Explode multiple columns of same type with different lengths

user_3799296 0
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I have a spark data frame with the following format that needs to be exploded. I check other solutions such as this one. However, in my case, before and after can be arrays of different length. 

root
 |-- id: string (nullable = true)
 |-- before: array (nullable = true)
 |    |-- element: struct (containsNull = true)
 |    |    |-- start_time: string (nullable = true)
 |    |    |-- end_time: string (nullable = true)
 |    |    |-- area: string (nullable = true)
 |-- after: array (nullable = true)
 |    |-- element: struct (containsNull = true)
 |    |    |-- start_time: string (nullable = true)
 |    |    |-- end_time: string (nullable = true)
 |    |    |-- area: string (nullable = true)

For instance, if the data frame has just one row, before is a array of size 2 and after is an array of size 3, the exploded version should be have 5 rows with the following schema:

root
 |-- id: string (nullable = true)
 |-- type: string (nullable = true)
 |-- start_time: integer (nullable = false)
 |-- end_time: string (nullable = true)
 |-- area: string (nullable = true)

where type is a new column which can be "before" or "after".

I can do thss in two separate explodes where I make type column in each explode and union then. 

val dfSummary1 = df.withColumn("before_exp", 
explode($"before")).withColumn("type", 
lit("before")).withColumn(
"start_time", $"before_exp.start_time").withColumn(
"end_time", $"before_exp.end_time").withColumn(
"area", $"before_exp.area").drop("before_exp", "before")

val dfSummary2 = df.withColumn("after_exp", 
explode($"after")).withColumn("type", 
lit("after")).withColumn(
"start_time", $"after_exp.start_time").withColumn(
"end_time", $"after_exp.end_time").withColumn(
"area", $"after_exp.area").drop("after_exp", "after")

val dfResult = dfSumamry1.unionAll(dfSummary2)

But, I was wondering if there is a more elegant way to do this. Thanks.

apache-spark-sql apache-spark explode scala
2 Answers

You can also achieve this without union. With the data : 

case class Area(start_time: String, end_time: String, area: String)

val df = Seq((
  "1", Seq(Area("01:00", "01:30", "10"), Area("02:00", "02:30", "20")),
  Seq(Area("07:00", "07:30", "70"), Area("08:00", "08:30", "80"), Area("09:00", "09:30", "90"))
)).toDF("id", "before", "after")

you can do

df
  .select($"id",
    explode(
      array(
        struct(lit("before").as("type"), $"before".as("data")),
        struct(lit("after").as("type"), $"after".as("data"))
      )
    ).as("step1")
  )
 .select($"id",$"step1.type", explode($"step1.data").as("step2"))
 .select($"id",$"type", $"step2.*")
 .show()

+---+------+----------+--------+----+
| id|  type|start_time|end_time|area|
+---+------+----------+--------+----+
|  1|before|     01:00|   01:30|  10|
|  1|before|     02:00|   02:30|  20|
|  1| after|     07:00|   07:30|  70|
|  1| after|     08:00|   08:30|  80|
|  1| after|     09:00|   09:30|  90|
+---+------+----------+--------+----+
user_11385230

I think exploding the two columns separately followed by a union is a decent straightforward approach. You could simplify the StructField-element selection a little and create a simple method for the repetitive explode process, like below:

import org.apache.spark.sql.functions._
import org.apache.spark.sql.DataFrame

case class Area(start_time: String, end_time: String, area: String)

val df = Seq((
  "1", Seq(Area("01:00", "01:30", "10"), Area("02:00", "02:30", "20")),
  Seq(Area("07:00", "07:30", "70"), Area("08:00", "08:30", "80"), Area("09:00", "09:30", "90"))
)).toDF("id", "before", "after")

def explodeCol(df: DataFrame, colName: String): DataFrame = {
  val expColName = colName + "_exp"
  df.
    withColumn("type", lit(colName)).
    withColumn(expColName, explode(col(colName))).
    select("id", "type", expColName + ".*")
}

val dfResult = explodeCol(df, "before") union explodeCol(df, "after")

dfResult.show
// +---+------+----------+--------+----+
// | id|  type|start_time|end_time|area|
// +---+------+----------+--------+----+
// |  1|before|     01:00|   01:30|  10|
// |  1|before|     02:00|   02:30|  20|
// |  1| after|     07:00|   07:30|  70|
// |  1| after|     08:00|   08:30|  80|
// |  1| after|     09:00|   09:30|  90|
// +---+------+----------+--------+----+
user_63165080
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