External user-defined scalar functions (UDFs)

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Applies to: check marked yes Databricks Runtime

User-defined scalar functions (UDFs) are user-programmable routines that act on one row. This documentation lists the classes that are required for creating and registering UDFs. It also contains examples that demonstrate how to define and register UDFs and invoke them in Spark SQL.

UserDefinedFunction class

To define the properties of a user-defined function, you can use some of the methods defined in this class.

  • asNonNullable(): UserDefinedFunction: Updates UserDefinedFunction to non-nullable.
  • asNondeterministic(): UserDefinedFunction: Updates UserDefinedFunction to nondeterministic.
  • withName(name: String): UserDefinedFunction: Updates UserDefinedFunction with a given name.

Examples

Scala

import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession
import org.apache.spark.sql.functions.udf

val spark = SparkSession
      .builder()
      .appName("Spark SQL UDF scalar example")
      .getOrCreate()

// Define and register a zero-argument non-deterministic UDF
// UDF is deterministic by default, i.e. produces the same result for the same input.
val random = udf(() => Math.random())
spark.udf.register("random", random.asNondeterministic())
spark.sql("SELECT random()").show()
// +-------+
// |UDF()  |
// +-------+
// |xxxxxxx|
// +-------+

// Define and register a one-argument UDF
val plusOne = udf((x: Int) => x + 1)
spark.udf.register("plusOne", plusOne)
spark.sql("SELECT plusOne(5)").show()
// +------+
// |UDF(5)|
// +------+
// |     6|
// +------+

// Define a two-argument UDF and register it with Spark in one step
spark.udf.register("strLenScala", (_: String).length + (_: Int))
spark.sql("SELECT strLenScala('test', 1)").show()
// +--------------------+
// |strLenScala(test, 1)|
// +--------------------+
// |                   5|
// +--------------------+

// UDF in a WHERE clause
spark.udf.register("oneArgFilter", (n: Int) => { n > 5 })
spark.range(1, 10).createOrReplaceTempView("test")
spark.sql("SELECT * FROM test WHERE oneArgFilter(id)").show()
// +---+
// | id|
// +---+
// |  6|
// |  7|
// |  8|
// |  9|
// +---+

Java

import org.apache.spark.sql.*;
import org.apache.spark.sql.api.java.UDF1;
import org.apache.spark.sql.expressions.UserDefinedFunction;
import static org.apache.spark.sql.functions.udf;
import org.apache.spark.sql.types.DataTypes;

SparkSession spark = SparkSession
      .builder()
      .appName("Java Spark SQL UDF scalar example")
      .getOrCreate();

// Define and register a zero-argument non-deterministic UDF
// UDF is deterministic by default, i.e. produces the same result for the same input.
UserDefinedFunction random = udf(
  () -> Math.random(), DataTypes.DoubleType
);
random.asNondeterministic();
spark.udf().register("random", random);
spark.sql("SELECT random()").show();
// +-------+
// |UDF()  |
// +-------+
// |xxxxxxx|
// +-------+

// Define and register a one-argument UDF
spark.udf().register("plusOne", new UDF1<Integer, Integer>() {
  @Override
  public Integer call(Integer x) {
    return x + 1;
  }
}, DataTypes.IntegerType);
spark.sql("SELECT plusOne(5)").show();
// +----------+
// |plusOne(5)|
// +----------+
// |         6|
// +----------+

// Define and register a two-argument UDF
UserDefinedFunction strLen = udf(
  (String s, Integer x) -> s.length() + x, DataTypes.IntegerType
);
spark.udf().register("strLen", strLen);
spark.sql("SELECT strLen('test', 1)").show();
// +------------+
// |UDF(test, 1)|
// +------------+
// |           5|
// +------------+

// UDF in a WHERE clause
spark.udf().register("oneArgFilter", new UDF1<Long, Boolean>() {
  @Override
  public Boolean call(Long x) {
    return  x > 5;
  }
}, DataTypes.BooleanType);
spark.range(1, 10).createOrReplaceTempView("test");
spark.sql("SELECT * FROM test WHERE oneArgFilter(id)").show();
// +---+
// | id|
// +---+
// |  6|
// |  7|
// |  8|
// |  9|
// +---+