Comments in Spark SQL with string queries

Question

How can I leave comments in my Spark SQL calls, when using string queries, eg:

df.registerTempTable('tb')
sqlContext.sql('SELECT * FROM tb')

I tried this:

sqlContext.sql('''
    # COMMENT
    SELECT
        *
    FROM
        tb
''')

But that raises the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/hdp/current/spark2-client/python/pyspark/sql/utils.py", line 63, in deco
    return f(*a, **kw)
  File "/usr/hdp/current/spark2-client/python/lib/py4j-0.10.4-src.zip/py4j/protocol.py", line 319, in get_return_value
py4j.protocol.Py4JJavaError: An error occurred while calling o36.sql.
: org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.parser.ParseException: 
mismatched input '#' expecting {'(', 'SELECT', 'FROM', 'ADD', 'DESC', 'WITH', 'VALUES', 'CREATE', 'TABLE', 'INSERT', 'DELETE', 'DESCRIBE', 'EXPLAIN', 'SHOW', 'USE', 'DROP', 'ALTER', 'MAP', 'SET', 'RESET', 'START', 'COMMIT', 'ROLLBACK', 'REDUCE', 'REFRESH', 'CLEAR', 'CACHE', 'UNCACHE', 'DFS', 'TRUNCATE', 'ANALYZE', 'LIST', 'REVOKE', 'GRANT', 'LOCK', 'UNLOCK', 'MSCK', 'EXPORT', 'IMPORT', 'LOAD'}(line 1, pos 0)

== SQL ==
# COMMENT
^^^
SELECT * FROM tb

    at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.parser.ParseException.withCommand(ParseDriver.scala:197)
    at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.parser.AbstractSqlParser.parse(ParseDriver.scala:99)
    at org.apache.spark.sql.execution.SparkSqlParser.parse(SparkSqlParser.scala:45)
    at org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.parser.AbstractSqlParser.parsePlan(ParseDriver.scala:53)
    at org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession.sql(SparkSession.scala:600)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at py4j.reflection.MethodInvoker.invoke(MethodInvoker.java:244)
    at py4j.reflection.ReflectionEngine.invoke(ReflectionEngine.java:357)
    at py4j.Gateway.invoke(Gateway.java:280)
    at py4j.commands.AbstractCommand.invokeMethod(AbstractCommand.java:132)
    at py4j.commands.CallCommand.execute(CallCommand.java:79)
    at py4j.GatewayConnection.run(GatewayConnection.java:214)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)


During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/hdp/current/spark2-client/python/pyspark/sql/context.py", line 384, in sql
    return self.sparkSession.sql(sqlQuery)
  File "/usr/hdp/current/spark2-client/python/pyspark/sql/session.py", line 545, in sql
    return DataFrame(self._jsparkSession.sql(sqlQuery), self._wrapped)
  File "/usr/hdp/current/spark2-client/python/lib/py4j-0.10.4-src.zip/py4j/java_gateway.py", line 1133, in __call__
  File "/usr/hdp/current/spark2-client/python/pyspark/sql/utils.py", line 73, in deco
    raise ParseException(s.split(': ', 1)[1], stackTrace)
pyspark.sql.utils.ParseException: "\nmismatched input '#' expecting {'(', 'SELECT', 'FROM', 'ADD', 'DESC', 'WITH', 'VALUES', 'CREATE', 'TABLE', 'INSERT', 'DELETE', 'DESCRIBE', 'EXPLAIN', 'SHOW', 'USE', 'DROP', 'ALTER', 'MAP', 'SET', 'RESET', 'START', 'COMMIT', 'ROLLBACK', 'REDUCE', 'REFRESH', 'CLEAR', 'CACHE', 'UNCACHE', 'DFS', 'TRUNCATE', 'ANALYZE', 'LIST', 'REVOKE', 'GRANT', 'LOCK', 'UNLOCK', 'MSCK', 'EXPORT', 'IMPORT', 'LOAD'}(line 1, pos 0)\n\n== SQL ==\n# COMMENT\n^^^\nSELECT * FROM tb\n"

Answer 1

Just like you'd leave a comment in HiveQL:

sqlContext.sql('''
    -- COMMENT
    SELECT
        *
    FROM
        tb
''')

Answer 2

The standard comment character in SQL in two hyphens, -- .

Note that these can appear anywhere in a line. So the following does not do what you expect:

update t
    set x = x--1;

I wouldn't be surprised if SparkSQL also supports multi-line comments with /* and */ .

Answer 3

You can add /* before and */ after the comment.

sqlContext.sql(/*
    # COMMENT
    SELECT
        *
    FROM
        tb
*/)