Spark

Apache Spark stands for 'Lightning-Fast Cluster Computing'.

Map-Reduce runs 100x faster on Spark than on Hadoop. The main data object of Spark 2.x is the dataset (DataFrame in Spark 1.x). The dataset is the Spark analog to the table of a relational database. The dataset is stored in the memory of the Spark cluster, so all operations on it are in-memory.

Difference to analytical databases

Analytical databases such as Netezza or Exasol persist the data and load it transparently for the user into memory. Spark is purely memory-based. If partial results, such as loaded or cleaned data, are to be persisted, this must be done explicitly with Hadoop / Spark. In a direct comparison of the performance of comparable servers, the analytical databases may be faster, but this point fades into the background, because the Hadoop / Spark cluster due to the lack of license costs much more hardware is available.

Programming languages

The following programming languages ​​are ideal for working with the Spark framework:

• Scala
• python
• Java
• R

Creating a DataSet in Scala:

// Register the DataFrame as a global temporary view
df.createGlobalTempView("people")

// Global temporary view is tied to a system preserved database `global_temp`
spark.sql("SELECT * FROM global_temp.people").show()
// +----+-------+
// | age|   name|
// +----+-------+
// |null|Michael|
// |  30|   Andy|
// |  19| Justin|
// +----+-------+

// Global temporary view is cross-session
spark.newSession().sql("SELECT * FROM global_temp.people").show()
// +----+-------+
// | age|   name|
// +----+-------+
// |null|Michael|
// |  30|   Andy|
// |  19| Justin|
// +----+-------+

Creation of a Dataset in Java:

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.io.Serializable;

import org.apache.spark.api.java.function.MapFunction;
import org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset;
import org.apache.spark.sql.Row;
import org.apache.spark.sql.Encoder;
import org.apache.spark.sql.Encoders;

public static class Person implements Serializable {
  private String name;
  private int age;

  public String getName() {
    return name;
  }

  public void setName(String name) {
    this.name = name;
  }

  public int getAge() {
    return age;
  }

  public void setAge(int age) {
    this.age = age;
  }
}

// Create an instance of a Bean class
Person person = new Person();
person.setName("Andy");
person.setAge(32);

// Encoders are created for Java beans
Encoder<Person> personEncoder = Encoders.bean(Person.class);
Dataset<Person> javaBeanDS = spark.createDataset(
  Collections.singletonList(person),
  personEncoder
);
javaBeanDS.show();
// +---+----+
// |age|name|
// +---+----+
// | 32|Andy|
// +---+----+

// Encoders for most common types are provided in class Encoders
Encoder<Integer> integerEncoder = Encoders.INT();
Dataset<Integer> primitiveDS = spark.createDataset(Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3), integerEncoder);
Dataset<Integer> transformedDS = primitiveDS.map(
    (MapFunction<Integer, Integer>) value -> value + 1,
    integerEncoder);
transformedDS.collect(); // Returns [2, 3, 4]

// DataFrames can be converted to a Dataset by providing a class. Mapping based on name
String path = "examples/src/main/resources/people.json";
Dataset<Person> peopleDS = spark.read().json(path).as(personEncoder);
peopleDS.show();
// +----+-------+
// | age|   name|
// +----+-------+
// |null|Michael|
// |  30|   Andy|
// |  19| Justin|
// +----+-------+