SparkSession — The Entry Point to Spark SQL

SparkSession is the entry point to Spark SQL. It is one of the very first objects you create while developing a Spark SQL application.

As a Spark developer, you create a SparkSession using the SparkSession.builder method (that gives you access to Builder API that you use to configure the session).

import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession
val spark = SparkSession.builder
  .appName("My Spark Application")  // optional and will be autogenerated if not specified
  .master("local[*]")               // only for demo and testing purposes, use spark-submit instead
  .enableHiveSupport()              // self-explanatory, isn't it?
  .config("spark.sql.warehouse.dir", "target/spark-warehouse")
  .withExtensions { extensions =>
    extensions.injectResolutionRule { session =>
      ...
    }
    extensions.injectOptimizerRule { session =>
      ...
    }
  }
  .getOrCreate

Once created, SparkSession allows for creating a DataFrame (based on an RDD or a Scala Seq), creating a Dataset, accessing the Spark SQL services (e.g. ExperimentalMethods, ExecutionListenerManager, UDFRegistration), executing a SQL query, loading a table and the last but not least accessing DataFrameReader interface to load a dataset of the format of your choice (to some extent).

You can enable Apache Hive support with support for an external Hive metastore.

Note

spark object in spark-shell (the instance of SparkSession that is auto-created) has Hive support enabled.

In order to disable the pre-configured Hive support in the spark object, use spark.sql.catalogImplementation internal configuration property with in-memory value (that uses InMemoryCatalog external catalog instead).

$ spark-shell --conf spark.sql.catalogImplementation=in-memory

You can have as many SparkSessions as you want in a single Spark application. The common use case is to keep relational entities separate logically in catalogs per SparkSession.

In the end, you stop a SparkSession using SparkSession.stop method.

spark.stop

Table 1. SparkSession API (Object and Instance Methods)
Method	Description
`active`	`active: SparkSession` (New in 2.4.0)
builder	`builder(): Builder` Object method to create a Builder to get the current `SparkSession` instance or create a new one.
catalog	`catalog: Catalog` Access to the current metadata catalog of relational entities, e.g. database(s), tables, functions, table columns, and temporary views.
clearActiveSession	`clearActiveSession(): Unit` Object method
clearDefaultSession	`clearDefaultSession(): Unit` Object method
close	`close(): Unit`
conf	`conf: RuntimeConfig` Access to the current runtime configuration
createDataFrame	`createDataFrame(rdd: RDD[_], beanClass: Class[_]): DataFrame createDataFrame(rowRDD: RDD[Row], schema: StructType): DataFrame createDataFrame[A <: Product : TypeTag](rdd: RDD[A]): DataFrame createDataFrame[A <: Product : TypeTag](data: Seq[A]): DataFrame`
createDataset	`createDataset[T : Encoder](data: RDD[T]): Dataset[T] createDataset[T : Encoder](data: Seq[T]): Dataset[T]`
emptyDataFrame	`emptyDataFrame: DataFrame`
emptyDataset	`emptyDataset[T: Encoder]: Dataset[T]`
experimental	`experimental: ExperimentalMethods` Access to the current ExperimentalMethods
getActiveSession	`getActiveSession: Option[SparkSession]` Object method
getDefaultSession	`getDefaultSession: Option[SparkSession]` Object method
implicits	`import spark.implicits._` Implicits conversions
listenerManager	`listenerManager: ExecutionListenerManager` Access to the current ExecutionListenerManager
newSession	`newSession(): SparkSession` Creates a new `SparkSession`
range	`range(end: Long): Dataset[java.lang.Long] range(start: Long, end: Long): Dataset[java.lang.Long] range(start: Long, end: Long, step: Long): Dataset[java.lang.Long] range(start: Long, end: Long, step: Long, numPartitions: Int): Dataset[java.lang.Long]` Creates a `Dataset[java.lang.Long]`
read	`read: DataFrameReader` Access to the current DataFrameReader to load data from external data sources
sessionState	`sessionState: SessionState` Access to the current SessionState Internally, `sessionState` clones the optional parent SessionState (if given when creating the SparkSession) or creates a new SessionState using BaseSessionStateBuilder as defined by spark.sql.catalogImplementation configuration property: in-memory (default) for org.apache.spark.sql.internal.SessionStateBuilder hive for org.apache.spark.sql.hive.HiveSessionStateBuilder
setActiveSession	`setActiveSession(session: SparkSession): Unit` Object method
setDefaultSession	`setDefaultSession(session: SparkSession): Unit` Object method
sharedState	`sharedState: SharedState` Access to the current SharedState
sparkContext	`sparkContext: SparkContext` Access to the underlying `SparkContext`
sql	`sql(sqlText: String): DataFrame` "Executes" a SQL query
`sessionState`	`sessionState: SessionState` SessionState
`sqlContext`	`sqlContext: SQLContext` Access to the underlying SQLContext
stop	`stop(): Unit` Stops the associated SparkContext
table	`table(tableName: String): DataFrame` Loads data from a table
time	`time[T](f: => T): T` Executes a code block and prints out (to standard output) the time taken to execute it
udf	`udf: UDFRegistration` Access to the current UDFRegistration
version	`version: String` Returns the version of Apache Spark

Note	baseRelationToDataFrame acts as a mechanism to plug `BaseRelation` object hierarchy in into LogicalPlan object hierarchy that `SparkSession` uses to bridge them.

Creating SparkSession Using Builder Pattern — `builder` Object Method

builder(): Builder

builder creates a new Builder that you use to build a fully-configured SparkSession using a fluent API.

import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession
val builder = SparkSession.builder

Tip	Read about Fluent interface design pattern in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Accessing Version of Spark — `version` Method

version: String

version returns the version of Apache Spark in use.

Internally, version uses spark.SPARK_VERSION value that is the version property in spark-version-info.properties properties file on CLASSPATH.

Creating Empty Dataset (Given Encoder) — `emptyDataset` Operator

emptyDataset[T: Encoder]: Dataset[T]

emptyDataset creates an empty Dataset (assuming that future records being of type T).

scala> val strings = spark.emptyDataset[String]
strings: org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset[String] = [value: string]

scala> strings.printSchema
root
 |-- value: string (nullable = true)

emptyDataset creates a LocalRelation logical query plan.

Creating Dataset from Local Collections or RDDs — `createDataset` Methods

createDataset[T : Encoder](data: RDD[T]): Dataset[T]
createDataset[T : Encoder](data: Seq[T]): Dataset[T]

createDataset creates a Dataset from a local Scala collection, i.e. Seq[T], Java’s List[T], or a distributed RDD[T].

scala> val one = spark.createDataset(Seq(1))
one: org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset[Int] = [value: int]

scala> one.show
+-----+
|value|
+-----+
|    1|
+-----+

createDataset creates a LocalRelation (for the input data collection) or LogicalRDD (for the input RDD[T]) logical operators.

Tip	You may want to consider implicits object and `toDS` method instead. `val spark: SparkSession = ... import spark.implicits._ scala> val one = Seq(1).toDS one: org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset[Int] = [value: int]`

Internally, createDataset first looks up the implicit expression encoder in scope to access the AttributeReferences (of the schema).

Note	Only unresolved expression encoders are currently supported.

The expression encoder is then used to map elements (of the input Seq[T]) into a collection of InternalRows. With the references and rows, createDataset returns a Dataset with a LocalRelation logical query plan.

Creating Dataset With Single Long Column — `range` Operator

range(end: Long): Dataset[java.lang.Long]
range(start: Long, end: Long): Dataset[java.lang.Long]
range(start: Long, end: Long, step: Long): Dataset[java.lang.Long]
range(start: Long, end: Long, step: Long, numPartitions: Int): Dataset[java.lang.Long]

range family of methods create a Dataset of Long numbers.

scala> spark.range(start = 0, end = 4, step = 2, numPartitions = 5).show
+---+
| id|
+---+
|  0|
|  2|
+---+

Note	The three first variants (that do not specify `numPartitions` explicitly) use SparkContext.defaultParallelism for the number of partitions `numPartitions`.

Internally, range creates a new Dataset[Long] with Range logical plan and Encoders.LONG encoder.

Creating Empty DataFrame — `emptyDataFrame` method

emptyDataFrame: DataFrame

emptyDataFrame creates an empty DataFrame (with no rows and columns).

It calls createDataFrame with an empty RDD[Row] and an empty schema StructType(Nil).

Creating DataFrames from Local Collections or RDDs — `createDataFrame` Method

createDataFrame(rdd: RDD[_], beanClass: Class[_]): DataFrame
createDataFrame(rowRDD: RDD[Row], schema: StructType): DataFrame
createDataFrame[A <: Product : TypeTag](rdd: RDD[A]): DataFrame
createDataFrame[A <: Product : TypeTag](data: Seq[A]): DataFrame
// private[sql]
createDataFrame(rowRDD: RDD[Row], schema: StructType, needsConversion: Boolean): DataFrame

createDataFrame creates a DataFrame using RDD[Row] and the input schema. It is assumed that the rows in rowRDD all match the schema.

Caution

FIXME

Executing SQL Queries (aka SQL Mode) — `sql` Method

sql(sqlText: String): DataFrame

sql executes the sqlText SQL statement and creates a DataFrame.

Note	`sql` is imported in spark-shell so you can execute SQL statements as if `sql` were a part of the environment. `scala> :imports 1) import spark.implicits._ (72 terms, 43 are implicit) 2) import spark.sql (1 terms)`

scala> sql("SHOW TABLES")
res0: org.apache.spark.sql.DataFrame = [tableName: string, isTemporary: boolean]

scala> sql("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS testData")
res1: org.apache.spark.sql.DataFrame = []

// Let's create a table to SHOW it
spark.range(10).write.option("path", "/tmp/test").saveAsTable("testData")

scala> sql("SHOW TABLES").show
+---------+-----------+
|tableName|isTemporary|
+---------+-----------+
| testdata|      false|
+---------+-----------+

Internally, sql requests the current ParserInterface to execute a SQL query that gives a LogicalPlan.

Note	`sql` uses `SessionState` to access the current `ParserInterface`.

sql then creates a DataFrame using the current SparkSession (itself) and the LogicalPlan.

Tip	spark-sql is the main SQL environment in Spark to work with pure SQL statements (where you do not have to use Scala to execute them). `spark-sql> show databases; default Time taken: 0.028 seconds, Fetched 1 row(s)`

Accessing UDFRegistration — `udf` Attribute

udf: UDFRegistration

udf attribute gives access to UDFRegistration that allows registering user-defined functions for SQL-based queries.

val spark: SparkSession = ...
spark.udf.register("myUpper", (s: String) => s.toUpperCase)

val strs = ('a' to 'c').map(_.toString).toDS
strs.registerTempTable("strs")

scala> sql("SELECT *, myUpper(value) UPPER FROM strs").show
+-----+-----+
|value|UPPER|
+-----+-----+
|    a|    A|
|    b|    B|
|    c|    C|
+-----+-----+

Internally, it is simply an alias for SessionState.udfRegistration.

Loading Data From Table — `table` Method

table(tableName: String): DataFrame (1)
// private[sql]
table(tableIdent: TableIdentifier): DataFrame

Parses tableName to a TableIdentifier and calls the other table

table creates a DataFrame (wrapper) from the input tableName table (but only if available in the session catalog).

scala> spark.catalog.tableExists("t1")
res1: Boolean = true

// t1 exists in the catalog
// let's load it
val t1 = spark.table("t1")

Accessing Metastore — `catalog` Attribute

catalog: Catalog

catalog attribute is a (lazy) interface to the current metastore, i.e. data catalog (of relational entities like databases, tables, functions, table columns, and views).

Tip	All methods in `Catalog` return `Datasets`.

scala> spark.catalog.listTables.show
+------------------+--------+-----------+---------+-----------+
|              name|database|description|tableType|isTemporary|
+------------------+--------+-----------+---------+-----------+
|my_permanent_table| default|       null|  MANAGED|      false|
|              strs|    null|       null|TEMPORARY|       true|
+------------------+--------+-----------+---------+-----------+

Internally, catalog creates a CatalogImpl (that uses the current SparkSession).

Accessing DataFrameReader — `read` method

read: DataFrameReader

read method returns a DataFrameReader that is used to read data from external storage systems and load it into a DataFrame.

val spark: SparkSession = // create instance
val dfReader: DataFrameReader = spark.read

Getting Runtime Configuration — `conf` Attribute

conf: RuntimeConfig

conf returns the current RuntimeConfig.

Internally, conf creates a RuntimeConfig (when requested the very first time and cached afterwards) with the SQLConf of the SessionState.

`readStream` method

readStream: DataStreamReader

readStream returns a new DataStreamReader.

`streams` Attribute

streams: StreamingQueryManager

streams attribute gives access to StreamingQueryManager (through SessionState).

val spark: SparkSession = ...
spark.streams.active.foreach(println)

`experimentalMethods` Attribute

experimental: ExperimentalMethods

experimentalMethods is an extension point with ExperimentalMethods that is a per-session collection of extra strategies and Rule[LogicalPlan]s.

Note	`experimental` is used in SparkPlanner and SparkOptimizer. Hive and Structured Streaming use it for their own extra strategies and optimization rules.

Creating SparkSession Instance — `newSession` method

newSession(): SparkSession

newSession creates (starts) a new SparkSession (with the current SparkContext and SharedState).

scala> val newSession = spark.newSession
newSession: org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession = org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession@122f58a

Stopping SparkSession — `stop` Method

stop(): Unit

stop stops the SparkSession, i.e. stops the underlying SparkContext.

Create DataFrame for BaseRelation — `baseRelationToDataFrame` Method

baseRelationToDataFrame(
  baseRelation: BaseRelation): DataFrame

Internally, baseRelationToDataFrame creates a DataFrame from the input BaseRelation wrapped inside LogicalRelation.

Note	LogicalRelation is an logical plan adapter for `BaseRelation` (so `BaseRelation` can be part of a logical plan).

Note

baseRelationToDataFrame is used when:

DataFrameReader loads data from a data source that supports multiple paths
DataFrameReader loads data from an external table using JDBC
TextInputCSVDataSource creates a base Dataset (of Strings)
TextInputJsonDataSource creates a base Dataset (of Strings)

Creating SessionState Instance — `instantiateSessionState` Internal Method

instantiateSessionState(className: String, sparkSession: SparkSession): SessionState

instantiateSessionState finds the className that is then used to create and build a BaseSessionStateBuilder.

instantiateSessionState may report an IllegalArgumentException while instantiating the class of a SessionState:

Error while instantiating '[className]'

Note	`instantiateSessionState` is used exclusively when `SparkSession` is requested for SessionState per spark.sql.catalogImplementation configuration property (and one is not available yet).

`sessionStateClassName` Internal Method

sessionStateClassName(
  conf: SparkConf): String

sessionStateClassName gives the name of the class of the SessionState per spark.sql.catalogImplementation, i.e.

org.apache.spark.sql.hive.HiveSessionStateBuilder for hive
org.apache.spark.sql.internal.SessionStateBuilder for in-memory

Note	`sessionStateClassName` is used exclusively when `SparkSession` is requested for the SessionState (and one is not available yet).

Creating DataFrame From RDD Of Internal Binary Rows and Schema — `internalCreateDataFrame` Internal Method

internalCreateDataFrame(
  catalystRows: RDD[InternalRow],
  schema: StructType,
  isStreaming: Boolean = false): DataFrame

internalCreateDataFrame creates a DataFrame with a LogicalRDD.

Note	`internalCreateDataFrame` is used when: `DataFrameReader` is requested to create a DataFrame from Dataset of JSONs or CSVs `SparkSession` is requested to create a DataFrame from RDD of rows `InsertIntoDataSourceCommand` logical command is executed

Creating SparkSession Instance

SparkSession takes the following when created:

Spark Core’s SparkContext
Optional SharedState
Optional SessionState
SparkSessionExtensions

`clearActiveSession` Object Method

clearActiveSession(): Unit

clearActiveSession…FIXME

`clearDefaultSession` Object Method

clearDefaultSession(): Unit

clearDefaultSession…FIXME

Accessing ExperimentalMethods — `experimental` Method

experimental: ExperimentalMethods

experimental…FIXME

`getActiveSession` Object Method

getActiveSession: Option[SparkSession]

getActiveSession…FIXME

`getDefaultSession` Object Method

getDefaultSession: Option[SparkSession]

getDefaultSession…FIXME

Accessing ExecutionListenerManager — `listenerManager` Method

listenerManager: ExecutionListenerManager

listenerManager…FIXME

`setActiveSession` Object Method

setActiveSession(session: SparkSession): Unit

setActiveSession…FIXME

`setDefaultSession` Object Method

setDefaultSession(session: SparkSession): Unit

setDefaultSession…FIXME

Accessing SharedState — `sharedState` Method

sharedState: SharedState

sharedState…FIXME

Measuring Duration of Executing Code Block — `time` Method

time[T](f: => T): T

time…FIXME

SparkSession — The Entry Point to Spark SQL