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

On this weblog publish, 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 part of operations based mostly on inexact matching of timestamps. Throughout the context of Apache Spark, a be part of operation, loosely talking, matches data from two information frames (let’s name them left and proper) based mostly on some standards. A temporal be part of implies matching data in left and proper based mostly on timestamps, and with inexact matching of timestamps permitted, it’s usually helpful to affix left and proper alongside one of many following temporal instructions:

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

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

In sparklyr.flint 0.2, all ASOF be part of functionalities of Flint are accessible through the asof_join() methodology. 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 document from left with the newest document(s) from proper which might 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 alter the temporal path to “<”, then every document from left will likely be matched with any document(s) from proper that’s strictly sooner or later and is at most 1 second forward of the present document 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 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 document from proper that meets the matching standards).

OLS Regression

You may be questioning whether or not the model of this performance in Flint is kind of an identical to lm() in R. Seems it has rather more to supply than lm() does. An OLS regression in Flint will compute helpful metrics similar 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 might 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 look at 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}) incorporates 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}) will likely be linearly dependent (or almost so) and (mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{X}) will likely be singular (or almost so), which presents a difficulty computation-wise. Nonetheless, if a regressor is fixed, then it primarily performs the identical function 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 considering to themselves how computing (mathbf{beta} = (mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{X})^{-1}mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{y}) may very well be numerically unstable if (mathbf{X}^intercalmathbf{X}) has a big situation quantity. This is the reason Flint additionally outputs the situation variety of the Gram matrix within the OLS regression end result, 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 information 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 cause

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

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

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

Extra Summarizers

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

Higher Integration With sparklyr

Whereas sparklyr.flint 0.1 included a acquire() methodology for exporting information from a Flint time-series RDD to an R information body, it didn’t have an analogous methodology for extracting the underlying Spark information 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 information body that’s usable in sparklyr (e.g., as proven by mannequin %>% to_sdf() %>% dplyr::choose(...) examples from above). One can even get to the underlying Spark information 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

Now we have introduced numerous new options and enhancements launched in sparklyr.flint 0.2 and deep-dived into a few of them on this weblog publish. We hope you might be as enthusiastic about them as we’re.

Thanks for studying!

Acknowledgement

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