How to resolve the AnalysisException: resolved attribute(s) in Spark

Question

val rdd = sc.parallelize(Seq(("vskp", Array(2.0, 1.0, 2.1, 5.4)),("hyd",Array(1.5, 0.5, 0.9, 3.7)),("hyd", Array(1.5, 0.5, 0.9, 3.2)),("tvm", Array(8.0, 2.9, 9.1, 2.5))))
val df1= rdd.toDF("id", "vals")
val rdd1 = sc.parallelize(Seq(("vskp","ap"),("hyd","tel"),("bglr","kkt")))
val df2 = rdd1.toDF("id", "state")
val df3 = df1.join(df2,df1("id")===df2("id"),"left")

The join operation works fine but when I reuse the df2 I am facing unresolved attributes error

val rdd2 = sc.parallelize(Seq(("vskp", "Y"),("hyd", "N"),("hyd", "N"),("tvm", "Y")))
val df4 = rdd2.toDF("id","existance")
val df5 = df4.join(df2,df4("id")===df2("id"),"left")

ERROR: org.apache.spark.sql.AnalysisException: resolved attribute(s)id#426

Answer 1

As mentioned in my comment, it is related to https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SPARK-10925 and, more specifically https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SPARK-14948. Reuse of the reference will create ambiguity in naming, so you will have to clone the df - see the last comment in https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SPARK-14948 for an example.

Answer 2

If you have df1, and df2 derived from df1, try renaming all columns in df2 such that no two columns have identical name after join. So before the join:

so instead of df1.join(df2...

do

# Step 1 rename shared column names in df2.
df2_renamed = df2.withColumnRenamed('columna', 'column_a_renamed').withColumnRenamed('columnb', 'column_b_renamed')

# Step 2 do the join on the renamed df2 such that no two columns have same name.
df1.join(df2_renamed)

Answer 3

This issue really killed a lot of my time and I finally got an easy solution for it.

In PySpark, for the problematic column, say colA, we could simply use

import pyspark.sql.functions as F

df = df.select(F.col("colA").alias("colA"))

prior to using df in the join.

I think this should work for Scala/Java Spark too.

Answer 4

just rename your columns and put the same name. in pyspark:

for i in df.columns:
    df = df.withColumnRenamed(i,i)

Answer 5

In my case this error appeared during self join of same table. I was facing the below issue with Spark SQL and not the dataframe API:

org.apache.spark.sql.AnalysisException: Resolved attribute(s) originator#3084,program_duration#3086,originator_locale#3085 missing from program_duration#1525,guid#400,originator_locale#1524,EFFECTIVE_DATETIME_UTC#3157L,device_timezone#2366,content_rpd_id#734L,originator_sublocale#2355,program_air_datetime_utc#3155L,originator#1523,master_campaign#735,device_provider_id#2352 in operator !Deduplicate [guid#400, program_duration#3086, device_timezone#2366, originator_locale#3085, originator_sublocale#2355, master_campaign#735, EFFECTIVE_DATETIME_UTC#3157L, device_provider_id#2352, originator#3084, program_air_datetime_utc#3155L, content_rpd_id#734L]. Attribute(s) with the same name appear in the operation: originator,program_duration,originator_locale. Please check if the right attribute(s) are used.;;

Earlier I was using below query,

    SELECT * FROM DataTable as aext
             INNER JOIN AnotherDataTable LAO 
ON aext.device_provider_id = LAO.device_provider_id 

Selecting only required columns before joining solved the issue for me.

      SELECT * FROM (
    select distinct EFFECTIVE_DATE,system,mso_Name,EFFECTIVE_DATETIME_UTC,content_rpd_id,device_provider_id 
from DataTable 
) as aext
         INNER JOIN AnotherDataTable LAO ON aext.device_provider_id = LAO.device_provider_id 

Answer 6

I got the same issue when trying to use one DataFrame in two consecutive joins.

Here is the problem: DataFrame A has 2 columns (let's call them x and y) and DataFrame B has 2 columns as well (let's call them w and z). I need to join A with B on x=z and then join them together on y=z.

(A join B on A.x=B.z) as C join B on C.y=B.z

I was getting the exact error that in the second join it was complaining "resolved attribute(s) B.z#1234 ...".

Following the links @Erik provided and some other blogs and questions, I gathered I need a clone of B.

Here is what I did:

val aDF = ...
val bDF = ...
val bCloned = spark.createDataFrame(bDF.rdd, bDF.schema)
aDF.join(bDF, aDF("x") === bDF("z")).join(bCloned, aDF("y") === bCloned("z"))

Answer 7

@Json_Chans answer is pretty good because it does not require any resource intensive operation. Anyhow, when dealing with huge amounts of columns you need some generic function to handle that stuff on the fly and not code hundreds of columns manually.

Luckily, you can derive that function from the Dataframe itself so that you do not need any additional code except of a one-liner (at least in Python respectively pySpark):

import pyspark.sql.functions as f

df # Some Dataframe you have the "resolve(d) attribute(s)" error with

df = df.select([ f.col( column_name ).alias( column_name) for column_name in df.columns])

Since the correct string representation of a column is still stored in the columns-attribute of the Dataframe(df.columns: list), you can just reset it with itself - That's done with the .alias() (note: This still results in a new Dataframe since Dataframes are immutable, meaning they cannot be changed).

Answer 8

For java developpers, try to call this method:

private static Dataset<Row> cloneDataset(Dataset<Row> ds) {
    List<Column> filterColumns = new ArrayList<>();
    List<String> filterColumnsNames = new ArrayList<>();
    scala.collection.Iterator<StructField> it = ds.exprEnc().schema().toIterator();
    while (it.hasNext()) {
        String columnName = it.next().name();
        filterColumns.add(ds.col(columnName));
        filterColumnsNames.add(columnName);
    }
    ds = ds.select(JavaConversions.asScalaBuffer(filterColumns).seq()).toDF(scala.collection.JavaConverters.asScalaIteratorConverter(filterColumnsNames.iterator()).asScala().toSeq());
    return ds;
}

on both datasets just before the joining, it clone the datasets into new ones:

df1 = cloneDataset(df1); 
df2 = cloneDataset(df2);
Dataset<Row> join = df1.join(df2, col("column_name"));
// if it didn't work try this
final Dataset<Row> join = cloneDataset(df1.join(df2, columns_seq)); 

Answer 9

It will work if you do the below.

suppose you have a dataframe. df1 and if you want to cross join the same dataframe, you can use the below

df1.toDF("ColA","ColB").as("f_df").join(df1.toDF("ColA","ColB").as("t_df"), 
   $"f_df.pcmdty_id" === 
   $"t_df.assctd_pcmdty_id").select($"f_df.pcmdty_id",$"f_df.assctd_pcmdty_id")

Answer 10

From my experience, we have 2 solutions 1) clone DF 2) rename columns that have ambiguity before joining tables. (don't forget to drop duplicated join key)

Personally I prefer the second method, because cloning DF in the first method takes time, especially if data size is big.

Answer 11

[TLDR]

Break the AttributeReference shared between columns in parent DataFrame and derived DataFrame by writing the intermediate DataFrame to file system and reading it again.

Ex:

val df1 = spark.read.parquet("file1")
df1.createOrReplaceTempView("df1")
val df2 = spark.read.parquet("file2")
df2.createOrReplaceTempView("df2")

val df12 = spark.sql("""SELECT * FROM df1 as d1 JOIN df2 as d2 ON d1.a = d2.b""")
df12.createOrReplaceTempView("df12")

val df12_ = spark.sql(""" -- some transformation -- """)
df12_.createOrReplaceTempView("df12_")

val df3 = spark.read.parquet("file3")
df3.createOrReplaceTempView("df3")

val df123 = spark.sql("""SELECT * FROM df12_ as d12_ JOIN df3 as d3 ON d12_.a = d3.c""")
df123.createOrReplaceTempView("df123")

Now joining with top level DataFrame will lead to "unresolved attribute error"

val df1231 = spark.sql("""SELECT * FROM df123 as d123 JOIN df1 as d1 ON d123.a = d1.a""") 

Solution: d123.a and d1.a share same AttributeReference break it by writing intermediate table df123 to file system and reading again. now df123write.a and d1.a does not share AttributeReference

val df123 = spark.sql("""SELECT * FROM df12 as d12 JOIN df3 as d3 ON d12.a = d3.c""")
df123.createOrReplaceTempView("df123")

df123.write.parquet("df123.par")
val df123write = spark.read.parquet("df123.par")
spark.catalog.dropTempView("df123")
df123write.createOrReplaceTempView("df123")

val df1231 = spark.sql("""SELECT * FROM df123 as d123 JOIN df1 as d1 ON d123.a = d1.a""") 

Long story:

We had complex ETLs with transformation and self joins of DataFrames, performed at multiple levels. We faced "unresolved attribute" error frequently and we solved it by selecting required attribute and performing join on the top level table instead of directly joining with the top level table this solved the issue temporarily but when we applied some more transformation on these DataFrame and joined with any top level DataFrames, "unresolved attribute" error raised its ugly head again.

This was happening because DataFrames in bottom level were sharing the same AttributeReference with top level DataFrames from which they were derived [more details]

So we broke this reference sharing by writing just 1 intermediate transformed DataFrame and reading it again and continuing with our ETL. This broke sharing AttributeReference between bottom DataFrames and Top DataFrames and we never again faced "unresolved attribute" error.

This worked for us because as we moved from top level DataFrame to bottom performing transformation and join our data shrank than initial DataFrames that we started, it also improved our performance as data size was less and spark didn't have to traverse back the DAG all the way to the last persisted DataFrame.

Answer 12

Thanks to Tomer's Answer

For scala - The issue came up when I tried to use the column in the self-join clause, to fix it use the method

// To `and` all the column conditions
def andAll(cols: Iterable[Column]): Column =
   if (cols.isEmpty) lit(true)
   else cols.tail.foldLeft(cols.head) { case (soFar, curr) => soFar.and(curr) }

// To perform join different col name
def renameColAndJoin(leftDf: DataFrame, joinCols: Seq[String], joinType: String = "inner")(rightDf: DataFrame): DataFrame = {

   val renamedCols: Seq[String]          = joinCols.map(colName => s"${colName}_renamed")
   val zippedCols: Seq[(String, String)] = joinCols.zip(renamedCols)

   val renamedRightDf: DataFrame = zippedCols.foldLeft(rightDf) {
     case (df, (origColName, renamedColName)) => df.withColumnRenamed(origColName, renamedColName)
   }

   val joinExpr: Column = andAll(zippedCols.map {
     case (origCol, renamedCol) => renamedRightDf(renamedCol).equalTo(rightDf(origCol))
   })

   leftDf.join(renamedRightDf, joinExpr, joinType)

}

Answer 13

In my case, Checkpointing the original dataframe fixed the issue.