Fulfilling Apache Arrow's Promises: Pandas on JVM memory without a copy

Apache Arrow's promise was to reduce the (serialization & copy) overhead of working with columnar data between different systems. Using the latest Pandas release and Arrow's ability to share memory between the JVM and Python as ingredients, we demonstrate that Arrow can fulfill this bold statement. The performance benefits of this will be shown using a typical data engineering use-case that produces data in the JVM and then passes it on to a Python-based machine learning model.

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1. 1 Fulfilling Apache Arrow's Promises: Pandas on JVM memory without a copy PyCon.DE Karlsruhe 2018 Uwe L. Korn
2. 2 • Senior Data Scientist at Blue Yonder (@BlueYonderTech) • Apache {Arrow, Parquet} PMC • Data Engineer and Architect with heavy focus around Pandas About me xhochy mail@uwekorn.com
3. 3 What’s Apache Arrow? • Published in February 2016 • Specification for in-memory columnar data layout • No overhead for cross-system communication • Designed for efficiency (exploit SIMD, cache locality, ..) • Exchange data without conversion between Python, C++, C(glib), Ruby, Lua, R, JavaScript, Go, Rust, Matlab and the JVM • Brought Parquet to Pandas and made PySpark fast (@pandas_udf)
4. 4 February 2016: Birth of Apache Arrow Just a goal…
5. 5 Data Science Workflow in 2018 Python machine learning model pre-processing with pandas probability density function (PDF) SQL Engine
6. 6 Looks simple? • It isn’t. • „Data“ is very heterogeneous landscape • Most common setup: • Java/Scala, i.e. JVM, for data processing • Python for machine learning
7. 7 Data Science Workflow in 2018 Python machine learning model pre-processing with pandas SQL Engine JDBC Driver JayDeBeApi P Y T H O N R O W S J D B C R O W S
8. 8 org.apache.arrow.adapter.jdbc • Retrieve JDBC results as Arrow RecordBatch / VectorSchemaRoot • Do conversion of rows to columns in the JVM • Data is stored „off-heap“, i.e: • not managed by the JVM • native memorly layout, same as in pyarrow
9. 9 Workflow in 2018 with Arrow Python machine learning model pre-processing with pandas SQL Engine JDBC Driver org.apache. arrow.adapter. jdbc A R R O W J D B C R O W S ?
10. 10 So we’re done? No. • We still only have Arrow data in the JVM • Arrow and Pandas have a slightly different memory layout • We have this today in PySpark • It’s fast • Still involves a copy over the network • Arrow → pandas conversion is tuned but still a copy
11. 11 pyarrow.jvm • Access Arrow data created in the JVM from Python • Involves no copy of the data • Translation of the helper objects • Actually passes memory addresses around No copy between the JVM and Python!
12. NumPy & the BlockManager Photo by Susan Holt Simpson on Unsplash
13. 13 Pandas Shortcomings • Limited to NumPy data types, otherwise object • Columns are not separate, grouped by type • Nullability is not type-safe (yet) —> Arrow memory does not match Pandas memory —> Copy
14. 14 Pandas ExtensionArrays • Introduced new interfaces in 0.23 • ExtensionDtype • What type of scalars? • ExtensionArray • Implement basic array ops • Pandas provides algorithms on top • Still, experimental, wait for 0.24
15. 15 Photo by Niklas Tidbury on Unsplash
16. 16 fletcher • https://github.com/xhochy/fletcher • Implements Extension{Array,Dtype} with Apache Arrow as storage • Uses Numba to implement the necessary analytic on top • Needs {pandas, Arrow, …} master No copy between Apache Arrow and pandas!
17. 17 Workflow in 2018 with Arrow Python machine learning model pre-processing with pandas SQL Engine JDBC Driver org.apache. arrow.adapter. jdbc A R R O W J D B C R O W S pyarrow.jvm
 / fletcher
18. 18 ??? Does it work?
19. 19 Does it work?
20. 20 Does it work?
21. Make your best decision today. blueyonder.ai/en/careers Blue Yonder Analytics, Inc. 5048 Tennyson Parkway Suite 250 Plano, Texas 75024 USA 21
22. Cross language DataFrame library • Website: https://arrow.apache.org/ • ML: dev@arrow.apache.org • Issues & Tasks: https://issues.apache.org/jira/ browse/ARROW • Slack: https:// apachearrowslackin.herokuapp.com/ • Github mirror: https://github.com/apache/ arrow Apache Arrow Apache Parquet Famous columnar file format • Website: https://parquet.apache.org/ • ML: dev@parquet.apache.org • Issues & Tasks: https://issues.apache.org/jira/ browse/PARQUET • Slack: https://parquet-slack- invite.herokuapp.com/ • C++ Github mirror: https://github.com/ apache/parquet-cpp 22 Get Involved!