Github user gatorsmile commented on a diff in the pull request: https://github.com/apache/spark/pull/10060#discussion_r46624363 --- Diff: docs/sql-programming-guide.md --- @@ -9,18 +9,51 @@ title: Spark SQL and DataFrames # Overview -Spark SQL is a Spark module for structured data processing. It provides a programming abstraction called DataFrames and can also act as distributed SQL query engine. +Spark SQL is a Spark module for structured data processing. Unlike the basic Spark RDD API, the interfaces provided +by Spark SQL provide Spark with more about the structure of both the data and the computation being performed. Internally, +Spark SQL uses this extra information to perform extra optimizations. There are several ways to +interact with Spark SQL including SQL, the DataFrames API and the Datasets API. When computing a result +the same execution engine is used, independent of which API/language you are using to express the +computation. This unification means that developers can easily switch back and forth between the +various APIs based on which provides the most natural way to express a given transformation. -Spark SQL can also be used to read data from an existing Hive installation. For more on how to configure this feature, please refer to the [Hive Tables](#hive-tables) section. +All of the examples on this page use sample data included in the Spark distribution and can be run in +the `spark-shell`, `pyspark` shell, or `sparkR` shell. -# DataFrames +## SQL -A DataFrame is a distributed collection of data organized into named columns. It is conceptually equivalent to a table in a relational database or a data frame in R/Python, but with richer optimizations under the hood. DataFrames can be constructed from a wide array of sources such as: structured data files, tables in Hive, external databases, or existing RDDs. +One use of Spark SQL is to execute SQL queries written using either a basic SQL syntax or HiveQL. +Spark SQL can also be used to read data from an existing Hive installation. For more on how to +configure this feature, please refer to the [Hive Tables](#hive-tables) section. When running +SQL from within another programming language the results will be returned as a [DataFrame](#DataFrames). +You can also interact with the SQL interface using the [command-line](#running-the-spark-sql-cli) +or over [JDBC/ODBC](#running-the-thrift-jdbcodbc-server). -The DataFrame API is available in [Scala](api/scala/index.html#org.apache.spark.sql.DataFrame), [Java](api/java/index.html?org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrame.html), [Python](api/python/pyspark.sql.html#pyspark.sql.DataFrame), and [R](api/R/index.html). +## DataFrames -All of the examples on this page use sample data included in the Spark distribution and can be run in the `spark-shell`, `pyspark` shell, or `sparkR` shell. +A DataFrame is a distributed collection of data organized into named columns. It is conceptually +equivalent to a table in a relational database or a data frame in R/Python, but with richer +optimizations under the hood. DataFrames can be constructed from a wide array of [sources](#data-sources) such +as: structured data files, tables in Hive, external databases, or existing RDDs. +The DataFrame API is available in [Scala](api/scala/index.html#org.apache.spark.sql.DataFrame), +[Java](api/java/index.html?org/apache/spark/sql/DataFrame.html), +[Python](api/python/pyspark.sql.html#pyspark.sql.DataFrame), and [R](api/R/index.html). + +## Datasets + +A Dataset is a new experimental interface added in Spark 1.6 that tries to provide the benefits of +RDDs (strong typing, ability to use powerful lambda functions) with the benifits of Spark SQL's --- End diff -- benifits -> benefits
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