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Connect Soda to Apache Spark

Last modified on 31-May-23

For Soda to run quality scans of your data, you must configure it to connect to your data source.

  • For Soda Core, add the connection configurations to your configuration.yml file. Read more.
  • For Soda Cloud, add the connection configurations to step 3 of the New Data Source workflow. Read more.

Spark packages
Connect to Spark DataFrames
Use Soda Core with Spark DataFrames on Databricks
Connect to Spark for Hive
Connect to Spark for ODBC
Connect to Spark for Databricks SQL
Test the data source connection
Supported data types

Spark packages

There are several Soda Core install packages for Spark.

Package Description
soda-core-spark-df Enables you to pass dataframe objects into Soda scans programatically, after you have associated the temporary tables to DataFrames via the Spark API.
- For use with programmatic Soda scans, only.
- Supports Delta Lake Tables on Databricks.
- Use for Spark DataFrames on Databricks.
soda-core-spark[hive] A package you add to soda-core-spark-df if you are using Apache Hive.
soda-core-spark[odbc] A package you add to soda-core-spark-df if you are using ODBC.
soda-core-spark[databricks] A package you use to install Soda Core for Databricks SQL on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform.
soda-core-spark A work-in-progress, this package will connect to Soda Core much the same as other data sources, via connection details in a configuration YAML.

Connect to Spark DataFrames

  • For use with programmatic Soda scans, only.
  • Unlike other data sources, Soda Core for SparkDf does not require a configuration YAML file to run scans against Spark DataFrames.

A Spark cluster contains a distributed collection of data. Spark DataFrames are distributed collections of data that are organized into named columns, much like a table in a database, and which are stored in-memory in a cluster.

To make a DataFrame available to Soda Core to run scans against, you must use a driver program like PySpark and the Spark API to link DataFrames to individual, named, temporary tables in the cluster. You pass this information into a Soda scan programatically. You can also pass Soda Cloud connection details programmatically; see Connect Soda Core for SparkDF to Soda Cloud. Refer to the soda-core repo in GitHub for details.

  1. If you are not installing Soda Core Spark DataFrames on a cluster, skip to step 2. To install Soda Core Spark DataFrames on a cluster, such as a Kubernetes cluster or a Databricks cluster, install libsasl2-dev before installing soda-core-spark-df. For Ubuntu users, install libsasl2-dev using the following command: 
    sh sudo apt-get -y install unixodbc-dev libsasl2-dev gcc python-dev
  2. If you are not using Spark with Hive or ODBC, skip to step 3. Otherwise, install the separate dependencies as needed, and configure connection details for each dependency; see below.
    • for Hive, use: pip install soda-core-spark[hive] and configure
    • for ODBC, use: pip install soda-core-spark[odbc] and configure
  3. Confirm that you have completed the following.
    • installed soda-core-spark-df
    • set up a a Spark session 
      spark_session: SparkSession = ...user-defined-way-to-create-the-spark-session...
    • confirmed that your Spark cluster contains one or more DataFrames 
      df = ...user-defined-way-to-build-the-dataframe...
  4. Use the Spark API to link the name of a temporary table to a DataFrame. In this example, the name of the table is customers. 
    db.createOrReplaceTempView('customers')
  5. Use the Spark API to link a DataFrame to the name of each temporary table against which you wish to run Soda scans. Refer to PySpark documentation.
  6. Define a programmatic scan for the data in the DataFrames, and include one extra method to pass all the DataFrames to Soda Core: add_spark_session(self, spark_session, data_source_name: str). The default value for data_source_name is "spark_df". Refer to the example below.
spark_session = ...your_spark_session...
df1.createOrReplaceTempView("TABLE_ONE")
df2.createOrReplaceTempView("TABLE_TWO")
...

scan = Scan()
scan.set_scan_definition_name('YOUR_SCHEDULE_NAME')
scan.set_data_source_name("spark_df")
scan.add_configuration_yaml_file(file_path="somedirectory/your_configuration.yml")
scan.add_spark_session(spark_session)
... all other scan methods in the standard programmatic scan ...


Use Soda Core with Spark DataFrames on Databricks

Use the soda-core-spark-df package to connect to Databricks using a Notebook.

  1. Follow steps 1-2 in the instructions to install soda-core-spark-df.
  2. Reference the following Notebook example to connect to Databricks.
# import Scan from Soda Core
from soda.scan import Scan
# Create a Spark DataFrame, or use the Spark API to read data and create a DataFrame
df = spark.createDataFrame([(1, "a"), (2, "b")], ("id", "name"))
# Create a view that SodaCL uses as a dataset
df.createOrReplaceTempView("my_df")
# Create a Scan object, set a scan definition, and attach a Spark session
scan = Scan()
scan.set_scan_definition_name("test")
scan.set_data_source_name("spark_df")
scan.add_spark_session(spark)
# Define checks for datasets 
checks  ="""
checks for my_df:
  - row_count > 0 
"""
# If you defined checks in a file accessible via Spark, you can use the scan.add_sodacl_yaml_file method to retrieve the checks
scan.add_sodacl_yaml_str(checks)
# Optionally, add a configuration file with Soda Cloud credentials 
# config = """
# soda_cloud:
#   api_key_id: xyz
#   api_key_secret: xyz
# """
# scan.add_configuration_yaml_str(config)

# Execute a scan
scan.execute()
# Check the Scan object for methods to inspect the scan result; the following prints all logs to console
print(scan.get_logs_text())


Connect to Spark for Hive

An addition to soda-core-spark-df, install and configure this package if you use Apache Hive.

data_source my_datasource_name:
  type: spark
  username: 
  password: 
  host: 
  port: 
  database: 
  auth_method:
Property Required
type required
username required
password required
host required
port required
database required
auth_method required


Connect to Spark for ODBC

An addition to soda-core-spark-df, install and configure this package if you use ODBC.

data_source my_datasource_name:
  type: spark
  driver: 
  host: 
  port: 
  token: 
  organization: 
  cluster:
  server_side_parameters:
Property Required
type required
driver required
host required
port required
token required
organization required
cluster required
server_side_parameters required


Connect to Spark for Databricks SQL

  1. Install soda-core-spark[databricks] to connect to Databricks SQL.
    Refer to Install Soda Core for details.
  2. If you have not done so already, install databricks-sql-connector. Refer to Databricks documentation for details.
  3. Configure the data source connection in your configuration.yml file as per the following example.
data_source my_datasource_name:
  type: spark
  catalog: samples
  schema: nyctaxi
  method: databricks
  host: hostname_from_Databricks_SQL_settings
  http_path: http_path_from_Databricks_SQL_settings
  token: my_access_token
Property Required
type required
catalog required
schema required
method required
host required
token required


Test the data source connection

To confirm that you have correctly configured the connection details for the data source(s) in your configuration YAML file, use the test-connection command. If you wish, add a -V option to the command to returns results in verbose mode in the CLI.

soda test-connection -d my_datasource -c configuration.yml -V

Supported data types

Category Data type
text CHAR, VARCHAR, TEXT
number BIG INT, NUMERIC, BIT, SMALLINT, DECIMAL, SMALLMONEY, INT, TINYINT, MONEY, FLOAT, REAL
time DATE, TIME, DATETIME, DATETIMEOFFSET



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Last modified on 31-May-23