array_except

Returns a new array containing the elements present in col1 but not in col2, without duplicates.

Syntax

from pyspark.sql import functions as sf

sf.array_except(col1, col2)

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
col1	pyspark.sql.Column or str	Name of column containing the first array.
col2	pyspark.sql.Column or str	Name of column containing the second array.

Returns

pyspark.sql.Column: A new array containing the elements present in col1 but not in col2.

Examples

Example 1: Basic usage

from pyspark.sql import Row, functions as sf
df = spark.createDataFrame([Row(c1=["b", "a", "c"], c2=["c", "d", "a", "f"])])
df.select(sf.array_except(df.c1, df.c2)).show()

+--------------------+
|array_except(c1, c2)|
+--------------------+
|                 [b]|
+--------------------+

Example 2: Except with no common elements

from pyspark.sql import Row, functions as sf
df = spark.createDataFrame([Row(c1=["b", "a", "c"], c2=["d", "e", "f"])])
df.select(sf.sort_array(sf.array_except(df.c1, df.c2))).show()

+--------------------------------------+
|sort_array(array_except(c1, c2), true)|
+--------------------------------------+
|                             [a, b, c]|
+--------------------------------------+

Example 3: Except with all common elements

from pyspark.sql import Row, functions as sf
df = spark.createDataFrame([Row(c1=["a", "b", "c"], c2=["a", "b", "c"])])
df.select(sf.array_except(df.c1, df.c2)).show()

+--------------------+
|array_except(c1, c2)|
+--------------------+
|                  []|
+--------------------+

Example 4: Except with null values

from pyspark.sql import Row, functions as sf
df = spark.createDataFrame([Row(c1=["a", "b", None], c2=["a", None, "c"])])
df.select(sf.array_except(df.c1, df.c2)).show()

+--------------------+
|array_except(c1, c2)|
+--------------------+
|                 [b]|
+--------------------+

Example 5: Except with empty arrays

from pyspark.sql import Row, functions as sf
from pyspark.sql.types import ArrayType, StringType, StructField, StructType
data = [Row(c1=[], c2=["a", "b", "c"])]
schema = StructType([
  StructField("c1", ArrayType(StringType()), True),
  StructField("c2", ArrayType(StringType()), True)
])
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, schema)
df.select(sf.array_except(df.c1, df.c2)).show()

+--------------------+
|array_except(c1, c2)|
+--------------------+
|                  []|
+--------------------+