH DETAILED EXAMPLES
One of its powerful features is the ability to work with window functions, which
allow for complex calculations and data manipulation tasks. In this article, we will
focus on two common window functions in PySpark: LAG and LEAD. We will
discuss their functionality, syntax, and provide a detailed example with input data
to illustrate their usage.
1. LAG and LEAD Window Functions in PySpark
LAG and LEAD are window functions used to access the previous (LAG) or the
next (LEAD) row in a result set, allowing you to perform calculations or
comparisons across rows. These functions can be especially useful for time series
analysis or when working with ordered data.
Syntax:

LAG(column, offset=1, default=None)


LEAD(column, offset=1, default=None)

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column: The column or expression to apply the LAG or LEAD function on.
offset: The number of rows to look behind (LAG) or ahead (LEAD) from the current row (default is 1).
default: The value to return when no previous or next row exists. If not specified, it returns NULL.

2. A Detailed Example of Using LAG and LEAD


Functions
Let’s create a PySpark DataFrame with sales data and apply LAG and LEAD
functions to calculate the previous and next month’s sales, respectively.
First, let’s import the necessary libraries and create a sample DataFrame:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession


from pyspark.sql.functions import to_date
from pyspark.sql.types import StringType, IntegerType, DateType
from pyspark.sql.window import Window
# Create a Spark session
spark = SparkSession.builder.master("local").appName("LAG and LEAD Functions
Example").getOrCreate()
# Sample data
data = [("2023-01-01", 100), ("2023-02-01", 200), ("2023-03-01", 300), ("2023-04-01", 400)]
# Define the schema
schema = ["Date", "Sales"]
# Create the DataFrame
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, schema)
# Convert the date string to date type
df = df.withColumn("Date", to_date(df["Date"], "yyyy-MM-dd"))

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Now that we have our DataFrame, let’s apply the LAG and LEAD functions
using a Window specification:

from pyspark.sql.functions import lag, lead

# Define the window specification


window_spec = Window.orderBy("Date")

# Apply the LAG and LEAD functions


df = df.withColumn("Previous Month Sales", lag(df["Sales"]).over(window_spec))
df = df.withColumn("Next Month Sales", lead(df["Sales"]).over(window_spec))

# Show the results


df.show()

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This will have the following output:

+----------+-----+--------------------+----------------+
| Date|Sales|Previous Month Sales|Next Month Sales|
+----------+-----+--------------------+----------------+
|2023-01-01| 100| null| 200|
|2023-02-01| 200| 100| 300|
|2023-03-01| 300| 200| 400|
|2023-04-01| 400| 300| null|
+----------+-----+--------------------+----------------+

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In this example, we used the LAG function to obtain the sales from the
previous month and the LEAD

PySpark : Exploring PySpark’s last_day function with


detailed examples
 USER  APRIL 10, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : EXPLORING PYSPARK’S LAST_DAY FUNCTION
WITH DETAILED EXAMPLES
PySpark provides an easy-to-use interface for programming Spark with the Python
programming language. Among the numerous functions available in PySpark, the
last_day function is used to retrieve the last date of the month for a given date. In
this article, we will discuss the PySpark last_day function, its syntax, and a
detailed example illustrating its use with input data.
1. The last_day function in PySpark

The last_day function is a part of the PySpark SQL library, which provides various
functions to work with dates and times. It is useful when you need to perform time-
based aggregations or calculations based on the end of the month.
Syntax:

pyspark.sql.functions.last_day(date)

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Where date is a column or an expression that returns a date or a timestamp.


2. A detailed example of using the last_day function

To illustrate the usage of the last_day function, let’s create a PySpark DataFrame
containing date information and apply the function to it.
First, let’s import the necessary libraries and create a sample DataFrame:
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.functions import last_day, to_date
from pyspark.sql.types import StringType, DateType

# Create a Spark session


spark = SparkSession.builder.master("local").appName("last_day Function Example @
Freshers.in ").getOrCreate()

# Sample data
data = [("2023-01-15",), ("2023-02-25",), ("2023-03-05",), ("2023-04-10",)]

# Define the schema


schema = ["Date"]

# Create the DataFrame


df = spark.createDataFrame(data, schema)

# Convert the date string to date type


df = df.withColumn("Date", to_date(df["Date"], "yyyy-MM-dd"))

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Now that we have our DataFrame, let’s apply the last_day function to it:

# Apply the last_day function


df = df.withColumn("Last Day of Month", last_day(df["Date"]))
# Show the results
df.show()

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Output

+----------+-----------------+
| Date|Last Day of Month|
+----------+-----------------+
|2023-01-15| 2023-01-31|
|2023-02-25| 2023-02-28|
|2023-03-05| 2023-03-31|
|2023-04-10| 2023-04-30|
+----------+-----------------+

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In this example, we created a PySpark DataFrame with a date column and applied
the last_day function to calculate the last day of the month for each date. The
output DataFrame displays the original date along with the corresponding last day
of the month.
The PySpark last_day function is a powerful and convenient tool for working with
dates, particularly when you need to determine the last day of the month for a
given date. With the help of the detailed example provided in this article, you
should be able to effectively use the last_day function in your own PySpark
projects.
PySpark-What is map side join and How to perform map side
join in Pyspark
 USER  JANUARY 28, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK-WHAT IS MAP SIDE JOIN AND HOW TO
PERFORM MAP SIDE JOIN IN PYSPARK

Map-side join is a method of joining two datasets in PySpark where one dataset is
broadcast to all executors, and then the join is performed in the same executor,
instead of shuffling and sorting the data across multiple executors. This can
significantly reduce the amount of data shuffling and improve performance for
large datasets.
To perform a map-side join in PySpark, you can use the broadcast() function to
broadcast one of the datasets, and then use the join() function to perform the join.
Here’s an example of how to perform a map-side join in PySpark:
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.functions import broadcast

# Create a SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName("Map-side join example").getOrCreate()

# Create two DataFrames


df1 = spark.createDataFrame([(1, "a"), (2, "b"), (3, "c")], ["id", "value"])
df2 = spark.createDataFrame([(1, "A"), (2, "B"), (3, "C")], ["id", "value"])

# Broadcast one of the DataFrames


broadcast_df = broadcast(df2)

# Perform the join


result = df1.join(broadcast(broadcast_df))

# Show the result


result.show()

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In the above example, df2 is broadcasted and the join is performed in the same
executor where the broadcasted dataframe is present.
Output

+---+-----+---+-----+
| id|value| id|value|
+---+-----+---+-----+
| 1| a| 1| A|
| 1| a| 2| B|
| 1| a| 3| C|
| 2| b| 1| A|
| 2| b| 2| B|
| 2| b| 3| C|
| 3| c| 1| A|
| 3| c| 2| B|
| 3| c| 3| C|
+---+-----+---+-----+

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It’s worth noting that map-side join is efficient when the data size of one dataset is
small enough to fit in memory. Also, broadcast join is not recommended when the
size of data is too large, it can cause out of memory issues.
It’s also worth noting that you should use this method with caution, as
broadcasting large datasets can cause out-of-memory errors on the executors.
Make sure that the join column is indexed and has a small size, otherwise it will
cause a slow join.
Comparing PySpark with Map Reduce programming
 USER  JANUARY 17, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON COMPARING PYSPARK WITH MAP REDUCE
PROGRAMMING

PySpark is the Python library for Spark


programming. It allows developers to interface with RDDs (Resilient Distributed
Datasets) and perform operations on them using the familiar Python API. Hadoop
MapReduce is a programming model and an associated implementation for
processing and generating large data sets with a parallel, distributed algorithm on a
cluster.
Both PySpark and Hadoop MapReduce are used for big data processing, but
PySpark provides a more user-friendly interface for developers and allows for
more flexible programming than Hadoop MapReduce’s Java-based API.
Additionally, PySpark allows for data processing using a wide range of libraries
and frameworks, including machine learning libraries, while Hadoop MapReduce
is more limited in this regard. Overall, PySpark has more additional functionality
than Hadoop MapReduce, but Hadoop MapReduce is more battle-tested and can
handle larger datasets.
1. API: PySpark uses the Python API, while Hadoop MapReduce uses Java API.
2. Programming: PySpark provides more flexible programming options than Hadoop MapReduce,
which is based on Java.
3. Ease of use: PySpark has a more user-friendly interface, making it easier to use for developers
who are already familiar with Python.
4. Libraries and frameworks: PySpark allows for data processing using a wide range of libraries and
frameworks, including machine learning libraries, while Hadoop MapReduce is more limited in this
regard.
5. Performance: Hadoop MapReduce is more battle-tested and can handle larger datasets, but PySpark
can perform faster as it is built on top of Spark which is faster than Hadoop MapReduce for
certain use cases.
6. Scalability: Both PySpark and Hadoop MapReduce can process large data sets in parallel across a
cluster, but PySpark has built-in support for distributed data processing, while Hadoop MapReduce
requires additional configuration and setup.
7. Latency: PySpark has lower latency than Hadoop MapReduce, as it has in-memory computation,
while Hadoop MapReduce reads data from disk.
8. Flexibility: PySpark is more flexible as it supports both batch and streaming processing while
Hadoop MapReduce is focused on batch processing.
PySpark : Explain map in Python or PySpark ? How it can be
used.
 USER  JANUARY 31, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : EXPLAIN MAP IN PYTHON OR PYSPARK ?
HOW IT CAN BE USED.

‘map’ in PySpark is a transformation operation that allows you to apply a function


to each element in an RDD (Resilient Distributed Dataset), which is the basic data
structure in PySpark. The function takes a single element as input and returns a
single output.
The result of the map operation is a new RDD where each element is the result of
applying the function to the corresponding element in the original RDD.
Example:
Suppose you have an RDD of integers, and you want to multiply each element by
2. You can use the map transformation as follows:

rdd = sc.parallelize([1, 2, 3, 4, 5])


result = rdd.map(lambda x: x * 2)
result.collect()

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The output of this code will be [2, 4, 6, 8, 10]. The map operation takes a lambda
function (or any other function) that takes a single integer as input and returns its
double. The collect action is used to retrieve the elements of the RDD back to the
driver program as a list.
PySpark : How to create a map from a column of structs :
map_from_entries
 USER  JANUARY 25, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW TO CREATE A MAP FROM A COLUMN
OF STRUCTS : MAP_FROM_ENTRIES

pyspark.sql.functions.map_from_entries
map_from_entries(col) is a function in PySpark that creates a map from a column
of structs, where the structs have two fields: key and value. This is a collection
function which returns a map created from the given array of entries

from pyspark.sql.functions import map_from_entries, struct


from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.functions import col
df2 = spark.createDataFrame([
(1, "John", 25000, [("name","John"), ("age",25)]),
(2, "Mike", 30000, [("name","Mike"),("age",30)]),
(3, "Sophia", 35000, [("name","Sophia"), ("age",35)])
],
["id", "name", "salary", "person_map"])
df2 = df2.select("id","name", "salary", map_from_entries("person_map").alias("map_col"))
df2.show(20,False)

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In this example, we first import the necessary functions and create a SparkSession.
We then create a DataFrame with a column called “ person_map ” which contains

a list of structs each with two fields “key” and “value”.


We then use the map_from_entries() function to create a new column called
“map_col” from the struct column, using the alias() function to rename the new
column.
The “ map_col ” is used to select the fields of the structs to be used as key and

value for the map.


The final DataFrame has two columns: “id” and “map_col”, where “map_col”
contains a map created from the structs in “struct_col”.
For reference , the schema will be 

root
|-- id: long (nullable = true)
|-- name: string (nullable = true)
|-- salary: long (nullable = true)
|-- map_col: map (nullable = true)
| |-- key: stringap_col")["name"]).show()
| |-- value: string (valueContainsNull = true)
|map_col[name]|

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Result

+---+------+------+---------------------------+
|id |name |salary|map_col |
+---+------+------+---------------------------+
|1 |John |25000 |[name -> John, age -> 25] |
|2 |Mike |30000 |[name -> Mike, age -> 30] |
|3 |Sophia|35000 |[name -> Sophia, age -> 35]|
+---+------+------+---------------------------+

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In PySpark, creating a map column from entries allows you to convert existing
columns in a DataFrame into a map, where each row in the DataFrame becomes a
key-value pair in the map. This can be useful for organizing and structuring data in
a more readable and efficient way. Additionally, it can also be used to perform
operations such as filtering, aggregation and joining on the map column.
PySpark : How to create a map from a column of structs :
map_from_entries
 USER  JANUARY 25, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : HOW TO CREATE A MAP FROM A COLUMN
OF STRUCTS : MAP_FROM_ENTRIES

pyspark.sql.functions.map_from_entries
map_from_entries(col) is a function in PySpark that creates a map from a column
of structs, where the structs have two fields: key and value. This is a collection
function which returns a map created from the given array of entries

from pyspark.sql.functions import map_from_entries, struct


from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.functions import col
df2 = spark.createDataFrame([
(1, "John", 25000, [("name","John"), ("age",25)]),
(2, "Mike", 30000, [("name","Mike"),("age",30)]),
(3, "Sophia", 35000, [("name","Sophia"), ("age",35)])
],
["id", "name", "salary", "person_map"])
df2 = df2.select("id","name", "salary", map_from_entries("person_map").alias("map_col"))
df2.show(20,False)

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In this example, we first import the necessary functions and create a SparkSession.
We then create a DataFrame with a column called “ person_map ” which contains

a list of structs each with two fields “key” and “value”.


We then use the map_from_entries() function to create a new column called
“map_col” from the struct column, using the alias() function to rename the new
column.
The “ map_col ” is used to select the fields of the structs to be used as key and

value for the map.


The final DataFrame has two columns: “id” and “map_col”, where “map_col”
contains a map created from the structs in “struct_col”.
For reference , the schema will be 

root
|-- id: long (nullable = true)
|-- name: string (nullable = true)
|-- salary: long (nullable = true)
|-- map_col: map (nullable = true)
| |-- key: stringap_col")["name"]).show()
| |-- value: string (valueContainsNull = true)
|map_col[name]|

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Result

+---+------+------+---------------------------+
|id |name |salary|map_col |
+---+------+------+---------------------------+
|1 |John |25000 |[name -> John, age -> 25] |
|2 |Mike |30000 |[name -> Mike, age -> 30] |
|3 |Sophia|35000 |[name -> Sophia, age -> 35]|
+---+------+------+---------------------------+

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COPY

In PySpark, creating a map column from entries allows you to convert existing
columns in a DataFrame into a map, where each row in the DataFrame becomes a
key-value pair in the map. This can be useful for organizing and structuring data in
a more readable and efficient way. Additionally, it can also be used to perform
operations such as filtering, aggregation and joining on the map column.

 POSTED INSPARK

How to find difference between two arrays in


PySpark(array_except)
 USER  FEBRUARY 1, 2022  LEAVE A COMMENTON HOW TO FIND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TWO ARRAYS IN
PYSPARK(ARRAY_EXCEPT)

array_except
In PySpark , array_except will returns an array of the elements in one
column but not in another column and without duplicates.
Syntax :
array_except(array1, array2)

array1: An ARRAY of any type with comparable elements.


array2: An ARRAY of elements sharing a least common type with the
elements of array1.

Example
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession

from pyspark.sql import Row

from pyspark.sql.functions import array_except

spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('www.freshers.in
training').getOrCreate()

raw_data= [("Berkshire",["Alabama","Alaska","Arizona"],
["Alabama","Alaska","Arizona","Arkansas"]),

("Allianz",["California","Connecticut","Delaware"],
["California","Colorado","Connecticut","Delaware"]),

("Zurich",["Delaware","Florida","Georgia","Hawaii","Idaho"],
["Delaware","Florida","Georgia","Hawaii","Idaho"]),

("AIA",["Iowa","Kansas","Kentucky"],
["Iowa","Kansas","Kentucky","Louisiana"]),

("Munich",["Hawaii","Idaho","Illinois","Indiana"],
["Hawaii","Illinois","Indiana"])]

df =
spark.createDataFrame(data=raw_data,schema=["Insurace_Provider","Countr
y_2022","Country_2023"])

df.show(20,False)

df2=df.select(array_except(df.Country_2023,df.Country_2022))

df2.show(20,False)

df3=df.select(array_except(df.Country_2022,df.Country_2023))

df3.show(20,False)
df4= df.withColumn("Insurance_Company",df.Insurace_Provider)\

.withColumn("Newly_Introduced_Country",array_except(df.Country_2023,df.
Country_2022))\

.withColumn("Operation_Closed_Country",array_except(df.Country_2022,df.
Country_2023))

df4.show(20,False)

PySpark : Combine two or more arrays into a single array of


tuple
 USER  JANUARY 18, 2023  LEAVE A COMMENTON PYSPARK : COMBINE TWO OR MORE ARRAYS INTO A
SINGLE ARRAY OF TUPLE

pyspark.sql.functions.arrays_zip
In PySpark, the arrays_zip function can be used to combine two or more arrays
into a single array of tuple. Each tuple in the resulting array contains elements from
the corresponding position in the input arrays. This will returns a merged array of
structs in which the N-th struct contains all N-th values of input arrays.

from pyspark.sql.functions import arrays_zip


df = spark.createDataFrame([(([1, 2, 3], ['Sam John', 'Perter Walter', 'Johns Mike']))], ['si_no',
'name'])
df.show(20,False)

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+---------+-------------------------------------+
|si_no |name |
+---------+-------------------------------------+
|[1, 2, 3]|[Sam John, Perter Walter, Johns Mike]|
+---------+-------------------------------------+

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zipped_array = df.select(arrays_zip(df.si_no,df.name))
zipped_array.show(20,False)

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Result

zipped_array = df.select(arrays_zip(df.si_no,df.name))
zipped_array.show(20,False)

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You can also use arrays_zip with more than two arrays as input. For example:

from pyspark.sql.functions import arrays_zip


df = spark.createDataFrame([(([1, 2, 3], ['Sam John', 'Perter Walter', 'Johns Mike'],[23,43,41]))],
['si_no', 'name','age'])
zipped_array = df.select(arrays_zip(df.si_no,df.name,df.age))
zipped_array.show(20,False)

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Result

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|arrays_zip(si_no, name, age) |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|[[1, Sam John, 23], [2, Perter Walter, 43], [3, Johns Mike, 41]]|
+----------------------------------------------------------------

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