Fill: Returns a new DataFrame that replaces null or NaN values in
numeric columns with value.
Two things:
- An empty string is not null or NaN, so you'll have to use a case statement for that.
- Fill seems to not work well when giving a text value into a numeric column.
Failing Null Replace with Fill / Text:
scala> a.show
+----+---+
| f1| f2|
+----+---+
|null| AA|
| 12| BB|
+----+---+
scala> a.na.fill("Anonymous", Seq("f1")).show
+----+---+
| f1| f2|
+----+---+
|null| AA|
| 12| BB|
+----+---+
Working Example - Using Null With All Numbers:
scala> a.show
+----+---+
| f1| f2|
+----+---+
|null| AA|
| 12| BB|
+----+---+
scala> a.na.fill(1, Seq("f1")).show
+---+---+
| f1| f2|
+---+---+
| 1| AA|
| 12| BB|
+---+---+
Failing Example (Empty String instead of Null):
scala> b.show
+---+---+
| f1| f2|
+---+---+
| | AA|
| 12| BB|
+---+---+
scala> b.na.fill(1, Seq("f1")).show
+---+---+
| f1| f2|
+---+---+
| | AA|
| 12| BB|
+---+---+
Case Statement Fix Example:
scala> b.show
+---+---+
| f1| f2|
+---+---+
| | AA|
| 12| BB|
+---+---+
scala> b.select(when(col("f1") === "", "Anonymous").otherwise(col("f1")).as("f1"), col("f2")).show
+---------+---+
| f1| f2|
+---------+---+
|Anonymous| AA|
| 12| BB|
+---------+---+