Data Types

Spark SQL and DataFrames support the following data types:

Numeric types
- ByteType: Represents 1-byte signed integer numbers. The range of numbers is from -128 to 127.
- ShortType: Represents 2-byte signed integer numbers. The range of numbers is from -32768 to 32767.
- IntegerType: Represents 4-byte signed integer numbers. The range of numbers is from -2147483648 to 2147483647.
- LongType: Represents 8-byte signed integer numbers. The range of numbers is from -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807.
- FloatType: Represents 4-byte single-precision floating point numbers.
- DoubleType: Represents 8-byte double-precision floating point numbers.
- DecimalType: Represents arbitrary-precision signed decimal numbers. Backed internally by java.math.BigDecimal. A BigDecimal consists of an arbitrary precision integer unscaled value and a 32-bit integer scale.
String type
- StringType: Represents character string values.
Binary type
- BinaryType: Represents byte sequence values.
Boolean type
- BooleanType: Represents boolean values.
Datetime type
- TimestampType: Represents values comprising values of fields year, month, day, hour, minute, and second, with the session local time-zone. The timestamp value represents an absolute point in time.
- DateType: Represents values comprising values of fields year, month and day, without a time-zone.
Complex types
- ArrayType(elementType, containsNull): Represents values comprising a sequence of elements with the type of elementType. containsNull is used to indicate if elements in a ArrayType value can have null values.
- MapType(keyType, valueType, valueContainsNull): Represents values comprising a set of key-value pairs. The data type of keys is described by keyType and the data type of values is described by valueType. For a MapType value, keys are not allowed to have null values. valueContainsNull is used to indicate if values of a MapType value can have null values.
- StructType(fields): Represents values with the structure described by a sequence of StructFields (fields).
  - StructField(name, dataType, nullable): Represents a field in a StructType. The name of a field is indicated by name. The data type of a field is indicated by dataType. nullable is used to indicate if values of these fields can have null values.

All data types of Spark SQL are located in the package org.apache.spark.sql.types. You can access them by doing

import org.apache.spark.sql.types._

Find full example code at "examples/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/examples/sql/SparkSQLExample.scala" in the Spark repo.

Data type	Value type in Scala	API to access or create a data type
ByteType	Byte	ByteType
ShortType	Short	ShortType
IntegerType	Int	IntegerType
LongType	Long	LongType
FloatType	Float	FloatType
DoubleType	Double	DoubleType
DecimalType	java.math.BigDecimal	DecimalType
StringType	String	StringType
BinaryType	Array[Byte]	BinaryType
BooleanType	Boolean	BooleanType
TimestampType	java.sql.Timestamp	TimestampType
DateType	java.sql.Date	DateType
ArrayType	scala.collection.Seq	ArrayType(elementType, [containsNull]) Note: The default value of containsNull is true.
MapType	scala.collection.Map	MapType(keyType, valueType, [valueContainsNull]) Note: The default value of valueContainsNull is true.
StructType	org.apache.spark.sql.Row	StructType(fields) Note: fields is a Seq of StructFields. Also, two fields with the same name are not allowed.
StructField	The value type in Scala of the data type of this field (For example, Int for a StructField with the data type IntegerType)	StructField(name, dataType, [nullable]) Note: The default value of nullable is true.

All data types of Spark SQL are located in the package of org.apache.spark.sql.types. To access or create a data type, please use factory methods provided in org.apache.spark.sql.types.DataTypes.

Data type	Value type in Java	API to access or create a data type
ByteType	byte or Byte	DataTypes.ByteType
ShortType	short or Short	DataTypes.ShortType
IntegerType	int or Integer	DataTypes.IntegerType
LongType	long or Long	DataTypes.LongType
FloatType	float or Float	DataTypes.FloatType
DoubleType	double or Double	DataTypes.DoubleType
DecimalType	java.math.BigDecimal	DataTypes.createDecimalType() DataTypes.createDecimalType(precision, scale).
StringType	String	DataTypes.StringType
BinaryType	byte[]	DataTypes.BinaryType
BooleanType	boolean or Boolean	DataTypes.BooleanType
TimestampType	java.sql.Timestamp	DataTypes.TimestampType
DateType	java.sql.Date	DataTypes.DateType
ArrayType	java.util.List	DataTypes.createArrayType(elementType) Note: The value of containsNull will be true DataTypes.createArrayType(elementType, containsNull).
MapType	java.util.Map	DataTypes.createMapType(keyType, valueType) Note: The value of valueContainsNull will be true. DataTypes.createMapType(keyType, valueType, valueContainsNull)
StructType	org.apache.spark.sql.Row	DataTypes.createStructType(fields) Note: fields is a List or an array of StructFields. Also, two fields with the same name are not allowed.
StructField	The value type in Java of the data type of this field (For example, int for a StructField with the data type IntegerType)	DataTypes.createStructField(name, dataType, nullable)

All data types of Spark SQL are located in the package of pyspark.sql.types. You can access them by doing

from pyspark.sql.types import *

Data type	Value type in Python	API to access or create a data type
ByteType	int or long Note: Numbers will be converted to 1-byte signed integer numbers at runtime. Please make sure that numbers are within the range of -128 to 127.	ByteType()
ShortType	int or long Note: Numbers will be converted to 2-byte signed integer numbers at runtime. Please make sure that numbers are within the range of -32768 to 32767.	ShortType()
IntegerType	int or long	IntegerType()
LongType	long Note: Numbers will be converted to 8-byte signed integer numbers at runtime. Please make sure that numbers are within the range of -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807. Otherwise, please convert data to decimal.Decimal and use DecimalType.	LongType()
FloatType	float Note: Numbers will be converted to 4-byte single-precision floating point numbers at runtime.	FloatType()
DoubleType	float	DoubleType()
DecimalType	decimal.Decimal	DecimalType()
StringType	string	StringType()
BinaryType	bytearray	BinaryType()
BooleanType	bool	BooleanType()
TimestampType	datetime.datetime	TimestampType()
DateType	datetime.date	DateType()
ArrayType	list, tuple, or array	ArrayType(elementType, [containsNull]) Note: The default value of containsNull is True.
MapType	dict	MapType(keyType, valueType, [valueContainsNull]) Note: The default value of valueContainsNull is True.
StructType	list or tuple	StructType(fields) Note: fields is a Seq of StructFields. Also, two fields with the same name are not allowed.
StructField	The value type in Python of the data type of this field (For example, Int for a StructField with the data type IntegerType)	StructField(name, dataType, [nullable]) Note: The default value of nullable is True.

Data type	Value type in R	API to access or create a data type
ByteType	integer Note: Numbers will be converted to 1-byte signed integer numbers at runtime. Please make sure that numbers are within the range of -128 to 127.	"byte"
ShortType	integer Note: Numbers will be converted to 2-byte signed integer numbers at runtime. Please make sure that numbers are within the range of -32768 to 32767.	"short"
IntegerType	integer	"integer"
LongType	integer Note: Numbers will be converted to 8-byte signed integer numbers at runtime. Please make sure that numbers are within the range of -9223372036854775808 to 9223372036854775807. Otherwise, please convert data to decimal.Decimal and use DecimalType.	"long"
FloatType	numeric Note: Numbers will be converted to 4-byte single-precision floating point numbers at runtime.	"float"
DoubleType	numeric	"double"
DecimalType	Not supported	Not supported
StringType	character	"string"
BinaryType	raw	"binary"
BooleanType	logical	"bool"
TimestampType	POSIXct	"timestamp"
DateType	Date	"date"
ArrayType	vector or list	list(type="array", elementType=elementType, containsNull=[containsNull]) Note: The default value of containsNull is TRUE.
MapType	environment	list(type="map", keyType=keyType, valueType=valueType, valueContainsNull=[valueContainsNull]) Note: The default value of valueContainsNull is TRUE.
StructType	named list	list(type="struct", fields=fields) Note: fields is a Seq of StructFields. Also, two fields with the same name are not allowed.
StructField	The value type in R of the data type of this field (For example, integer for a StructField with the data type IntegerType)	list(name=name, type=dataType, nullable=[nullable]) Note: The default value of nullable is TRUE.

Spark SQL Guide

Data Types