sequence

Generate a sequence of integers from start to stop, incrementing by step. If step is not set, the function increments by 1 if start is less than or equal to stop, otherwise it decrements by 1.

Syntax

Python

from pyspark.sql import functions as sf

sf.sequence(start, stop, step=None)

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
start	pyspark.sql.Column or str	The starting value (inclusive) of the sequence.
stop	pyspark.sql.Column or str	The last value (inclusive) of the sequence.
step	pyspark.sql.Column or str, optional	The value to add to the current element to get the next element in the sequence. The default is 1 if start is less than or equal to stop, otherwise -1.

Returns

pyspark.sql.Column: A new column that contains an array of sequence values.

Examples

Example 1: Generating a sequence with default step

Python

import pyspark.sql.functions as sf
df = spark.createDataFrame([(-2, 2)], ['start', 'stop'])
df.select(sf.sequence(df.start, df.stop)).show()

Output

+---------------------+
|sequence(start, stop)|
+---------------------+
|    [-2, -1, 0, 1, 2]|
+---------------------+

Example 2: Generating a sequence with a custom step

Python

import pyspark.sql.functions as sf
df = spark.createDataFrame([(4, -4, -2)], ['start', 'stop', 'step'])
df.select(sf.sequence(df.start, df.stop, df.step)).show()

Output

+---------------------------+
|sequence(start, stop, step)|
+---------------------------+
|          [4, 2, 0, -2, -4]|
+---------------------------+

Example 3: Generating a sequence with a negative step

Python

import pyspark.sql.functions as sf
df = spark.createDataFrame([(5, 1, -1)], ['start', 'stop', 'step'])
df.select(sf.sequence(df.start, df.stop, df.step)).show()

Output

+---------------------------+
|sequence(start, stop, step)|
+---------------------------+
|            [5, 4, 3, 2, 1]|
+---------------------------+