In Spark-Scala, how to copy Array of Lists into DataFrame? - scala

Question

I am familiar with Python and I am learning Spark-Scala.
I want to build a DataFrame which has structure desribed by this syntax:
// Prepare training data from a list of (label, features) tuples.
val training = spark.createDataFrame(Seq(
(1.1, Vectors.dense(1.1, 0.1)),
(0.2, Vectors.dense(1.0, -1.0)),
(3.0, Vectors.dense(1.3, 1.0)),
(1.0, Vectors.dense(1.2, -0.5))
)).toDF("label", "features")
I got the above syntax from this URL:
http://spark.apache.org/docs/latest/ml-pipeline.html
Currently my data is in array which I had pulled out of a DF:
val my_a = gspc17_df.collect().map{row => Seq(row(2),Vectors.dense(row(3).asInstanceOf[Double],row(4).asInstanceOf[Double]))}
The structure of my array is very similar to the above DF:
my_a: Array[Seq[Any]] =
Array(
List(-1.4830674013266898, [-0.004192832940431825,-0.003170667657263393]),
List(-0.05876766500768526, [-0.008462913654529357,-0.006880595828929472]),
List(1.0109273250546658, [-3.1816797620416693E-4,-0.006502619326182358]))
How to copy data from my array into a DataFrame which has the above structure?
I tried this syntax:
val my_df = spark.createDataFrame(my_a).toDF("label","features")
Spark barked at me:
<console>:105: error: inferred type arguments [Seq[Any]] do not conform to method createDataFrame's type parameter bounds [A <: Product]
val my_df = spark.createDataFrame(my_a).toDF("label","features")
^
<console>:105: error: type mismatch;
found : scala.collection.mutable.WrappedArray[Seq[Any]]
required: Seq[A]
val my_df = spark.createDataFrame(my_a).toDF("label","features")
^
scala>

Answer 1

The first problem here is that you use List to store row data. List is a homogeneous data structure and since the only common type for Any (row(2)) and DenseVector is Any (Object) you end up with a Seq[Any].
The next issue is that you use row(2) at all. Since Row is effectively a collection of Any this operation doesn't return any useful type and result couldn't be stored in a DataFrame without providing an explicit Encoder.
From the more Sparkish perspective it is not the good approach neither. collect-int just to transform data shouldn't require any comment and. mapping over Rows just to create Vectors doesn't make much sense either.
Assuming that there is no type mismatch you can use VectorAssembler:
import org.apache.spark.ml.feature.VectorAssembler
val assembler = new VectorAssembler()
.setInputCols(Array(df.columns(3), df.columns(4)))
.setOutputCol("features")
assembler.transform(df).select(df.columns(2), "features")
or if you really want to handle this manually an UDF.
val toVec = udf((x: Double, y: Double) => Vectors.dense(x, y))
df.select(col(df.columns(2)), toVec(col(df.columns(3)), col(df.columns(4))))
In general I would strongly recommend getting familiar with Scala before you start using it with Spark.