Apache spark dealing with case statements

These are few ways to write If-Else / When-Then-Else / When-Otherwise expression in pyspark.

Sample dataframe

df = spark.createDataFrame([(1,1),(2,2),(3,3)],['id','value'])

df.show()

#+---+-----+
#| id|value|
#+---+-----+
#|  1|    1|
#|  2|    2|
#|  3|    3|
#+---+-----+

#Desired Output:
#+---+-----+----------+
#| id|value|value_desc|
#+---+-----+----------+
#|  1|    1|       one|
#|  2|    2|       two|
#|  3|    3|     other|
#+---+-----+----------+

Option#1: withColumn() using when-otherwise

from pyspark.sql.functions import when

df.withColumn("value_desc",when(df.value == 1, 'one').when(df.value == 2, 'two').otherwise('other')).show()

Option#2: select() using when-otherwise

from pyspark.sql.functions import when

df.select("*",when(df.value == 1, 'one').when(df.value == 2, 'two').otherwise('other').alias('value_desc')).show()

Option3: selectExpr() using SQL equivalent CASE expression

df.selectExpr("*","CASE WHEN value == 1 THEN  'one' WHEN value == 2 THEN  'two' ELSE 'other' END AS value_desc").show()

SQL like expression can also be written in withColumn() and select() using pyspark.sql.functions.expr function. Here are examples.

Option4: select() using expr function

from pyspark.sql.functions import expr 

df.select("*",expr("CASE WHEN value == 1 THEN  'one' WHEN value == 2 THEN  'two' ELSE 'other' END AS value_desc")).show()

Option5: withColumn() using expr function

from pyspark.sql.functions import expr 

df.withColumn("value_desc",expr("CASE WHEN value == 1 THEN  'one' WHEN value == 2 THEN  'two' ELSE 'other' END AS value_desc")).show()

Output:

#+---+-----+----------+
#| id|value|value_desc|
#+---+-----+----------+
#|  1|    1|       one|
#|  2|    2|       two|
#|  3|    3|     other|
#+---+-----+----------+

Im not good in python. But will try to give some pointers of what I have done in scala.

Question : rdd.map and then do some logic checks. Is that the right approach?

Its one approach.

withColumn is another approach

DataFrame.withColumn method in pySpark supports adding a new column or replacing existing columns of the same name.

In this context you have to deal with Column via - spark udf or when otherwise syntax

for example :

from pyspark.sql import functions as F
df.select(df.name, F.when(df.age > 4, 1).when(df.age < 3, -1).otherwise(0)).show()


+-----+--------------------------------------------------------+
| name|CASE WHEN (age > 4) THEN 1 WHEN (age < 3) THEN -1 ELSE 0|
+-----+--------------------------------------------------------+
|Alice|                                                      -1|
|  Bob|                                                       1|
+-----+--------------------------------------------------------+


from pyspark.sql import functions as F
df.select(df.name, F.when(df.age > 3, 1).otherwise(0)).show()

+-----+---------------------------------+
| name|CASE WHEN (age > 3) THEN 1 ELSE 0|
+-----+---------------------------------+
|Alice|                                0|
|  Bob|                                1|
+-----+---------------------------------+

you can use udf instead of when otherwise as well.