PySpark - orderBy()

In this PySpark tutorial, we will discuss how to use orderBy() method to sort the entire pyspark DataFrame based on column/s.

Introduction:

DataFrame in PySpark is an two dimensional data structure that will store data in two dimensional format. One dimension refers to a row and second dimension refers to a column, So It will store the data in rows and columns.

Let's install pyspark module before going to this. The command to install any module in python is "pip".

Syntax:

pip install module_name

Installing PySpark:

pip install pyspark

Steps to create dataframe in PySpark:

1. Import the below modules

      import pyspark
      from pyspark.sql import SparkSession

2. Create spark app named tutorialsinhand using getOrCreate() method

     Syntax:

     spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('tutorialsinhand').getOrCreate()

3. Create list of values for dataframe

4. Pass this list to createDataFrame() method to create pyspark dataframe

    Syntax:
    spark.createDataFrame(list of values)

Let's create PySpark DataFrame with 5 rows and 3 columns.

# import the below modules
import pyspark
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession

# create an app
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('tutorialsinhand').getOrCreate()

#create a  list of data
values = [{'rollno': 1, 'student name': 'Gottumukkala Sravan','marks': 98},

        {'rollno': 2, 'student name': 'Gottumukkala Bobby','marks': 89},

        {'rollno': 3, 'student name': 'Lavu Ojaswi','marks': 90},

        {'rollno': 4, 'student name': 'Lavu Gnanesh','marks': 78},

        {'rollno': 5, 'student name': 'Chennupati Rohith','marks': 100}]


# create the dataframe from the values
data = spark.createDataFrame(values)


#display dataframe
data.show()

Output:

+-----+------+-------------------+
|marks|rollno|       student name|
+-----+------+-------------------+
|   98|     1|Gottumukkala Sravan|
|   89|     2| Gottumukkala Bobby|
|   90|     3|        Lavu Ojaswi|
|   78|     4|       Lavu Gnanesh|
|  100|     5|  Chennupati Rohith|
+-----+------+-------------------+

Scenario -1 : Specifying column name

Here, we are going to specify the column name inside orderBy() method and based on this column, the entire dataframe is sorted.

It will sort in ascending order.

Syntax:

dataframe.orderBy(column_name,.........)

we can also specify any number of columns.

Example:

In this example, we are going to sort the entire dataframe based on marks column.

# import the below modules
import pyspark
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession

# create an app
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('tutorialsinhand').getOrCreate()

#create a  list of data
values = [{'rollno': 1, 'student name': 'Gottumukkala Sravan','marks': 98},

        {'rollno': 2, 'student name': 'Gottumukkala Bobby','marks': 89},

        {'rollno': 3, 'student name': 'Lavu Ojaswi','marks': 90},

        {'rollno': 4, 'student name': 'Lavu Gnanesh','marks': 78},

        {'rollno': 5, 'student name': 'Chennupati Rohith','marks': 100}]


# create the dataframe from the values
data = spark.createDataFrame(values)


#sort by marks
data.orderBy('marks').show()

Output:

dataframe is sorted based on marks column.

+-----+------+-------------------+
|marks|rollno|       student name|
+-----+------+-------------------+
|   78|     4|       Lavu Gnanesh|
|   89|     2| Gottumukkala Bobby|
|   90|     3|        Lavu Ojaswi|
|   98|     1|Gottumukkala Sravan|
|  100|     5|  Chennupati Rohith|
+-----+------+-------------------+

Scenario -2 : Specifying column name with dataframe label

Here, we are going to specify the column name inside orderBy() method with dataframe label and based on this column/columns, the entire dataframe is sorted.

It will sort in ascending order.

Syntax:

dataframe.orderBy(dataframe.column_name,.........)

we can also specify any number of columns.

Example:

In this example, we are going to sort the entire dataframe based on rollno and  marks column.

# import the below modules
import pyspark
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession

# create an app
spark = SparkSession.builder.appName('tutorialsinhand').getOrCreate()

#create a  list of data
values = [{'rollno': 1, 'student name': 'Gottumukkala Sravan','marks': 98},

        {'rollno': 2, 'student name': 'Gottumukkala Bobby','marks': 89},

        {'rollno': 3, 'student name': 'Lavu Ojaswi','marks': 90},

        {'rollno': 4, 'student name': 'Lavu Gnanesh','marks': 78},

        {'rollno': 5, 'student name': 'Chennupati Rohith','marks': 100}]


# create the dataframe from the values
data = spark.createDataFrame(values)


#sort by rollno and marks
data.orderBy(data.rollno,data.marks).show()

Output:

dataframe is sorted based on rollno and marks column.

+-----+------+-------------------+
|marks|rollno|       student name|
+-----+------+-------------------+
|   98|     1|Gottumukkala Sravan|
|   89|     2| Gottumukkala Bobby|
|   90|     3|        Lavu Ojaswi|
|   78|     4|       Lavu Gnanesh|
|  100|     5|  Chennupati Rohith|
+-----+------+-------------------+