DataSet programs in Flink are regular programs that implement transformations on data sets (e.g., filtering, mapping, joining, grouping). The data sets are initially created from certain sources (e.g., by reading files, or from local collections). Results are returned via sinks, which may for example write the data to (distributed) files, or to standard output (for example the command line terminal). Flink programs run in a variety of contexts, standalone, or embedded in other programs. The execution can happen in a local JVM, or on clusters of many machines.
Please refer to the DataStream API overview for an introduction to the basic concepts of the Flink API. That overview is for the DataStream API but the basic concepts of the two APIs are the same.
In order to create your own Flink DataSet program, we encourage you to start with the anatomy of a Flink Program and gradually add your own transformations. The remaining sections act as references for additional operations and advanced features.
The following program is a complete, working example of WordCount. You can copy & paste the code to run it locally. You only have to include the correct Flink’s library into your project (see Section Linking with Flink) and specify the imports. Then you are ready to go!
Data transformations transform one or more DataSets into a new DataSet. Programs can combine multiple transformations into sophisticated assemblies.
This section gives a brief overview of the available transformations. The transformations documentation has a full description of all transformations with examples.
Transformation | Description |
---|---|
Map |
Takes one element and produces one element. |
FlatMap |
Takes one element and produces zero, one, or more elements. |
MapPartition |
Transforms a parallel partition in a single function call. The function gets the partition
as an |
Filter |
Evaluates a boolean function for each element and retains those for which the function
returns true. |
Reduce |
Combines a group of elements into a single element by repeatedly combining two elements into one. Reduce may be applied on a full data set or on a grouped data set. If the reduce was applied to a grouped data set then you can specify the way that the
runtime executes the combine phase of the reduce by supplying a |
ReduceGroup |
Combines a group of elements into one or more elements. ReduceGroup may be applied on a full data set or on a grouped data set. |
Aggregate |
Aggregates a group of values into a single value. Aggregation functions can be thought of as built-in reduce functions. Aggregate may be applied on a full data set, or on a grouped data set. You can also use short-hand syntax for minimum, maximum, and sum aggregations. |
Distinct |
Returns the distinct elements of a data set. It removes the duplicate entries from the input DataSet, with respect to all fields of the elements, or a subset of fields. Distinct is implemented using a reduce function. You can specify the way that the
runtime executes the combine phase of the reduce by supplying a |
Join |
Joins two data sets by creating all pairs of elements that are equal on their keys.
Optionally uses a JoinFunction to turn the pair of elements into a single element, or a
FlatJoinFunction to turn the pair of elements into arbitrarily many (including none)
elements. See the keys section to learn how to define join keys.
You can specify the way that the runtime executes the join via Join Hints. The hints
describe whether the join happens through partitioning or broadcasting, and whether it uses
a sort-based or a hash-based algorithm. Please refer to the
Transformations Guide for
a list of possible hints and an example. If no hint is specified, the system will try to make an estimate of the input sizes and pick the best strategy according to those estimates. Note that the join transformation works only for equi-joins. Other join types need to be expressed using OuterJoin or CoGroup. |
OuterJoin |
Performs a left, right, or full outer join on two data sets. Outer joins are similar to regular (inner) joins and create all pairs of elements that are equal on their keys. In addition, records of the "outer" side (left, right, or both in case of full) are preserved if no matching key is found in the other side. Matching pairs of elements (or one element and a null value for the other input) are given to a JoinFunction to turn the pair of elements into a single element, or to a FlatJoinFunction to turn the pair of elements into arbitrarily many (including none) elements. See the keys section to learn how to define join keys.
|
CoGroup |
The two-dimensional variant of the reduce operation. Groups each input on one or more fields and then joins the groups. The transformation function is called per pair of groups. See the keys section to learn how to define coGroup keys. |
Cross |
Builds the Cartesian product (cross product) of two inputs, creating all pairs of elements. Optionally uses a CrossFunction to turn the pair of elements into a single element Note: Cross is potentially a very compute-intensive operation which can challenge even large compute clusters! It is advised to hint the system with the DataSet sizes by using crossWithTiny() and crossWithHuge(). |
Union |
Produces the union of two data sets. |
Rebalance |
Evenly rebalances the parallel partitions of a data set to eliminate data skew. Only Map-like transformations may follow a rebalance transformation. |
Hash-Partition |
Hash-partitions a data set on a given key. Keys can be specified as position keys, expression keys, and key selector functions. |
Range-Partition |
Range-partitions a data set on a given key. Keys can be specified as position keys, expression keys, and key selector functions. |
Custom Partitioning |
Assigns records based on a key to a specific partition using a custom Partitioner function.
The key can be specified as position key, expression key, and key selector function.
|
Sort Partition |
Locally sorts all partitions of a data set on a specified field in a specified order. Fields can be specified as tuple positions or field expressions. Sorting on multiple fields is done by chaining sortPartition() calls. |
First-n |
Returns the first n (arbitrary) elements of a data set. First-n can be applied on a regular data set, a grouped data set, or a grouped-sorted data set. Grouping keys can be specified as key-selector functions or field position keys. |
The following transformations are available on data sets of Tuples:
Transformation | Description |
---|---|
Project |
Selects a subset of fields from the tuples |
MinBy / MaxBy |
Selects a tuple from a group of tuples whose values of one or more fields are minimum (maximum). The fields which are used for comparison must be valid key fields, i.e., comparable. If multiple tuples have minimum (maximum) field values, an arbitrary tuple of these tuples is returned. MinBy (MaxBy) may be applied on a full data set or a grouped data set. |
Transformation | Description |
---|---|
Map |
Takes one element and produces one element. |
FlatMap |
Takes one element and produces zero, one, or more elements. |
MapPartition |
Transforms a parallel partition in a single function call. The function get the partition as an `Iterator` and can produce an arbitrary number of result values. The number of elements in each partition depends on the degree-of-parallelism and previous operations. |
Filter |
Evaluates a boolean function for each element and retains those for which the function
returns true. |
Reduce |
Combines a group of elements into a single element by repeatedly combining two elements into one. Reduce may be applied on a full data set, or on a grouped data set. |
ReduceGroup |
Combines a group of elements into one or more elements. ReduceGroup may be applied on a full data set, or on a grouped data set. |
Aggregate |
Aggregates a group of values into a single value. Aggregation functions can be thought of as built-in reduce functions. Aggregate may be applied on a full data set, or on a grouped data set. You can also use short-hand syntax for minimum, maximum, and sum aggregations. |
Distinct |
Returns the distinct elements of a data set. It removes the duplicate entries from the input DataSet, with respect to all fields of the elements, or a subset of fields. |
Join |
Joins two data sets by creating all pairs of elements that are equal on their keys.
Optionally uses a JoinFunction to turn the pair of elements into a single element, or a
FlatJoinFunction to turn the pair of elements into arbitrarily many (including none)
elements. See the keys section to learn how to define join keys.
You can specify the way that the runtime executes the join via Join Hints. The hints
describe whether the join happens through partitioning or broadcasting, and whether it uses
a sort-based or a hash-based algorithm. Please refer to the
Transformations Guide for
a list of possible hints and an example. If no hint is specified, the system will try to make an estimate of the input sizes and pick the best strategy according to those estimates. Note that the join transformation works only for equi-joins. Other join types need to be expressed using OuterJoin or CoGroup. |
OuterJoin | Performs a left, right, or full outer join on two data sets. Outer joins are similar to regular (inner) joins and create all pairs of elements that are equal on their keys. In addition, records of the "outer" side (left, right, or both in case of full) are preserved if no matching key is found in the other side. Matching pairs of elements (or one element and a `null` value for the other input) are given to a JoinFunction to turn the pair of elements into a single element, or to a FlatJoinFunction to turn the pair of elements into arbitrarily many (including none) elements. See the keys section to learn how to define join keys. |
CoGroup |
The two-dimensional variant of the reduce operation. Groups each input on one or more fields and then joins the groups. The transformation function is called per pair of groups. See the keys section to learn how to define coGroup keys. |
Cross |
Builds the Cartesian product (cross product) of two inputs, creating all pairs of elements. Optionally uses a CrossFunction to turn the pair of elements into a single element Note: Cross is potentially a very compute-intensive operation which can challenge even large compute clusters! It is advised to hint the system with the DataSet sizes by using crossWithTiny() and crossWithHuge(). |
Union |
Produces the union of two data sets. |
Rebalance |
Evenly rebalances the parallel partitions of a data set to eliminate data skew. Only Map-like transformations may follow a rebalance transformation. |
Hash-Partition |
Hash-partitions a data set on a given key. Keys can be specified as position keys, expression keys, and key selector functions. |
Range-Partition |
Range-partitions a data set on a given key. Keys can be specified as position keys, expression keys, and key selector functions. |
Custom Partitioning |
Assigns records based on a key to a specific partition using a custom Partitioner function.
The key can be specified as position key, expression key, and key selector function.
|
Sort Partition |
Locally sorts all partitions of a data set on a specified field in a specified order. Fields can be specified as tuple positions or field expressions. Sorting on multiple fields is done by chaining sortPartition() calls. |
First-n |
Returns the first n (arbitrary) elements of a data set. First-n can be applied on a regular data set, a grouped data set, or a grouped-sorted data set. Grouping keys can be specified as key-selector functions, tuple positions or case class fields. |
The following transformations are available on data sets of Tuples:
Transformation | Description |
---|---|
MinBy / MaxBy |
Selects a tuple from a group of tuples whose values of one or more fields are minimum (maximum). The fields which are used for comparison must be valid key fields, i.e., comparable. If multiple tuples have minimum (maximum) field values, an arbitrary tuple of these tuples is returned. MinBy (MaxBy) may be applied on a full data set or a grouped data set. |
Extraction from tuples, case classes and collections via anonymous pattern matching, like the following:
is not supported by the API out-of-the-box. To use this feature, you should use a Scala API extension.
The parallelism of a transformation can be defined by setParallelism(int)
while
name(String)
assigns a custom name to a transformation which is helpful for debugging. The same is
possible for Data Sources and Data Sinks.
withParameters(Configuration)
passes Configuration objects, which can be accessed from the open()
method inside the user function.
Some transformations (join, coGroup, groupBy) require that a key be defined on a collection of elements. Other transformations (Reduce, GroupReduce, Aggregate) allow data being grouped on a key before they are applied.
A DataSet is grouped as
The data model of Flink is not based on key-value pairs. Therefore, you do not need to physically pack the data set types into keys and values. Keys are “virtual”: they are defined as functions over the actual data to guide the grouping operator.
The simplest case is grouping Tuples on one or more fields of the Tuple:
The tuples are grouped on the first field (the one of Integer type).
Here, we group the tuples on a composite key consisting of the first and the second field.
A note on nested Tuples: If you have a DataSet with a nested tuple, such as:
Specifying groupBy(0)
will cause the system to use the full Tuple2
as a key (with the Integer and Float being the key). If you want to “navigate” into the nested Tuple2
, you have to use field expression keys which are explained below.
You can use String-based field expressions to reference nested fields and define keys for grouping, sorting, joining, or coGrouping.
Field expressions make it very easy to select fields in (nested) composite types such as Tuple and POJO types.
In the example below, we have a WC
POJO with two fields “word” and “count”. To group by the field word
, we just pass its name to the groupBy()
function.
Field Expression Syntax:
Select POJO fields by their field name. For example "user"
refers to the “user” field of a POJO type.
Select Tuple fields by their field name or 0-offset field index. For example "f0"
and "5"
refer to the first and sixth field of a Java Tuple type, respectively.
You can select nested fields in POJOs and Tuples. For example "user.zip"
refers to the “zip” field of a POJO which is stored in the “user” field of a POJO type. Arbitrary nesting and mixing of POJOs and Tuples is supported such as "f1.user.zip"
or "user.f3.1.zip"
.
You can select the full type using the "*"
wildcard expressions. This does also work for types which are not Tuple or POJO types.
Field Expression Example:
These are valid field expressions for the example code above:
"count"
: The count field in the WC
class.
"complex"
: Recursively selects all fields of the field complex of POJO type ComplexNestedClass
.
"complex.word.f2"
: Selects the last field of the nested Tuple3
.
"complex.hadoopCitizen"
: Selects the Hadoop IntWritable
type.
In the example below, we have a WC
POJO with two fields “word” and “count”. To group by the field word
, we just pass its name to the groupBy()
function.
Field Expression Syntax:
Select POJO fields by their field name. For example "user"
refers to the “user” field of a POJO type.
Select Tuple fields by their 1-offset field name or 0-offset field index. For example "_1"
and "5"
refer to the first and sixth field of a Scala Tuple type, respectively.
You can select nested fields in POJOs and Tuples. For example "user.zip"
refers to the “zip” field of a POJO which is stored in the “user” field of a POJO type. Arbitrary nesting and mixing of POJOs and Tuples is supported such as "_2.user.zip"
or "user._4.1.zip"
.
You can select the full type using the "_"
wildcard expressions. This does also work for types which are not Tuple or POJO types.
Field Expression Example:
These are valid field expressions for the example code above:
"count"
: The count field in the WC
class.
"complex"
: Recursively selects all fields of the field complex of POJO type ComplexNestedClass
.
"complex.word._3"
: Selects the last field of the nested Tuple3
.
"complex.hadoopCitizen"
: Selects the Hadoop IntWritable
type.
An additional way to define keys are “key selector” functions. A key selector function takes a single element as input and returns the key for the element. The key can be of any type and be derived from deterministic computations.
The following example shows a key selector function that simply returns the field of an object:
Data sources create the initial data sets, such as from files or from Java collections. The general mechanism of creating data sets is abstracted behind an InputFormat. Flink comes with several built-in formats to create data sets from common file formats. Many of them have shortcut methods on the ExecutionEnvironment.
File-based:
readTextFile(path)
/ TextInputFormat
- Reads files line wise and returns them as Strings.
readTextFileWithValue(path)
/ TextValueInputFormat
- Reads files line wise and returns them as
StringValues. StringValues are mutable strings.
readCsvFile(path)
/ CsvInputFormat
- Parses files of comma (or another char) delimited fields.
Returns a DataSet of tuples or POJOs. Supports the basic java types and their Value counterparts as field
types.
readFileOfPrimitives(path, Class)
/ PrimitiveInputFormat
- Parses files of new-line (or another char sequence)
delimited primitive data types such as String
or Integer
.
readFileOfPrimitives(path, delimiter, Class)
/ PrimitiveInputFormat
- Parses files of new-line (or another char sequence)
delimited primitive data types such as String
or Integer
using the given delimiter.
Collection-based:
fromCollection(Collection)
- Creates a data set from a Java.util.Collection. All elements
in the collection must be of the same type.
fromCollection(Iterator, Class)
- Creates a data set from an iterator. The class specifies the
data type of the elements returned by the iterator.
fromElements(T ...)
- Creates a data set from the given sequence of objects. All objects must be
of the same type.
fromParallelCollection(SplittableIterator, Class)
- Creates a data set from an iterator, in
parallel. The class specifies the data type of the elements returned by the iterator.
generateSequence(from, to)
- Generates the sequence of numbers in the given interval, in
parallel.
Generic:
readFile(inputFormat, path)
/ FileInputFormat
- Accepts a file input format.
createInput(inputFormat)
/ InputFormat
- Accepts a generic input format.
Examples
Flink offers a number of configuration options for CSV parsing:
types(Class ... types)
specifies the types of the fields to parse. It is mandatory to configure the types of the parsed fields.
In case of the type class Boolean.class, “True” (case-insensitive), “False” (case-insensitive), “1” and “0” are treated as booleans.
lineDelimiter(String del)
specifies the delimiter of individual records. The default line delimiter is the new-line character '\n'
.
fieldDelimiter(String del)
specifies the delimiter that separates fields of a record. The default field delimiter is the comma character ','
.
includeFields(boolean ... flag)
, includeFields(String mask)
, or includeFields(long bitMask)
defines which fields to read from the input file (and which to ignore). By default the first n fields (as defined by the number of types in the types()
call) are parsed.
parseQuotedStrings(char quoteChar)
enables quoted string parsing. Strings are parsed as quoted strings if the first character of the string field is the quote character (leading or tailing whitespaces are not trimmed). Field delimiters within quoted strings are ignored. Quoted string parsing fails if the last character of a quoted string field is not the quote character or if the quote character appears at some point which is not the start or the end of the quoted string field (unless the quote character is escaped using ‘'). If quoted string parsing is enabled and the first character of the field is not the quoting string, the string is parsed as unquoted string. By default, quoted string parsing is disabled.
ignoreComments(String commentPrefix)
specifies a comment prefix. All lines that start with the specified comment prefix are not parsed and ignored. By default, no lines are ignored.
ignoreInvalidLines()
enables lenient parsing, i.e., lines that cannot be correctly parsed are ignored. By default, lenient parsing is disabled and invalid lines raise an exception.
ignoreFirstLine()
configures the InputFormat to ignore the first line of the input file. By default no line is ignored.
For file-based inputs, when the input path is a directory, nested files are not enumerated by default. Instead, only the files inside the base directory are read, while nested files are ignored. Recursive enumeration of nested files can be enabled through the recursive.file.enumeration
configuration parameter, like in the following example.
Data sources create the initial data sets, such as from files or from Java collections. The general mechanism of creating data sets is abstracted behind an InputFormat. Flink comes with several built-in formats to create data sets from common file formats. Many of them have shortcut methods on the ExecutionEnvironment.
File-based:
readTextFile(path)
/ TextInputFormat
- Reads files line wise and returns them as Strings.
readTextFileWithValue(path)
/ TextValueInputFormat
- Reads files line wise and returns them as
StringValues. StringValues are mutable strings.
readCsvFile(path)
/ CsvInputFormat
- Parses files of comma (or another char) delimited fields.
Returns a DataSet of tuples, case class objects, or POJOs. Supports the basic java types and their Value counterparts as field
types.
readFileOfPrimitives(path, delimiter)
/ PrimitiveInputFormat
- Parses files of new-line (or another char sequence)
delimited primitive data types such as String
or Integer
using the given delimiter.
readSequenceFile(Key, Value, path)
/ SequenceFileInputFormat
- Creates a JobConf and reads file from the specified path with
type SequenceFileInputFormat, Key class and Value class and returns them as Tuple2<Key, Value>.
Collection-based:
fromCollection(Iterable)
- Creates a data set from an Iterable. All elements
returned by the Iterable must be of the same type.
fromCollection(Iterator)
- Creates a data set from an Iterator. The class specifies the
data type of the elements returned by the iterator.
fromElements(elements: _*)
- Creates a data set from the given sequence of objects. All objects
must be of the same type.
fromParallelCollection(SplittableIterator)
- Creates a data set from an iterator, in
parallel. The class specifies the data type of the elements returned by the iterator.
generateSequence(from, to)
- Generates the sequence of numbers in the given interval, in
parallel.
Generic:
readFile(inputFormat, path)
/ FileInputFormat
- Accepts a file input format.
createInput(inputFormat)
/ InputFormat
- Accepts a generic input format.
Examples
Flink offers a number of configuration options for CSV parsing:
lineDelimiter: String
specifies the delimiter of individual records. The default line delimiter is the new-line character '\n'
.
fieldDelimiter: String
specifies the delimiter that separates fields of a record. The default field delimiter is the comma character ','
.
includeFields: Array[Int]
defines which fields to read from the input file (and which to ignore). By default the first n fields (as defined by the number of types in the types()
call) are parsed.
pojoFields: Array[String]
specifies the fields of a POJO that are mapped to CSV fields. Parsers for CSV fields are automatically initialized based on the type and order of the POJO fields.
parseQuotedStrings: Character
enables quoted string parsing. Strings are parsed as quoted strings if the first character of the string field is the quote character (leading or tailing whitespaces are not trimmed). Field delimiters within quoted strings are ignored. Quoted string parsing fails if the last character of a quoted string field is not the quote character. If quoted string parsing is enabled and the first character of the field is not the quoting string, the string is parsed as unquoted string. By default, quoted string parsing is disabled.
ignoreComments: String
specifies a comment prefix. All lines that start with the specified comment prefix are not parsed and ignored. By default, no lines are ignored.
lenient: Boolean
enables lenient parsing, i.e., lines that cannot be correctly parsed are ignored. By default, lenient parsing is disabled and invalid lines raise an exception.
ignoreFirstLine: Boolean
configures the InputFormat to ignore the first line of the input file. By default no line is ignored.
For file-based inputs, when the input path is a directory, nested files are not enumerated by default. Instead, only the files inside the base directory are read, while nested files are ignored. Recursive enumeration of nested files can be enabled through the recursive.file.enumeration
configuration parameter, like in the following example.
Flink currently supports transparent decompression of input files if these are marked with an appropriate file extension. In particular, this means that no further configuration of the input formats is necessary and any FileInputFormat
support the compression, including custom input formats. Please notice that compressed files might not be read in parallel, thus impacting job scalability.
The following table lists the currently supported compression methods.
Compression method | File extensions | Parallelizable |
---|---|---|
DEFLATE | .deflate |
no |
GZip | .gz , .gzip |
no |
Bzip2 | .bz2 |
no |
XZ | .xz |
no |
Data sinks consume DataSets and are used to store or return them. Data sink operations are described using an OutputFormat. Flink comes with a variety of built-in output formats that are encapsulated behind operations on the DataSet:
writeAsText()
/ TextOutputFormat
- Writes elements line-wise as Strings. The Strings are
obtained by calling the toString() method of each element.writeAsFormattedText()
/ TextOutputFormat
- Write elements line-wise as Strings. The Strings
are obtained by calling a user-defined format() method for each element.writeAsCsv(...)
/ CsvOutputFormat
- Writes tuples as comma-separated value files. Row and field
delimiters are configurable. The value for each field comes from the toString() method of the objects.print()
/ printToErr()
/ print(String msg)
/ printToErr(String msg)
- Prints the toString() value
of each element on the standard out / standard error stream. Optionally, a prefix (msg) can be provided which is
prepended to the output. This can help to distinguish between different calls to print. If the parallelism is
greater than 1, the output will also be prepended with the identifier of the task which produced the output.write()
/ FileOutputFormat
- Method and base class for custom file outputs. Supports
custom object-to-bytes conversion.output()
/ OutputFormat
- Most generic output method, for data sinks that are not file based
(such as storing the result in a database).A DataSet can be input to multiple operations. Programs can write or print a data set and at the same time run additional transformations on them.
Examples
Standard data sink methods:
Using a custom output format:
The output of a data sink can be locally sorted on specified fields in specified orders using tuple field positions or field expressions. This works for every output format.
The following examples show how to use this feature:
Globally sorted output is not supported yet.
Data sinks consume DataSets and are used to store or return them. Data sink operations are described using an OutputFormat. Flink comes with a variety of built-in output formats that are encapsulated behind operations on the DataSet:
writeAsText()
/ TextOutputFormat
- Writes elements line-wise as Strings. The Strings are
obtained by calling the toString() method of each element.writeAsCsv(...)
/ CsvOutputFormat
- Writes tuples as comma-separated value files. Row and field
delimiters are configurable. The value for each field comes from the toString() method of the objects.print()
/ printToErr()
- Prints the toString() value of each element on the
standard out / standard error stream.write()
/ FileOutputFormat
- Method and base class for custom file outputs. Supports
custom object-to-bytes conversion.output()
/ OutputFormat
- Most generic output method, for data sinks that are not file based
(such as storing the result in a database).A DataSet can be input to multiple operations. Programs can write or print a data set and at the same time run additional transformations on them.
Examples
Standard data sink methods:
The output of a data sink can be locally sorted on specified fields in specified orders using tuple field positions or field expressions. This works for every output format.
The following examples show how to use this feature:
Globally sorted output is not supported yet.
Iterations implement loops in Flink programs. The iteration operators encapsulate a part of the program and execute it repeatedly, feeding back the result of one iteration (the partial solution) into the next iteration. There are two types of iterations in Flink: BulkIteration and DeltaIteration.
This section provides quick examples on how to use both operators. Check out the Introduction to Iterations page for a more detailed introduction.
To create a BulkIteration call the iterate(int)
method of the DataSet the iteration should start
at. This will return an IterativeDataSet
, which can be transformed with the regular operators. The
single argument to the iterate call specifies the maximum number of iterations.
To specify the end of an iteration call the closeWith(DataSet)
method on the IterativeDataSet
to
specify which transformation should be fed back to the next iteration. You can optionally specify a
termination criterion with closeWith(DataSet, DataSet)
, which evaluates the second DataSet and
terminates the iteration, if this DataSet is empty. If no termination criterion is specified, the
iteration terminates after the given maximum number iterations.
The following example iteratively estimates the number Pi. The goal is to count the number of random points, which fall into the unit circle. In each iteration, a random point is picked. If this point lies inside the unit circle, we increment the count. Pi is then estimated as the resulting count divided by the number of iterations multiplied by 4.
You can also check out the K-Means example, which uses a BulkIteration to cluster a set of unlabeled points.
Delta iterations exploit the fact that certain algorithms do not change every data point of the solution in each iteration.
In addition to the partial solution that is fed back (called workset) in every iteration, delta iterations maintain state across iterations (called solution set), which can be updated through deltas. The result of the iterative computation is the state after the last iteration. Please refer to the Introduction to Iterations for an overview of the basic principle of delta iterations.
Defining a DeltaIteration is similar to defining a BulkIteration. For delta iterations, two data sets form the input to each iteration (workset and solution set), and two data sets are produced as the result (new workset, solution set delta) in each iteration.
To create a DeltaIteration call the iterateDelta(DataSet, int, int)
(or iterateDelta(DataSet,
int, int[])
respectively). This method is called on the initial solution set. The arguments are the
initial delta set, the maximum number of iterations and the key positions. The returned
DeltaIteration
object gives you access to the DataSets representing the workset and solution set
via the methods iteration.getWorkset()
and iteration.getSolutionSet()
.
Below is an example for the syntax of a delta iteration
To create a BulkIteration call the iterate(int)
method of the DataSet the iteration should start
at and also specify a step function. The step function gets the input DataSet for the current
iteration and must return a new DataSet. The parameter of the iterate call is the maximum number
of iterations after which to stop.
There is also the iterateWithTermination(int)
function that accepts a step function that
returns two DataSets: The result of the iteration step and a termination criterion. The iterations
are stopped once the termination criterion DataSet is empty.
The following example iteratively estimates the number Pi. The goal is to count the number of random points, which fall into the unit circle. In each iteration, a random point is picked. If this point lies inside the unit circle, we increment the count. Pi is then estimated as the resulting count divided by the number of iterations multiplied by 4.
You can also check out the K-Means example, which uses a BulkIteration to cluster a set of unlabeled points.
Delta iterations exploit the fact that certain algorithms do not change every data point of the solution in each iteration.
In addition to the partial solution that is fed back (called workset) in every iteration, delta iterations maintain state across iterations (called solution set), which can be updated through deltas. The result of the iterative computation is the state after the last iteration. Please refer to the Introduction to Iterations for an overview of the basic principle of delta iterations.
Defining a DeltaIteration is similar to defining a BulkIteration. For delta iterations, two data sets form the input to each iteration (workset and solution set), and two data sets are produced as the result (new workset, solution set delta) in each iteration.
To create a DeltaIteration call the iterateDelta(initialWorkset, maxIterations, key)
on the
initial solution set. The step function takes two parameters: (solutionSet, workset), and must
return two values: (solutionSetDelta, newWorkset).
Below is an example for the syntax of a delta iteration
Flink’s runtime exchanges data with user functions in form of Java objects. Functions receive input objects from the runtime as method parameters and return output objects as result. Because these objects are accessed by user functions and runtime code, it is very important to understand and follow the rules about how the user code may access, i.e., read and modify, these objects.
User functions receive objects from Flink’s runtime either as regular method parameters (like a MapFunction
) or through an Iterable
parameter (like a GroupReduceFunction
). We refer to objects that the runtime passes to a user function as input objects. User functions can emit objects to the Flink runtime either as a method return value (like a MapFunction
) or through a Collector
(like a FlatMapFunction
). We refer to objects which have been emitted by the user function to the runtime as output objects.
Flink’s DataSet API features two modes that differ in how Flink’s runtime creates or reuses input objects. This behavior affects the guarantees and constraints for how user functions may interact with input and output objects. The following sections define these rules and give coding guidelines to write safe user function code.
By default, Flink operates in object-reuse disabled mode. This mode ensures that functions always receive new input objects within a function call. The object-reuse disabled mode gives better guarantees and is safer to use. However, it comes with a certain processing overhead and might cause higher Java garbage collection activity. The following table explains how user functions may access input and output objects in object-reuse disabled mode.
Operation | Guarantees and Restrictions |
---|---|
Reading Input Objects | Within a method call it is guaranteed that the value of an input object does not change. This includes objects served by an Iterable. For example it is safe to collect input objects served by an Iterable in a List or Map. Note that objects may be modified after the method call is left. It is not safe to remember objects across function calls. |
Modifying Input Objects | You may modify input objects. |
Emitting Input Objects | You may emit input objects. The value of an input object may have changed after it was emitted. It is not safe to read an input object after it was emitted. |
Reading Output Objects | An object that was given to a Collector or returned as method result might have changed its value. It is not safe to read an output object. |
Modifying Output Objects | You may modify an object after it was emitted and emit it again. |
Coding guidelines for the object-reuse disabled (default) mode:
In object-reuse enabled mode, Flink’s runtime minimizes the number of object instantiations. This can improve the performance and can reduce the Java garbage collection pressure. The object-reuse enabled mode is activated by calling ExecutionConfig.enableObjectReuse()
. The following table explains how user functions may access input and output objects in object-reuse enabled mode.
Operation | Guarantees and Restrictions |
---|---|
Reading input objects received as regular method parameters | Input objects received as regular method arguments are not modified within a function call. Objects may be modified after method call is left. It is not safe to remember objects across function calls. |
Reading input objects received from an Iterable parameter | Input objects received from an Iterable are only valid until the next() method is called. An Iterable or Iterator may serve the same object instance multiple times. It is not safe to remember input objects received from an Iterable, e.g., by putting them in a List or Map. |
Modifying Input Objects | You must not modify input objects, except for input objects of MapFunction, FlatMapFunction, MapPartitionFunction, GroupReduceFunction, GroupCombineFunction, CoGroupFunction, and InputFormat.next(reuse). |
Emitting Input Objects | You must not emit input objects, except for input objects of MapFunction, FlatMapFunction, MapPartitionFunction, GroupReduceFunction, GroupCombineFunction, CoGroupFunction, and InputFormat.next(reuse). |
Reading Output Objects | An object that was given to a Collector or returned as method result might have changed its value. It is not safe to read an output object. |
Modifying Output Objects | You may modify an output object and emit it again. |
Coding guidelines for object-reuse enabled:
Iterable
.MapFunction
, FlatMapFunction
, MapPartitionFunction
, GroupReduceFunction
, GroupCombineFunction
, CoGroupFunction
, and InputFormat.next(reuse)
.Before running a data analysis program on a large data set in a distributed cluster, it is a good idea to make sure that the implemented algorithm works as desired. Hence, implementing data analysis programs is usually an incremental process of checking results, debugging, and improving.
Flink provides a few nice features to significantly ease the development process of data analysis programs by supporting local debugging from within an IDE, injection of test data, and collection of result data. This section give some hints how to ease the development of Flink programs.
A LocalEnvironment
starts a Flink system within the same JVM process it was created in. If you
start the LocalEnvironment from an IDE, you can set breakpoints in your code and easily debug your
program.
A LocalEnvironment is created and used as follows:
Providing input for an analysis program and checking its output is cumbersome when done by creating input files and reading output files. Flink features special data sources and sinks which are backed by Java collections to ease testing. Once a program has been tested, the sources and sinks can be easily replaced by sources and sinks that read from / write to external data stores such as HDFS.
Collection data sources can be used as follows:
A collection data sink is specified as follows:
Note: Currently, the collection data sink is restricted to local execution, as a debugging tool.
Note: Currently, the collection data source requires that data types and iterators implement
Serializable
. Furthermore, collection data sources can not be executed in parallel (
parallelism = 1).
Semantic annotations can be used to give Flink hints about the behavior of a function. They tell the system which fields of a function’s input the function reads and evaluates and which fields it unmodified forwards from its input to its output. Semantic annotations are a powerful means to speed up execution, because they allow the system to reason about reusing sort orders or partitions across multiple operations. Using semantic annotations may eventually save the program from unnecessary data shuffling or unnecessary sorts and significantly improve the performance of a program.
Note: The use of semantic annotations is optional. However, it is absolutely crucial to be conservative when providing semantic annotations! Incorrect semantic annotations will cause Flink to make incorrect assumptions about your program and might eventually lead to incorrect results. If the behavior of an operator is not clearly predictable, no annotation should be provided. Please read the documentation carefully.
The following semantic annotations are currently supported.
Forwarded fields information declares input fields which are unmodified forwarded by a function to the same position or to another position in the output.
This information is used by the optimizer to infer whether a data property such as sorting or
partitioning is preserved by a function.
For functions that operate on groups of input elements such as GroupReduce
, GroupCombine
, CoGroup
, and MapPartition
, all fields that are defined as forwarded fields must always be jointly forwarded from the same input element. The forwarded fields of each element that is emitted by a group-wise function may originate from a different element of the function’s input group.
Field forward information is specified using field expressions.
Fields that are forwarded to the same position in the output can be specified by their position.
The specified position must be valid for the input and output data type and have the same type.
For example the String "f2"
declares that the third field of a Java input tuple is always equal to the third field in the output tuple.
Fields which are unmodified forwarded to another position in the output are declared by specifying the
source field in the input and the target field in the output as field expressions.
The String "f0->f2"
denotes that the first field of the Java input tuple is
unchanged copied to the third field of the Java output tuple. The wildcard expression *
can be used to refer to a whole input or output type, i.e., "f0->*"
denotes that the output of a function is always equal to the first field of its Java input tuple.
Multiple forwarded fields can be declared in a single String by separating them with semicolons as "f0; f2->f1; f3->f2"
or in separate Strings "f0", "f2->f1", "f3->f2"
. When specifying forwarded fields it is not required that all forwarded fields are declared, but all declarations must be correct.
Forwarded field information can be declared by attaching Java annotations on function class definitions or by passing them as operator arguments after invoking a function on a DataSet as shown below.
@ForwardedFields
for single input functions such as Map and Reduce.@ForwardedFieldsFirst
for the first input of a functions with two inputs such as Join and CoGroup.@ForwardedFieldsSecond
for the second input of a functions with two inputs such as Join and CoGroup.data.map(myMapFnc).withForwardedFields()
for single input function such as Map and Reduce.data1.join(data2).where().equalTo().with(myJoinFnc).withForwardFieldsFirst()
for the first input of a function with two inputs such as Join and CoGroup.data1.join(data2).where().equalTo().with(myJoinFnc).withForwardFieldsSecond()
for the second input of a function with two inputs such as Join and CoGroup.Please note that it is not possible to overwrite field forward information which was specified as a class annotation by operator arguments.
The following example shows how to declare forwarded field information using a function class annotation:
Non-forwarded fields information declares all fields which are not preserved on the same position in a function’s output.
The values of all other fields are considered to be preserved at the same position in the output.
Hence, non-forwarded fields information is inverse to forwarded fields information.
Non-forwarded field information for group-wise operators such as GroupReduce
, GroupCombine
, CoGroup
, and MapPartition
must fulfill the same requirements as for forwarded field information.
IMPORTANT: The specification of non-forwarded fields information is optional. However if used, ALL! non-forwarded fields must be specified, because all other fields are considered to be forwarded in place. It is safe to declare a forwarded field as non-forwarded.
Non-forwarded fields are specified as a list of field expressions. The list can be either given as a single String with field expressions separated by semicolons or as multiple Strings.
For example both "f1; f3"
and "f1", "f3"
declare that the second and fourth field of a Java tuple
are not preserved in place and all other fields are preserved in place.
Non-forwarded field information can only be specified for functions which have identical input and output types.
Non-forwarded field information is specified as function class annotations using the following annotations:
@NonForwardedFields
for single input functions such as Map and Reduce.@NonForwardedFieldsFirst
for the first input of a function with two inputs such as Join and CoGroup.@NonForwardedFieldsSecond
for the second input of a function with two inputs such as Join and CoGroup.The following example shows how to declare non-forwarded field information:
Read fields information declares all fields that are accessed and evaluated by a function, i.e., all fields that are used by the function to compute its result. For example, fields which are evaluated in conditional statements or used for computations must be marked as read when specifying read fields information. Fields which are only unmodified forwarded to the output without evaluating their values or fields which are not accessed at all are not considered to be read.
IMPORTANT: The specification of read fields information is optional. However if used, ALL! read fields must be specified. It is safe to declare a non-read field as read.
Read fields are specified as a list of field expressions. The list can be either given as a single String with field expressions separated by semicolons or as multiple Strings.
For example both "f1; f3"
and "f1", "f3"
declare that the second and fourth field of a Java tuple are read and evaluated by the function.
Read field information is specified as function class annotations using the following annotations:
@ReadFields
for single input functions such as Map and Reduce.@ReadFieldsFirst
for the first input of a function with two inputs such as Join and CoGroup.@ReadFieldsSecond
for the second input of a function with two inputs such as Join and CoGroup.The following example shows how to declare read field information:
Broadcast variables allow you to make a data set available to all parallel instances of an operation, in addition to the regular input of the operation. This is useful for auxiliary data sets, or data-dependent parameterization. The data set will then be accessible at the operator as a Collection.
withBroadcastSet(DataSet, String)
, andgetRuntimeContext().getBroadcastVariable(String)
at the target operator.Make sure that the names (broadcastSetName
in the previous example) match when registering and
accessing broadcast data sets. For a complete example program, have a look at
K-Means Algorithm.
Make sure that the names (broadcastSetName
in the previous example) match when registering and
accessing broadcast data sets. For a complete example program, have a look at
KMeans Algorithm.
Note: As the content of broadcast variables is kept in-memory on each node, it should not become
too large. For simpler things like scalar values you can simply make parameters part of the closure
of a function, or use the withParameters(...)
method to pass in a configuration.
Flink offers a distributed cache, similar to Apache Hadoop, to make files locally accessible to parallel instances of user functions. This functionality can be used to share files that contain static external data such as dictionaries or machine-learned regression models.
The cache works as follows. A program registers a file or directory of a local or remote filesystem such as HDFS or S3 under a specific name in its ExecutionEnvironment
as a cached file. When the program is executed, Flink automatically copies the file or directory to the local filesystem of all workers. A user function can look up the file or directory under the specified name and access it from the worker’s local filesystem.
The distributed cache is used as follows:
Register the file or directory in the ExecutionEnvironment
.
Access the cached file or directory in a user function (here a MapFunction
). The function must extend a RichFunction class because it needs access to the RuntimeContext
.
Register the file or directory in the ExecutionEnvironment
.
Access the cached file in a user function (here a MapFunction
). The function must extend a RichFunction class because it needs access to the RuntimeContext
.
Parameters can be passed to functions using either the constructor or the withParameters(Configuration)
method. The parameters are serialized as part of the function object and shipped to all parallel task instances.
withParameters(Configuration)
This method takes a Configuration object as an argument, which will be passed to the rich function’s open()
method. The Configuration object is a Map from String keys to different value types.
ExecutionConfig
Flink also allows to pass custom configuration values to the ExecutionConfig
interface of the environment. Since the execution config is accessible in all (rich) user functions, the custom configuration will be available globally in all functions.
Setting a custom global configuration
Please note that you can also pass a custom class extending the ExecutionConfig.GlobalJobParameters
class as the global job parameters to the execution config. The interface allows to implement the Map<String, String> toMap()
method which will in turn show the values from the configuration in the web frontend.
Accessing values from the global configuration
Objects in the global job parameters are accessible in many places in the system. All user functions implementing a RichFunction
interface have access through the runtime context.