pyspark.sql.functions.rand

pyspark.sql.functions.rand(seed=None)

Generates a random column with independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) samples uniformly distributed in [0.0, 1.0).

New in version 1.4.0.

Changed in version 3.4.0: Supports Spark Connect.

Parameters

seedint, optional

Seed value for the random generator.

Returns

Column

A column of random values.

Notes

The function is non-deterministic in general case.

Examples

Example 1: Generate a random column without a seed

>>> from pyspark.sql import functions as sf
>>> spark.range(0, 2, 1, 1).withColumn('rand', sf.rand()).show() 
+---+-------------------+
| id|               rand|
+---+-------------------+
|  0|0.14879325244215424|
|  1| 0.4640631044275454|
+---+-------------------+

Example 2: Generate a random column with a specific seed

>>> spark.range(0, 2, 1, 1).withColumn('rand', sf.rand(seed=42) * 3).show()
+---+------------------+
| id|              rand|
+---+------------------+
|  0|1.8575681106759028|
|  1|1.5288056527339444|
+---+------------------+