Column name cannot be resolved in SparkSQL join - pyspark

Question

I'm not sure why this is happening. In PySpark, I read in two dataframes and print out their column names and they are as expected, but then when do a SQL join I get an error that cannot resolve column name given the inputs. I have simplified the merge just to get it to work, but I will need to add in more join conditions which is why I'm using SQL (will be adding in: "and b.mnvr_bgn < a.idx_trip_id and b.mnvr_end > a.idx_trip_data"). It appears that the column 'device_id' is being renamed to '_col7' in the df mnvr_temp_idx_prev_temp
mnvr_temp_idx_prev = mnvr_3.select('device_id', 'mnvr_bgn', 'mnvr_end')
print mnvr_temp_idx_prev.columns
['device_id', 'mnvr_bgn', 'mnvr_end']
raw_data_filtered = raw_data.select('device_id', 'trip_id', 'idx').groupby('device_id', 'trip_id').agg(F.max('idx').alias('idx_trip_end'))
print raw_data_filtered.columns
['device_id', 'trip_id', 'idx_trip_end']
raw_data_filtered.registerTempTable('raw_data_filtered_temp')
mnvr_temp_idx_prev.registerTempTable('mnvr_temp_idx_prev_temp')
test = sqlContext.sql('SELECT a.device_id, a.idx_trip_end, b.mnvr_bgn, b.mnvr_end \
FROM raw_data_filtered_temp as a \
INNER JOIN mnvr_temp_idx_prev_temp as b \
ON a.device_id = b.device_id')
Traceback (most recent call last): AnalysisException: u"cannot resolve 'b.device_id' given input columns: [_col7, trip_id, device_id, mnvr_end, mnvr_bgn, idx_trip_end]; line 1 pos 237"
Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

I would recommend renaming the name of the field 'device_id' in at least one of the data frame. I modified your query just a bit and tested it(in scala). Below query works
test = sqlContext.sql("select * FROM raw_data_filtered_temp a INNER JOIN mnvr_temp_idx_prev_temp b ON a.device_id = b.device_id")
[device_id: string, mnvr_bgn: string, mnvr_end: string, device_id: string, trip_id: string, idx_trip_end: string]
Now if you are doing a 'select * ' in above statement, it will work. But if you try to select 'device_id', you will get an error "Reference 'device_id' is ambiguous" . As you can see in the above 'test' data frame definition, it has two fields with the same name(device_id). So to avoid this, I recommend changing field name in one of the dataframes.
mnvr_temp_idx_prev = mnvr_3.select('device_id', 'mnvr_bgn', 'mnvr_end')
.withColumnRenamned("device_id","device")
raw_data_filtered = raw_data.select('device_id', 'trip_id', 'idx').groupby('device_id', 'trip_id').agg(F.max('idx').alias('idx_trip_end'))
Now use dataframes or sqlContext
//using dataframes with multiple conditions
val test = mnvr_temp_idx_prev.join(raw_data_filtered,$"device" === $"device_id"
&& $"mnvr_bgn" < $"idx_trip_id","inner")
//in SQL Context
test = sqlContext.sql("select * FROM raw_data_filtered_temp a INNER JOIN mnvr_temp_idx_prev_temp b ON a.device_id = b.device and a. idx_trip_id < b.mnvr_bgn")
Above queries will work for your problem. And if your data set is too large, I would recommend to not use '>' or '<' operators in Join condition as it causes cross join which is a costly operation if data set is large. Instead use them in WHERE condition.