What are the various join types in Spark?

Loved Pathikrit's example. Here is a possible translation in Java using Spark v2 and dataframes, including cross-join.

package net.jgp.books.sparkInAction.ch12.lab940AllJoins;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import org.apache.spark.sql.Dataset;
import org.apache.spark.sql.Row;
import org.apache.spark.sql.RowFactory;
import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession;
import org.apache.spark.sql.types.DataTypes;
import org.apache.spark.sql.types.StructField;
import org.apache.spark.sql.types.StructType;

/**
 * All joins in a single app, inspired by
 * https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45990633/what-are-the-various-join-types-in-spark.
 * 
 * Used in Spark in Action 2e, http://jgp.net/sia
 * 
 * @author jgp
 */
public class AllJoinsApp {

  /**
   * main() is your entry point to the application.
   * 
   * @param args
   */
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    AllJoinsApp app = new AllJoinsApp();
    app.start();
  }

  /**
   * The processing code.
   */
  private void start() {
    // Creates a session on a local master
    SparkSession spark = SparkSession.builder()
        .appName("Processing of invoices")
        .master("local")
        .getOrCreate();

    StructType schema = DataTypes.createStructType(new StructField[] {
        DataTypes.createStructField(
            "id",
            DataTypes.IntegerType,
            false),
        DataTypes.createStructField(
            "value",
            DataTypes.StringType,
            false) });

    List<Row> rows = new ArrayList<Row>();
    rows.add(RowFactory.create(1, "A1"));
    rows.add(RowFactory.create(2, "A2"));
    rows.add(RowFactory.create(3, "A3"));
    rows.add(RowFactory.create(4, "A4"));
    Dataset<Row> dfLeft = spark.createDataFrame(rows, schema);
    dfLeft.show();

    rows = new ArrayList<Row>();
    rows.add(RowFactory.create(3, "A3"));
    rows.add(RowFactory.create(4, "A4"));
    rows.add(RowFactory.create(4, "A4_1"));
    rows.add(RowFactory.create(5, "A5"));
    rows.add(RowFactory.create(6, "A6"));
    Dataset<Row> dfRight = spark.createDataFrame(rows, schema);
    dfRight.show();

    String[] joinTypes = new String[] { 
        "inner", // v2.0.0. default
        "cross", // v2.2.0
        "outer", // v2.0.0
        "full", // v2.1.1
        "full_outer", // v2.1.1
        "left", // v2.1.1
        "left_outer", // v2.0.0
        "right", // v2.1.1
        "right_outer", // v2.0.0
        "left_semi", // v2.0.0, was leftsemi before v2.1.1
        "left_anti" // v2.1.1
        };

    for (String joinType : joinTypes) {
      System.out.println(joinType.toUpperCase() + " JOIN");
      Dataset<Row> df = dfLeft.join(
          dfRight, 
          dfLeft.col("id").equalTo(dfRight.col("id")), 
          joinType);
      df.orderBy(dfLeft.col("id")).show();
    }
  }
}

I'll put this example in the Spark in Action, 2e's chapter 12 repository.


Here is a simple illustrative experiment:

import org.apache.spark.sql._

object SparkSandbox extends App {
  implicit val spark = SparkSession.builder().master("local[*]").getOrCreate()
  import spark.implicits._
  spark.sparkContext.setLogLevel("ERROR")

  val left = Seq((1, "A1"), (2, "A2"), (3, "A3"), (4, "A4")).toDF("id", "value")
  val right = Seq((3, "A3"), (4, "A4"), (4, "A4_1"), (5, "A5"), (6, "A6")).toDF("id", "value")

  println("LEFT")
  left.orderBy("id").show()

  println("RIGHT")
  right.orderBy("id").show()

  val joinTypes = Seq("inner", "outer", "full", "full_outer", "left", "left_outer", "right", "right_outer", "left_semi", "left_anti")

  joinTypes foreach { joinType =>
    println(s"${joinType.toUpperCase()} JOIN")
    left.join(right = right, usingColumns = Seq("id"), joinType = joinType).orderBy("id").show()
  }
}

Output

LEFT
+---+-----+
| id|value|
+---+-----+
|  1|   A1|
|  2|   A2|
|  3|   A3|
|  4|   A4|
+---+-----+

RIGHT
+---+-----+
| id|value|
+---+-----+
|  3|   A3|
|  4|   A4|
|  4| A4_1|
|  5|   A5|
|  6|   A6|
+---+-----+

INNER JOIN
+---+-----+-----+
| id|value|value|
+---+-----+-----+
|  3|   A3|   A3|
|  4|   A4| A4_1|
|  4|   A4|   A4|
+---+-----+-----+

OUTER JOIN
+---+-----+-----+
| id|value|value|
+---+-----+-----+
|  1|   A1| null|
|  2|   A2| null|
|  3|   A3|   A3|
|  4|   A4|   A4|
|  4|   A4| A4_1|
|  5| null|   A5|
|  6| null|   A6|
+---+-----+-----+

FULL JOIN
+---+-----+-----+
| id|value|value|
+---+-----+-----+
|  1|   A1| null|
|  2|   A2| null|
|  3|   A3|   A3|
|  4|   A4|   A4|
|  4|   A4| A4_1|
|  5| null|   A5|
|  6| null|   A6|
+---+-----+-----+

FULL_OUTER JOIN
+---+-----+-----+
| id|value|value|
+---+-----+-----+
|  1|   A1| null|
|  2|   A2| null|
|  3|   A3|   A3|
|  4|   A4|   A4|
|  4|   A4| A4_1|
|  5| null|   A5|
|  6| null|   A6|
+---+-----+-----+

LEFT JOIN
+---+-----+-----+
| id|value|value|
+---+-----+-----+
|  1|   A1| null|
|  2|   A2| null|
|  3|   A3|   A3|
|  4|   A4| A4_1|
|  4|   A4|   A4|
+---+-----+-----+

LEFT_OUTER JOIN
+---+-----+-----+
| id|value|value|
+---+-----+-----+
|  1|   A1| null|
|  2|   A2| null|
|  3|   A3|   A3|
|  4|   A4| A4_1|
|  4|   A4|   A4|
+---+-----+-----+

RIGHT JOIN
+---+-----+-----+
| id|value|value|
+---+-----+-----+
|  3|   A3|   A3|
|  4|   A4| A4_1|
|  4|   A4|   A4|
|  5| null|   A5|
|  6| null|   A6|
+---+-----+-----+

RIGHT_OUTER JOIN
+---+-----+-----+
| id|value|value|
+---+-----+-----+
|  3|   A3|   A3|
|  4|   A4|   A4|
|  4|   A4| A4_1|
|  5| null|   A5|
|  6| null|   A6|
+---+-----+-----+

LEFT_SEMI JOIN
+---+-----+
| id|value|
+---+-----+
|  3|   A3|
|  4|   A4|
+---+-----+

LEFT_ANTI JOIN
+---+-----+
| id|value|
+---+-----+
|  1|   A1|
|  2|   A2|
+---+-----+

Spark data frame support following types of joins between two dataframes.
Please find the list of joins and joining string with respect to join types along with scala syntax.
We can use following joining values used for specify the join type in Scala- Spark code. 
***Mathod:*** Leftdataframe.join(Rightdataframe, join_conditions, joinStringName)

Join Name : Join String name in scala -Spark code

1. inner : 'inner'
2. cross: 'cross'
3. outer: 'outer'
4. full: 'full'
5. full outer: 'fullouter'
6. left : 'left'
7. left outer : 'leftouter'
8. right : 'right'
9. right outer : 'rightouter'
10. left semi: 'leftsemi'
11. left anti: 'leftanti'

example: 1. Left Semi join: 
Leftdataframe.join(Rightdataframe, join_conditions, "leftsemi");
2. inner Join Example:
Leftdataframe.join(Rightdataframe, join_conditions, "inner");

Its tested and working well.