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Understand Apache Spark code for U-SQL developers

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Important

Azure Data Lake Analytics retired on 29 February 2024. Learn more with this announcement.

For data analytics, your organization can use Azure Synapse Analytics or Microsoft Fabric.

This section provides high-level guidance on transforming U-SQL Scripts to Apache Spark.

Understand the U-SQL and Spark language and processing paradigms

Before you start migrating Azure Data Lake Analytics' U-SQL scripts to Spark, it's useful to understand the general language and processing philosophies of the two systems.

U-SQL is a SQL-like declarative query language that uses a data-flow paradigm and allows you to easily embed and scale out user-code written in .NET (for example C#), Python, and R. The user-extensions can implement simple expressions or user-defined functions, but can also provide the user the ability to implement so called user-defined operators that implement custom operators to perform rowset level transformations, extractions and writing output.

Spark is a scale-out framework offering several language bindings in Scala, Java, Python, .NET etc. where you primarily write your code in one of these languages, create data abstractions called resilient distributed datasets (RDD), dataframes, and datasets and then use a LINQ-like domain-specific language (DSL) to transform them. It also provides SparkSQL as a declarative sublanguage on the dataframe and dataset abstractions. The DSL provides two categories of operations, transformations and actions. Applying transformations to the data abstractions won't execute the transformation but instead build-up the execution plan that will be submitted for evaluation with an action (for example, writing the result into a temporary table or file, or printing the result).

Thus when translating a U-SQL script to a Spark program, you'll have to decide which language you want to use to at least generate the data frame abstraction (which is currently the most frequently used data abstraction) and whether you want to write the declarative dataflow transformations using the DSL or SparkSQL. In some more complex cases, you might need to split your U-SQL script into a sequence of Spark and other steps implemented with Azure Batch or Azure Functions.

Furthermore, Azure Data Lake Analytics offers U-SQL in a serverless job service environment where resources are allocated for each job, while Azure Synapse Spark, Azure Databricks and Azure HDInsight offer Spark either in form of a cluster service or with so-called Spark pool templates. When transforming your application, you'll have to take into account the implications of now creating, sizing, scaling, and decommissioning the clusters or pools.

Transform U-SQL scripts

U-SQL scripts follow the following processing pattern:

  1. Data gets read from either unstructured files, using the EXTRACT statement, a location or file set specification, and the built-in or user-defined extractor and desired schema, or from U-SQL tables (managed or external tables). It's represented as a rowset.
  2. The rowsets get transformed in multiple U-SQL statements that apply U-SQL expressions to the rowsets and produce new rowsets.
  3. Finally, the resulting rowsets are output into either files using the OUTPUT statement that specifies the location(s) and a built-in or user-defined outputter, or into a U-SQL table.

The script is evaluated lazily, meaning that each extraction and transformation step is composed into an expression tree and globally evaluated (the dataflow).

Spark programs are similar in that you would use Spark connectors to read the data and create the dataframes, then apply the transformations on the dataframes using either the LINQ-like DSL or SparkSQL, and then write the result into files, temporary Spark tables, some programming language types, or the console.

Transform .NET code

U-SQL's expression language is C# and it offers various ways to scale out custom .NET code with user-defined functions, user-defined operators and user-defined aggregators.

Azure Synapse and Azure HDInsight Spark both now natively support executing .NET code with .NET for Apache Spark. This means that you can potentially reuse some or all of your .NET user-defined functions with Spark. Note though that U-SQL uses the .NET Framework while .NET for Apache Spark is based on .NET Core 3.1 or later.

U-SQL user-defined operators (UDOs) are using the U-SQL UDO model to provide scaled-out execution of the operator's code. Thus, UDOs will have to be rewritten into user-defined functions to fit into the Spark execution model.

.NET for Apache Spark currently doesn't support user-defined aggregators. Thus, U-SQL user-defined aggregators will have to be translated into Spark user-defined aggregators written in Scala.

If you don't want to take advantage of the .NET for Apache Spark capabilities, you'll have to rewrite your expressions into an equivalent Spark, Scala, Java, or Python expression, function, aggregator or connector.

In any case, if you have a large amount of .NET logic in your U-SQL scripts, please contact us through your Microsoft Account representative for further guidance.

The following details are for the different cases of .NET and C# usages in U-SQL scripts.

Transform scalar inline U-SQL C# expressions

U-SQL's expression language is C#. Many of the scalar inline U-SQL expressions are implemented natively for improved performance, while more complex expressions could be executed through calling into the .NET framework.

Spark has its own scalar expression language (either as part of the DSL or in SparkSQL) and allows calling into user-defined functions written for the JVM, .NET or Python runtime.

If you have scalar expressions in U-SQL, you should first find the most appropriate natively understood Spark scalar expression to get the most performance, and then map the other expressions into a user-defined function of the Spark runtime language of your choice.

Be aware that .NET and C# have different type semantics than the JVM and Python runtimes and Spark's DSL. See below for more details on the type system differences.

Transform user-defined scalar .NET functions and user-defined aggregators

U-SQL provides ways to call arbitrary scalar .NET functions and to call user-defined aggregators written in .NET.

Spark also offers support for user-defined functions and user-defined aggregators written in most of its hosting languages that can be called from Spark's DSL and SparkSQL.

As mentioned above, .NET for Apache Spark supports user-defined functions written in .NET, but doesn't support user-defined aggregators. So for user-defined functions, .NET for Apache Spark can be used, while user-defined aggregators have to be authored in Scala for Spark.

Transform user-defined operators (UDOs)

U-SQL provides several categories of user-defined operators (UDOs) such as extractors, outputters, reducers, processors, appliers, and combiners that can be written in .NET (and - to some extent - in Python and R).

Spark doesn't offer the same extensibility model for operators, but has equivalent capabilities for some.

The Spark equivalent to extractors and outputters is Spark connectors. For many U-SQL extractors, you may find an equivalent connector in the Spark community. For others, you'll have to write a custom connector. If the U-SQL extractor is complex and makes use of several .NET libraries, it may be preferable to build a connector in Scala that uses interop to call into the .NET library that does the actual processing of the data. In that case, you'll have to deploy the .NET Core runtime to the Spark cluster and make sure that the referenced .NET libraries are .NET Standard 2.0 compliant.

The other types of U-SQL UDOs will need to be rewritten using user-defined functions and aggregators and the semantically appropriate Spark DLS or SparkSQL expression. For example, a processor can be mapped to a SELECT of various UDF invocations, packaged as a function that takes a dataframe as an argument and returns a dataframe.

Transform U-SQL's optional libraries

U-SQL provides a set of optional and demo libraries that offer Python, R, JSON, XML, AVRO support, and some Azure AI services capabilities.

Spark offers its own Python and R integration, pySpark and SparkR respectively, and provides connectors to read and write JSON, XML, and AVRO.

If you need to transform a script referencing the Azure AI services libraries, we recommend contacting us via your Microsoft Account representative.

Transform typed values

Because U-SQL's type system is based on the .NET type system and Spark has its own type system that is impacted by the host language binding you'll have to make sure that the types you're operating on are close and for certain types, the type ranges, precision and/or scale may be slightly different. Furthermore, U-SQL and Spark treat null values differently.

Data types

The following table gives the equivalent types in Spark, Scala, and PySpark for the given U-SQL types.

U-SQL Spark Scala PySpark
byte
sbyte ByteType Byte ByteType
int IntegerType Int IntegerType
uint
long LongType Long LongType
ulong
float FloatType Float FloatType
double DoubleType Double DoubleType
decimal DecimalType java.math.BigDecimal DecimalType
short ShortType Short ShortType
ushort
char Char
string StringType String StringType
DateTime DateType, TimestampType java.sql.Date, java.sql.Timestamp DateType, TimestampType
bool BooleanType Boolean BooleanType
Guid
byte[] BinaryType Array[Byte] BinaryType
SQL.MAP<K,V> MapType(keyType, valueType, valueContainsNull) scala.collection.Map MapType(keyType, valueType, valueContainsNull=True)
SQL.ARRAY<T> ArrayType(elementType, containsNull) scala.collection.Seq ArrayType(elementType, containsNull=True)

For more information, see:

Treatment of NULL

In Spark, types per default allow NULL values while in U-SQL, you explicitly mark scalar, non-object as nullable. While Spark allows you to define a column as not nullable, it will not enforce the constraint and may lead to wrong result.

In Spark, NULL indicates that the value is unknown. A Spark NULL value is different from any value, including itself. Comparisons between two Spark NULL values, or between a NULL value and any other value, return unknown because the value of each NULL is unknown.

This behavior is different from U-SQL, which follows C# semantics where null is different from any value but equal to itself.

Thus a SparkSQL SELECT statement that uses WHERE column_name = NULL returns zero rows even if there are NULL values in column_name, while in U-SQL, it would return the rows where column_name is set to null. Similarly, A Spark SELECT statement that uses WHERE column_name != NULL returns zero rows even if there are non-null values in column_name, while in U-SQL, it would return the rows that have non-null. Thus, if you want the U-SQL null-check semantics, you should use isnull and isnotnull respectively (or their DSL equivalent).

Transform U-SQL catalog objects

One major difference is that U-SQL Scripts can make use of its catalog objects, many of which have no direct Spark equivalent.

Spark does provide support for the Hive Meta store concepts, mainly databases, tables and views, so you can map U-SQL databases and schemas to Hive databases, and U-SQL tables to Spark tables (see Moving data stored in U-SQL tables), but it has no support for table-valued functions (TVFs), stored procedures, U-SQL assemblies, external data sources etc.

The U-SQL code objects such as views, TVFs, stored procedures, and assemblies can be modeled through code functions and libraries in Spark and referenced using the host language's function and procedural abstraction mechanisms (for example, through importing Python modules or referencing Scala functions).

If the U-SQL catalog has been used to share data and code objects across projects and teams, then equivalent mechanisms for sharing have to be used (for example, Maven for sharing code objects).

Transform U-SQL rowset expressions and SQL-based scalar expressions

U-SQL's core language is transforming rowsets and is based on SQL. The following is a nonexhaustive list of the most common rowset expressions offered in U-SQL:

  • SELECT/FROM/WHERE/GROUP BY+Aggregates+HAVING/ORDER BY+FETCH

  • INNER/OUTER/CROSS/SEMI JOIN expressions

  • CROSS/OUTER APPLY expressions

  • PIVOT/UNPIVOT expressions

  • VALUES rowset constructor

  • Set expressions UNION/OUTER UNION/INTERSECT/EXCEPT

In addition, U-SQL provides various SQL-based scalar expressions such as

  • OVER windowing expressions
  • various built-in aggregators and ranking functions (SUM, FIRST etc.)
  • Some of the most familiar SQL scalar expressions: CASE, LIKE, (NOT) IN, AND, OR etc.

Spark offers equivalent expressions in both its DSL and SparkSQL form for most of these expressions. Some of the expressions not supported natively in Spark will have to be rewritten using a combination of the native Spark expressions and semantically equivalent patterns. For example, OUTER UNION will have to be translated into the equivalent combination of projections and unions.

Due to the different handling of NULL values, a U-SQL join will always match a row if both of the columns being compared contain a NULL value, while a join in Spark won't match such columns unless explicit null checks are added.

Transform other U-SQL concepts

U-SQL also offers various other features and concepts, such as federated queries against SQL Server databases, parameters, scalar, and lambda expression variables, system variables, OPTION hints.

Federated Queries against SQL Server databases/external tables

U-SQL provides data source and external tables as well as direct queries against Azure SQL Database. While Spark doesn't offer the same object abstractions, it provides Spark connector for Azure SQL Database that can be used to query SQL databases.

U-SQL parameters and variables

Parameters and user variables have equivalent concepts in Spark and their hosting languages.

For example in Scala, you can define a variable with the var keyword:

var x = 2 * 3;
println(x)

U-SQL's system variables (variables starting with @@) can be split into two categories:

  • Settable system variables that can be set to specific values to impact the scripts behavior
  • Informational system variables that inquire system and job level information

Most of the settable system variables have no direct equivalent in Spark. Some of the informational system variables can be modeled by passing the information as arguments during job execution, others may have an equivalent function in Spark's hosting language.

U-SQL hints

U-SQL offers several syntactic ways to provide hints to the query optimizer and execution engine:

  • Setting a U-SQL system variable
  • an OPTION clause associated with the rowset expression to provide a data or plan hint
  • a join hint in the syntax of the join expression (for example, BROADCASTLEFT)

Spark's cost-based query optimizer has its own capabilities to provide hints and tune the query performance. Refer to the corresponding documentation.

Next steps