How to store custom objects in Dataset?

Question

According to Introducing Spark Datasets:

As we look forward to Spark 2.0, we plan some exciting improvements to Datasets, specifically: ... Custom

Answer 1

Encoders work more or less the same in Spark2.0. And Kryo is still the recommended serialization choice.

You can look at following example with spark-shell

scala> import spark.implicits._
import spark.implicits._

scala> import org.apache.spark.sql.Encoders
import org.apache.spark.sql.Encoders

scala> case class NormalPerson(name: String, age: Int) {
 |   def aboutMe = s"I am ${name}. I am ${age} years old."
 | }
defined class NormalPerson

scala> case class ReversePerson(name: Int, age: String) {
 |   def aboutMe = s"I am ${name}. I am ${age} years old."
 | }
defined class ReversePerson

scala> val normalPersons = Seq(
 |   NormalPerson("Superman", 25),
 |   NormalPerson("Spiderman", 17),
 |   NormalPerson("Ironman", 29)
 | )
normalPersons: Seq[NormalPerson] = List(NormalPerson(Superman,25), NormalPerson(Spiderman,17), NormalPerson(Ironman,29))

scala> val ds1 = sc.parallelize(normalPersons).toDS
ds1: org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset[NormalPerson] = [name: string, age: int]

scala> val ds2 = ds1.map(np => ReversePerson(np.age, np.name))
ds2: org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset[ReversePerson] = [name: int, age: string]

scala> ds1.show()
+---------+---+
|     name|age|
+---------+---+
| Superman| 25|
|Spiderman| 17|
|  Ironman| 29|
+---------+---+

scala> ds2.show()
+----+---------+
|name|      age|
+----+---------+
|  25| Superman|
|  17|Spiderman|
|  29|  Ironman|
+----+---------+

scala> ds1.foreach(p => println(p.aboutMe))
I am Ironman. I am 29 years old.
I am Superman. I am 25 years old.
I am Spiderman. I am 17 years old.

scala> val ds2 = ds1.map(np => ReversePerson(np.age, np.name))
ds2: org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset[ReversePerson] = [name: int, age: string]

scala> ds2.foreach(p => println(p.aboutMe))
I am 17. I am Spiderman years old.
I am 25. I am Superman years old.
I am 29. I am Ironman years old.

Till now] there were no appropriate encoders in present scope so our persons were not encoded as binary values. But that will change once we provide some implicit encoders using Kryo serialization.

// Provide Encoders

scala> implicit val normalPersonKryoEncoder = Encoders.kryo[NormalPerson]
normalPersonKryoEncoder: org.apache.spark.sql.Encoder[NormalPerson] = class[value[0]: binary]

scala> implicit val reversePersonKryoEncoder = Encoders.kryo[ReversePerson]
reversePersonKryoEncoder: org.apache.spark.sql.Encoder[ReversePerson] = class[value[0]: binary]

// Ecoders will be used since they are now present in Scope

scala> val ds3 = sc.parallelize(normalPersons).toDS
ds3: org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset[NormalPerson] = [value: binary]

scala> val ds4 = ds3.map(np => ReversePerson(np.age, np.name))
ds4: org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset[ReversePerson] = [value: binary]

// now all our persons show up as binary values
scala> ds3.show()
+--------------------+
|               value|
+--------------------+
|[01 00 24 6C 69 6...|
|[01 00 24 6C 69 6...|
|[01 00 24 6C 69 6...|
+--------------------+

scala> ds4.show()
+--------------------+
|               value|
+--------------------+
|[01 00 24 6C 69 6...|
|[01 00 24 6C 69 6...|
|[01 00 24 6C 69 6...|
+--------------------+

// Our instances still work as expected    

scala> ds3.foreach(p => println(p.aboutMe))
I am Ironman. I am 29 years old.
I am Spiderman. I am 17 years old.
I am Superman. I am 25 years old.

scala> ds4.foreach(p => println(p.aboutMe))
I am 25. I am Superman years old.
I am 29. I am Ironman years old.
I am 17. I am Spiderman years old.