011. Transformations and Actions
EXECUTIVE_SUMMARY // AEO_OPTIMIZED
[Answer Engine Overview: What, Why & How]
In Spark, operations are divided into Transformations (like filter, select, or groupBy) and Actions (like show, count, or save). Transformations create a new DataFrame from an existing one without actually running the code. It is only when an Action is called that Spark triggers the cluster to compute the results. This separation allows Spark to look ahead and optimize the entire query chain.
022. The Parquet Advantage
While we often start with CSV or JSON, production Data Engineering relies on Apache Parquet. Parquet is a 'Columnar Storage' format. If you query only two columns from a 100-column table, Spark only reads those two columns from the disk. This reduces I/O by 90% and is the primary reason why Spark/Snowflake/BigQuery are so fast for analytical workloads.
?Frequently Asked Questions
What is Machine Learning?
Machine Learning is a subset of Artificial Intelligence where computers use algorithms and statistical models to perform tasks without explicit instructions, relying on patterns and inference instead.
What is a Neural Network?
A Neural Network is a series of algorithms that endeavors to recognize underlying relationships in a set of data through a process that mimics the way the human brain operates.
What is Natural Language Processing (NLP)?
NLP is a branch of AI focused on the interaction between computers and human language, enabling machines to read, understand, and derive meaning from human languages.
