Since sparklyr.flint, a sparklyr extension for leveraging Flint time sequence functionalities by means of sparklyr, was launched in September, we now have made quite a lot of enhancements to it, and have efficiently submitted sparklyr.flint 0.2 to CRAN.

On this weblog submit, we spotlight the next new options and enhancements from sparklyr.flint 0.2:

ASOF Joins

For these unfamiliar with the time period, ASOF joins are temporal be a part of operations primarily based on inexact matching of timestamps. Throughout the context of Apache Spark, a be a part of operation, loosely talking, matches data from two knowledge frames (let’s name them left and proper) primarily based on some standards. A temporal be a part of implies matching data in left and proper primarily based on timestamps, and with inexact matching of timestamps permitted, it’s sometimes helpful to affix left and proper alongside one of many following temporal instructions:

1. Trying behind: if a file from left has timestamp t, then it will get matched with ones from proper having the newest timestamp lower than or equal to t.
2. Trying forward: if a file from left has timestamp t, then it will get matched with ones from proper having the smallest timestamp larger than or equal to (or alternatively, strictly larger than) t.

Nonetheless, oftentimes it’s not helpful to think about two timestamps as “matching” if they’re too far aside. Due to this fact, a further constraint on the utmost period of time to look behind or look forward is normally additionally a part of an ASOF be a part of operation.

In sparklyr.flint 0.2, all ASOF be a part of functionalities of Flint are accessible through the asof_join() technique. For instance, given 2 timeseries RDDs left and proper:

library(sparklyr)
library(sparklyr.flint)

sc <- spark_connect(grasp = "native")
left <- copy_to(sc, tibble::tibble(t = seq(10), u = seq(10))) %>%
  from_sdf(is_sorted = TRUE, time_unit = "SECONDS", time_column = "t")
proper <- copy_to(sc, tibble::tibble(t = seq(10) + 1, v = seq(10) + 1L)) %>%
  from_sdf(is_sorted = TRUE, time_unit = "SECONDS", time_column = "t")

The next prints the results of matching every file from left with the newest file(s) from proper which can be at most 1 second behind.

print(asof_join(left, proper, tol = "1s", path = ">=") %>% to_sdf())

## # Supply: spark<?> [?? x 3]
##    time                    u     v
##    <dttm>              <int> <int>
##  1 1970-01-01 00:00:01     1    NA
##  2 1970-01-01 00:00:02     2     2
##  3 1970-01-01 00:00:03     3     3
##  4 1970-01-01 00:00:04     4     4
##  5 1970-01-01 00:00:05     5     5
##  6 1970-01-01 00:00:06     6     6
##  7 1970-01-01 00:00:07     7     7
##  8 1970-01-01 00:00:08     8     8
##  9 1970-01-01 00:00:09     9     9
## 10 1970-01-01 00:00:10    10    10

Whereas if we modify the temporal path to “<”, then every file from left might be matched with any file(s) from proper that’s strictly sooner or later and is at most 1 second forward of the present file from left:

print(asof_join(left, proper, tol = "1s", path = "<") %>% to_sdf())

## # Supply: spark<?> [?? x 3]
##    time                    u     v
##    <dttm>              <int> <int>
##  1 1970-01-01 00:00:01     1     2
##  2 1970-01-01 00:00:02     2     3
##  3 1970-01-01 00:00:03     3     4
##  4 1970-01-01 00:00:04     4     5
##  5 1970-01-01 00:00:05     5     6
##  6 1970-01-01 00:00:06     6     7
##  7 1970-01-01 00:00:07     7     8
##  8 1970-01-01 00:00:08     8     9
##  9 1970-01-01 00:00:09     9    10
## 10 1970-01-01 00:00:10    10    11

Discover no matter which temporal path is chosen, an outer-left be a part of is at all times carried out (i.e., all timestamp values and u values of left from above will at all times be current within the output, and the v column within the output will include NA each time there isn’t any file from proper that meets the matching standards).

OLS Regression

You is likely to be questioning whether or not the model of this performance in Flint is kind of equivalent to lm() in R. Seems it has far more to supply than lm() does. An OLS regression in Flint will compute helpful metrics akin to Akaike data criterion and Bayesian data criterion, each of that are helpful for mannequin choice functions, and the calculations of each are parallelized by Flint to completely make the most of computational energy obtainable in a Spark cluster. As well as, Flint helps ignoring regressors which can be fixed or almost fixed, which turns into helpful when an intercept time period is included. To see why that is the case, we have to briefly study the purpose of the OLS regression, which is to search out some column vector of coefficients (mathbf{beta}) that minimizes (|mathbf{y} – mathbf{X} mathbf{beta}|^2), the place (mathbf{y}) is the column vector of response variables, and (mathbf{X}) is a matrix consisting of columns of regressors plus a complete column of (1)s representing the intercept phrases. The answer to this downside is (mathbf{beta} = (mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{X})^{-1}mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{y}), assuming the Gram matrix (mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{X}) is non-singular. Nonetheless, if (mathbf{X}) comprises a column of all (1)s of intercept phrases, and one other column fashioned by a regressor that’s fixed (or almost so), then columns of (mathbf{X}) might be linearly dependent (or almost so) and (mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{X}) might be singular (or almost so), which presents a problem computation-wise. Nonetheless, if a regressor is fixed, then it primarily performs the identical position because the intercept phrases do. So merely excluding such a continuing regressor in (mathbf{X}) solves the issue. Additionally, talking of inverting the Gram matrix, readers remembering the idea of “situation quantity” from numerical evaluation should be pondering to themselves how computing (mathbf{beta} = (mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{X})^{-1}mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{y}) might be numerically unstable if (mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{X}) has a big situation quantity. Because of this Flint additionally outputs the situation variety of the Gram matrix within the OLS regression consequence, in order that one can sanity-check the underlying quadratic minimization downside being solved is well-conditioned.

So, to summarize, the OLS regression performance applied in Flint not solely outputs the answer to the issue, but additionally calculates helpful metrics that assist knowledge scientists assess the sanity and predictive high quality of the ensuing mannequin.

To see OLS regression in motion with sparklyr.flint, one can run the next instance:

mtcars_sdf <- copy_to(sc, mtcars, overwrite = TRUE) %>%
  dplyr::mutate(time = 0L)
mtcars_ts <- from_sdf(mtcars_sdf, is_sorted = TRUE, time_unit = "SECONDS")
mannequin <- ols_regression(mtcars_ts, mpg ~ hp + wt) %>% to_sdf()

print(mannequin %>% dplyr::choose(akaikeIC, bayesIC, cond))

## # Supply: spark<?> [?? x 3]
##   akaikeIC bayesIC    cond
##      <dbl>   <dbl>   <dbl>
## 1     155.    159. 345403.

# ^ output says situation variety of the Gram matrix was inside motive

and procure (mathbf{beta}), the vector of optimum coefficients, with the next:

print(mannequin %>% dplyr::pull(beta))

## [[1]]
## [1] -0.03177295 -3.87783074

Further Summarizers

The EWMA (Exponential Weighted Shifting Common), EMA half-life, and the standardized second summarizers (particularly, skewness and kurtosis) together with a couple of others which have been lacking in sparklyr.flint 0.1 at the moment are totally supported in sparklyr.flint 0.2.

Higher Integration With sparklyr

Whereas sparklyr.flint 0.1 included a gather() technique for exporting knowledge from a Flint time-series RDD to an R knowledge body, it didn’t have an analogous technique for extracting the underlying Spark knowledge body from a Flint time-series RDD. This was clearly an oversight. In sparklyr.flint 0.2, one can name to_sdf() on a timeseries RDD to get again a Spark knowledge body that’s usable in sparklyr (e.g., as proven by mannequin %>% to_sdf() %>% dplyr::choose(...) examples from above). One also can get to the underlying Spark knowledge body JVM object reference by calling spark_dataframe() on a Flint time-series RDD (that is normally pointless in overwhelming majority of sparklyr use circumstances although).

Conclusion

We’ve offered quite a lot of new options and enhancements launched in sparklyr.flint 0.2 and deep-dived into a few of them on this weblog submit. We hope you might be as enthusiastic about them as we’re.

Thanks for studying!

Acknowledgement

The writer wish to thank Mara (@batpigandme), Sigrid (@skeydan), and Javier (@javierluraschi) for his or her improbable editorial inputs on this weblog submit!