How to Calculate Lifetime Week Totals with Spark SQL Distinct Count Over Window Function

Описание: Discover how to calculate lifetime week totals in Spark SQL using window functions without running into the distinct count limitation.
---
This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/66872857/ asked by the user 'fallen' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/4219671/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/66873604/ provided by the user 'Gordon Linoff' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/1144035/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

Visit these links for original content and any more details, such as alternate solutions, latest updates/developments on topic, comments, revision history etc. For example, the original title of the Question was: Spark sql distinct count over window function

Also, Content (except music) licensed under CC BY-SA https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/l...
The original Question post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license, and the original Answer post is licensed under the 'CC BY-SA 4.0' ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... ) license.

If anything seems off to you, please feel free to write me at vlogize [AT] gmail [DOT] com.
---
Understanding the Challenge of Calculating Lifetime Week Totals in Spark SQL

When working with large datasets in Spark SQL, it's common to need insights about distinct counts across certain partitions. A typical scenario involves calculating lifetime totals based on unique counts within a specified timeframe. In this guide, we'll delve into an example that illustrates this challenge: how to compute lifetime week totals for each record without hitting the constraints of using distinct counts within window functions.

The Problem Setup

Imagine you have a dataset that looks like this:

idsome_datedaysweeks11111111111111111111111112021-03-012111111111111111111111111112021-03-018211111111111111111111111112021-03-019211111111111111111111111112021-03-0122411111111111111111111111112021-03-01244Your goal is to compute the "lifetime_weeks" column for each row based on the weeks counted so far. Here's what the output should look like:

idsome_datedaysweekslifetime_weeks11111111111111111111111112021-03-0121111111111111111111111111112021-03-0182211111111111111111111111112021-03-0192211111111111111111111111112021-03-01224311111111111111111111111112021-03-012443As you can see, while you can easily group by weeks, creating proper distinct counts within a window function presents a challenge. If you tried to use COUNT(distinct id), it would result in an error, making the task seemingly impossible.

The Solution

Fortunately, there’s a way to achieve your goal without running into limitations. Let’s break it down into clear steps using SQL syntax.

Step 1: Identify Unique Week Occurrences

To tackle this problem, we first need to assign a unique sequence number for the first occurrence of each week. This is accomplished with the row_number() function. Here’s the SQL snippet that accomplishes this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In this query, we partition by both id and weeks, while ordering by days. The result will give us a unique number for each entry within its specific week.

Step 2: Calculate the Unique Week Totals

Next, to compute the cumulative unique weeks total (lifetime_weeks), we can apply a cumulative sum on the first occurrence tag:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

In this full query:

The nested SELECT statement generates the seqnum for each row.

The outer SELECT statement sums up how many times the first occurrence (when seqnum is equal to 1) appears as we calculate it cumulatively.

This way, we effectively achieve a "lifetime" count of weeks without needing to use distinct counts directly within a window function.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while it can seem challenging to perform distinct counts across window functions in Spark SQL, the above approach facilitates this process. By using the ROW_NUMBER() function and cumulative sums, we achieve the desired lifetime_weeks totals in an efficient manner. This method not only sidesteps the distinct count limitation but also remains compliant with SQL standards.

If you ever face similar challenges, remember to break them down into manageable steps and utilize window functions creatively! Happy querying!