FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec Physical Operator¶
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec is a binary physical operator (Spark SQL) that represents FlatMapGroupsWithState logical operator at execution time.
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec is an ObjectProducerExec (Spark SQL) physical operator that produces a single output object.
Creating Instance¶
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec takes the following to be created:
- User-defined state function that is applied to every group (of type
(Any, Iterator[Any], LogicalGroupState[Any]) => Iterator[Any]) - Deserializer expression for keys
- Deserializer expression for values
- Initial State Deserializer Expression
- Grouping attributes
- Initial State Group Attributes
- Data attributes
- Initial State Data Attributes
- Output object attribute (that is the reference to the single object field this operator outputs)
- Optional StatefulOperatorStateInfo
- State encoder (
ExpressionEncoder[Any]) - State format version
- OutputMode
- GroupStateTimeout
- Batch Processing Time
- Event-Time Watermark
-
SparkPlanof the initial state -
hasInitialStateflag - Child physical operator
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec is created when:
- FlatMapGroupsWithStateStrategy execution planning strategy is executed (and plans a FlatMapGroupsWithState logical operator for execution)
OutputMode¶
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec is given an OutputMode when created.
The OutputMode does not seem to be used at all (yet according to the scaladoc) is supposed to be the output mode of the func that knows nothing about the output mode. Interesting.
StackOverflow
Check out the question What's the purpose of OutputMode in flatMapGroupsWithState? How/where is it used? on StackOverflow.
Short Name¶
shortName: String
shortName is part of the StateStoreWriter abstraction.
shortName is the following text:
flatMapGroupsWithState
Performance Metrics¶
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec uses the performance metrics of StateStoreWriter.

Executing Physical Operator¶
doExecute(): RDD[InternalRow]
doExecute is part of SparkPlan (Spark SQL) abstraction.
Initializing Metrics¶
doExecute first initializes the metrics (that are accumulators under the covers so it is supposed to happen on the driver first before updates from tasks can have any effect).
Requirements¶
doExecute makes sure that the parameters are as expected based on the GroupStateTimeout (and throws an IllegalArgumentException otherwise):
| GroupStateTimeout | Requirements |
|---|---|
| ProcessingTimeTimeout | Batch Processing Time must be non-empty |
| EventTimeTimeout | Event-Time Watermark and Watermark Expression must be non-empty |
Processing Partition¶
With Initial State¶
Review Me
doExecute then requests the child physical operator to execute (and generate an RDD[InternalRow]).
doExecute uses StateStoreOps to create a StateStoreRDD with a storeUpdateFunction that does the following (for a partition):
-
Creates an InputProcessor for a given StateStore
-
(only when the GroupStateTimeout is EventTimeTimeout) Filters out late data based on the event-time watermark, i.e. rows from a given
Iterator[InternalRow]that are older than the event-time watermark are excluded from the steps that follow -
Requests the
InputProcessorto create an iterator of a new data processed from the (possibly filtered) iterator -
Requests the
InputProcessorto create an iterator of a timed-out state data -
Creates an iterator by concatenating the above iterators (with the new data processed first)
-
In the end, creates a
CompletionIteratorthat executes a completion function (completionFunction) after it has successfully iterated through all the elements (i.e. when a client has consumed all the rows). The completion method requests the givenStateStoreto commit changes followed by setting the store-specific metrics
No Initial State¶
With no hasInitialState, doExecute requests the child physical operator to execute (and generate an RDD[InternalRow]) and mapPartitionsWithStateStore with the following:
- StatefulOperatorStateInfo
- groupingAttributes
- State Schema of the StateManager
0for the numColsPrefixKeystoreUpdateFunction(as below)
storeUpdateFunction: (StateStore, Iterator[T]) => Iterator[U]
storeUpdateFunction creates a new InputProcessor with the current partition's StateStore and processes the partition.
Processing Partition¶
processDataWithPartition(
iter: Iterator[InternalRow],
store: StateStore,
processor: InputProcessor,
initialStateIterOption: Option[Iterator[InternalRow]] = None
): CompletionIterator[InternalRow, Iterator[InternalRow]]
Performance Metrics¶
processDataWithPartition uses the following metrics:
filteredIter¶
With the timeout based on event time (when the GroupStateTimeout is EventTimeTimeout), processDataWithPartition drops late rows.
processedOutputIterator¶
With the initial state specified, processDataWithPartition...FIXME
newDataProcessorIter¶
processDataWithPartition...FIXME
timeoutProcessorIter¶
With GroupStateTimeout enabled, processDataWithPartition...FIXME
Output Rows¶
In the end, processDataWithPartition creates an iterator that returns the rows from newDataProcessorIter followed by timeoutProcessorIter.
processDataWithPartition creates a (completion) iterator that does the following after all rows have been fully consumed (processed):
- Requests the given StateStore to commit all the state changes (and measures the time for the time to commit changes metrics)
- Sets the StateStore metrics (e.g. number of total state rows, stateMemory and the custom metrics)
- Sets operator metrics (e.g. numShufflePartitions and number of state store instances)
StateStoreWriter¶
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec is a stateful physical operator that can write to a state store (and MicroBatchExecution requests whether to run another batch or not based on the GroupStateTimeout).
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec uses the GroupStateTimeout (and possibly the updated metadata) when asked whether to run another batch or not (when MicroBatchExecution is requested to construct the next streaming micro-batch when requested to run the activated streaming query).
WatermarkSupport¶
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec is a physical operator that supports streaming event-time watermark.
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec is given the optional event time watermark when created.
The event-time watermark is initially undefined (None) when planned for execution (in FlatMapGroupsWithStateStrategy execution planning strategy).
Note
FlatMapGroupsWithStateStrategy converts FlatMapGroupsWithState unary logical operator to FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec physical operator with undefined StatefulOperatorStateInfo, batchTimestampMs, and eventTimeWatermark.
The event-time watermark (with the StatefulOperatorStateInfo and the batchTimestampMs) is only defined to the current event-time watermark of the given OffsetSeqMetadata when IncrementalExecution query execution pipeline is requested to apply the state preparation rule (as part of the preparations rules).
Note
The preparations rules are executed (applied to a physical query plan) at the executedPlan phase of Structured Query Execution Pipeline to generate an optimized physical query plan ready for execution).
Read up on Structured Query Execution Pipeline in The Internals of Spark SQL online book.
IncrementalExecution is used as the lastExecution of the available streaming query execution engines. It is created in the queryPlanning phase (of the MicroBatchExecution and ContinuousExecution execution engines) based on the current OffsetSeqMetadata.
Note
The optional event-time watermark can only be defined when the state preparation rule is executed which is at the executedPlan phase of Structured Query Execution Pipeline which is also part of the queryPlanning phase.
StateManager¶
stateManager: StateManager
While being created, FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec creates a StateManager (with the state encoder and the isTimeoutEnabled flag).
A StateManager is created per state format version that is given while creating a FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec (to choose between the available implementations).
The state format version is controlled by spark.sql.streaming.flatMapGroupsWithState.stateFormatVersion internal configuration property.
The StateManager is used exclusively when FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec physical operator is executed for the following:
-
State schema (for the value schema of a StateStoreRDD)
-
State data for a key in a StateStore while processing new data
-
All state data (for all keys) in a StateStore while processing timed-out state data
-
Removing the state for a key from a StateStore when all rows have been processed
-
Persisting the state for a key in a StateStore when all rows have been processed
keyExpressions Method¶
keyExpressions: Seq[Attribute]
keyExpressions simply returns the grouping attributes.
keyExpressions is part of the WatermarkSupport abstraction.
Checking Out Whether Last Batch Execution Requires Another Non-Data Batch or Not¶
shouldRunAnotherBatch(
newMetadata: OffsetSeqMetadata): Boolean
shouldRunAnotherBatch uses the GroupStateTimeout as follows:
-
With EventTimeTimeout,
shouldRunAnotherBatchistrueonly when the event-time watermark is defined and is older (below) the event-time watermark of the givenOffsetSeqMetadata -
With NoTimeout (and other GroupStateTimeouts if there were any),
shouldRunAnotherBatchis alwaysfalse -
With ProcessingTimeTimeout,
shouldRunAnotherBatchis alwaystrue
shouldRunAnotherBatch is part of the StateStoreWriter abstraction.
Internal Properties¶
isTimeoutEnabled Flag¶
Flag that says whether the GroupStateTimeout is not NoTimeout
Used when:
FlatMapGroupsWithStateExecis created (and creates the internal StateManager)InputProcessoris requested to processTimedOutState
watermarkPresent Flag¶
Flag that says whether the child physical operator has a watermark attribute (among the output attributes).
Used when:
InputProcessoris requested to callFunctionAndUpdateState
Required Child Output Distribution¶
requiredChildDistribution: Seq[Distribution]
requiredChildDistribution is part of the SparkPlan (Spark SQL) abstraction.
requiredChildDistribution...FIXME
Demo¶
Demo: Internals of FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec Physical Operator
Logging¶
Enable ALL logging level for org.apache.spark.sql.execution.streaming.FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec logger to see what happens inside.
Add the following line to conf/log4j.properties:
log4j.logger.org.apache.spark.sql.execution.streaming.FlatMapGroupsWithStateExec=ALL
Refer to Logging.