variant_explode_outer

Separates a variant object/array into multiple rows containing its fields/elements. Its result schema is struct<pos int, key string, value variant>. pos is the position of the field/element in its parent object/array, and value is the field/element value. key is the field name when exploding a variant object, or is NULL when exploding a variant array. Unlike variant_explode, if the given variant is not a variant array/object, including SQL NULL, variant null, and any other variant values, then NULL is produced.

Syntax

spark.tvf.variant_explode_outer(input)

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
input	pyspark.sql.Column	Input column of values to explode.

Examples

Example 1: Using variant_explode_outer with a variant array

from pyspark.sql import functions as sf
spark.tvf.variant_explode_outer(sf.parse_json(sf.lit('["hello", "world"]'))).show()

+---+----+-------+
|pos| key|  value|
+---+----+-------+
|  0|NULL|"hello"|
|  1|NULL|"world"|
+---+----+-------+

Example 2: Using variant_explode_outer with an empty variant array

from pyspark.sql import functions as sf
spark.tvf.variant_explode_outer(sf.parse_json(sf.lit('[]'))).show()

+----+----+-----+
| pos| key|value|
+----+----+-----+
|NULL|NULL| NULL|
+----+----+-----+

Example 3: Using variant_explode_outer with a variant object

from pyspark.sql import functions as sf
spark.tvf.variant_explode_outer(sf.parse_json(sf.lit('{"a": true, "b": 3.14}'))).show()

+---+---+-----+
|pos|key|value|
+---+---+-----+
|  0|  a| true|
|  1|  b| 3.14|
+---+---+-----+

Example 4: Using variant_explode_outer with an empty variant object

from pyspark.sql import functions as sf
spark.tvf.variant_explode_outer(sf.parse_json(sf.lit('{}'))).show()

+----+----+-----+
| pos| key|value|
+----+----+-----+
|NULL|NULL| NULL|
+----+----+-----+