PySpark How to Filter Rows with NULL Values

While working on PySpark SQL DataFrame we often need to filter rows with NULL/None values on columns, you can do this by checking IS NULL or IS NOT NULL conditions.

In many cases, NULL values on columns should be handled before you perform any operations on them, as operations on NULL values result in unexpected values.

Note: PySpark doesn’t support column === null, when used, it returns an error.

It’s essential to gracefully manage null values as an initial step before proceeding with processing. Additionally, when writing DataFrames to files, it’s crucial to handle null values effectively. It is a good practice to store files without NULL values either by dropping Rows with NULL values on DataFrame or By Replacing NULL values with empty string.

• Filter Rows with NULL Values in DataFrame
• Filter Rows with NULL on Multiple Columns
• Filter Rows with IS NOT NULL or isNotNull

Before we start, Let’s create a DataFrame with rows containing NULL values.

# Imports
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
spark = SparkSession.builder \
    .master("local[1]") \
    .appName("SparkByExamples.com") \
    .getOrCreate()

data = [
    ("James",None,"M"),
    ("Anna","NY","F"),
    ("Julia",None,None)
  ]

columns = ["name","state","gender"]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data,columns)
df.show()

This produces the below output. As you see, I have columns state and gender with NULL values.

# Output
+-----+-----+------+
| name|state|gender|
+-----+-----+------+
|James| null|     M|
| Anna|   NY|     F|
|Julia| null|  null|
+-----+-----+------+

Now, let’s see how to filter rows with null values on DataFrame.

1. Filter Rows with NULL Values in DataFrame

In PySpark, using filter() or where() functions of DataFrame we can filter rows with NULL values by checking isNULL() of PySpark Column class.

# Filtering  NULL rows 
df.filter("state is NULL").show()
df.filter(df.state.isNull()).show()
df.filter(col("state").isNull()).show()

The preceding examples yield all rows containing null values in the “state” column, resulting in a new DataFrame. The output remains consistent across all instances provided above.

Note: The filter() transformation doesn’t directly eliminate rows from the existing DataFrame because of its immutable nature. Instead, it identifies and reports on rows containing null values. Without making an assignment, your actions won’t alter the dataset in any way.

# Output
+-----+-----+------+
|name |state|gender|
+-----+-----+------+
|James|null |M     |
|Julia|null |null  |
+-----+-----+------+

2. Filter Rows with NULL on Multiple Columns

Filtering rows with NULL values on multiple columns involves applying the filter() transformation with multiple conditions using logical operators such as and or or. This allows you to specify criteria for selecting rows where one or more columns have NULL values.

# Filtering on multiple Columns
df.filter("state IS NULL AND gender IS NULL").show()
df.filter(df.state.isNull() & df.gender.isNull()).show()

Results below output.

# Output
+-----+-----+------+
|name |state|gender|
+-----+-----+------+
|Julia|null |null  |
+-----+-----+------+

3. Filter Rows with IS NOT NULL or isNotNull

isNotNull() is used to filter rows that are NOT NULL in DataFrame columns.

# Imports
from pyspark.sql.functions import col
df.filter("state IS NOT NULL").show()
df.filter("NOT state IS NULL").show()
df.filter(df.state.isNotNull()).show()
df.filter(col("state").isNotNull()).show()

Yields below output.

# Output
+----+-----+------+
|name|state|gender|
+----+-----+------+
|Anna|NY   |F     |
+----+-----+------+

Alternatively, you can also write the same using df.na.drop()

# Filter using na.drop()
df.na.drop(subset=["state"]).show()

4. PySpark SQL Filter Rows with NULL Values

If you are familiar with PySpark SQL, you can check IS NULL and IS NOT NULL to filter the rows from DataFrame.

# Filtering by spark.sql
df.createOrReplaceTempView("DATA")
spark.sql("SELECT * FROM DATA where STATE IS NULL").show()
spark.sql("SELECT * FROM DATA where STATE IS NULL AND GENDER IS NULL").show()
spark.sql("SELECT * FROM DATA where STATE IS NOT NULL").show()

5. Complete Example

Below is a complete Scala example of how to filter rows with null values on selected columns.

# Imports
from pyspark.sql import SparkSession
from pyspark.sql.functions import col
spark: SparkSession = SparkSession.builder \
    .master("local[1]") \
    .appName("SparkByExamples.com") \
    .getOrCreate()

data = [
    ("James",None,"M"),
    ("Anna","NY","F"),
    ("Julia",None,None)
]

columns = ["name","state","gender"]
df =spark.createDataFrame(data,columns)

df.printSchema()
df.show()

df.filter("state is NULL").show()
df.filter(df.state.isNull()).show()
df.filter(col("state").isNull()).show()

df.filter("state IS NULL AND gender IS NULL").show()
df.filter(df.state.isNull() & df.gender.isNull()).show()

df.filter("state is not NULL").show()
df.filter("NOT state is NULL").show()
df.filter(df.state.isNotNull()).show()
df.filter(col("state").isNotNull()).show()
df.na.drop(subset=["state"]).show()

df.createOrReplaceTempView("DATA")
spark.sql("SELECT * FROM DATA where STATE IS NULL").show()
spark.sql("SELECT * FROM DATA where STATE IS NULL AND GENDER IS NULL").show()
spark.sql("SELECT * FROM DATA where STATE IS NOT NULL").show()

Frequently Asked Questions on how to filter rows with null

Conclusion

In this PySpark article, you have learned how to filter rows with NULL values from DataFrame using isNull() and isNotNull() (NOT NULL). These come in handy when you need to clean up the DataFrame rows before processing.

Happy Learning !!

Related Articles

• Dynamic way of doing ETL through Pyspark
• PySpark Get Number of Rows and Columns
• PySpark – Find Count of null, None, NaN Values
• PySpark fillna() & fill() – Replace NULL/None Values
• PySpark isNull() & isNotNull()
• PySpark Count of Non null, nan Values in DataFrame
• PySpark Replace Empty Value With None/null on DataFrame
• PySpark Drop Rows with NULL or None Values

References

• https://spark.apache.org/docs/latest/api/python/_modules/pyspark/sql/functions.html