How to add a constant column in a PySpark DataFrame?

How to add a constant column in a PySpark DataFrame?

Adding a constant column to a PySpark DataFrame is quite straightforward. You can achieve this by using the lit function from the pyspark.sql.functions module, which is used to create a column expression with a constant value.

Here��s a step-by-step guide to add a constant column to a PySpark DataFrame:

Step 1: Import Necessary Libraries

First, make sure you have PySpark installed. If not, you can install it via pip:

pip install pyspark 

Then, import the necessary modules in your Python script:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession from pyspark.sql.functions import lit 

Step 2: Initialize Spark Session

Create a Spark session, which is the entry point to using PySpark:

spark = SparkSession.builder \ .appName("AddConstantColumn") \ .getOrCreate() 

Step 3: Create a DataFrame

Let��s assume you already have a DataFrame. If not, you can create one for demonstration:

data = [("John", 28), ("Jane", 25), ("Mike", 23)] df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Name", "Age"]) df.show() 

Step 4: Add a Constant Column

Use the lit function to add a new column with a constant value:

constant_value = 1 # Example constant value df = df.withColumn("NewConstantColumn", lit(constant_value)) df.show() 

This will add a new column named "NewConstantColumn" with the constant value 1 to your DataFrame.

Full Example Code

Here��s the full example code put together:

from pyspark.sql import SparkSession from pyspark.sql.functions import lit # Initialize Spark Session spark = SparkSession.builder \ .appName("AddConstantColumn") \ .getOrCreate() # Sample DataFrame data = [("John", 28), ("Jane", 25), ("Mike", 23)] df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ["Name", "Age"]) # Show initial DataFrame print("Initial DataFrame:") df.show() # Add a constant column constant_value = 1 df = df.withColumn("NewConstantColumn", lit(constant_value)) # Show DataFrame with new constant column print("DataFrame with Constant Column:") df.show() # Stop the SparkSession spark.stop() 

Notes

  • The lit function is versatile and can be used to add columns with various data types (string, integer, boolean, etc.).
  • Remember to stop the SparkSession (spark.stop()) at the end of your script to release resources.
  • PySpark DataFrames are immutable. When you use withColumn, it returns a new DataFrame with the added column, and the original DataFrame remains unchanged.

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