Narrow and wide transformations in Apache Spark
As discussed in Chapter 3, transformations are the core operations for processing data. Transformations are categorized into two main types: narrow transformations and wide transformations. Understanding the distinction between these two types of transformations is essential for optimizing the performance of your Spark applications.
Narrow transformations
Narrow transformations are operations that do not require data shuffling or extensive data movement across partitions. They can be executed on a single partition without the need to communicate with other partitions. This inherent locality makes narrow transformations highly efficient and faster to execute.
The following are some of the key characteristics of narrow transformations:
- Single-partition processing: Narrow transformations operate on a single partition of the data independently, which minimizes communication overhead.
- Speed and efficiency: Due to their...
