Reshaping

Reshaping processors are used to change the « shape » (rows/columns) of the data.

DSS provides the following reshaping processors

Split and Fold

The Split and fold processor creates new lines by splitting the values of a column.

For example, with the following dataset:

customer_id

events

browser

1

login,product,buy

Mozilla

2

login,product,logout

Chrome

Applying “Split and Fold” on the “events” column with “,” as the separator will generate the following result:

customer_id

events

browser

1

login

Mozilla

1

product

Mozilla

1

buy

Mozilla

2

login

Chrome

2

product

Chrome

2

logout

Chrome

More details are available in the reference

Fold multiple columns

The Fold multiple columns processor takes values from multiple columns and transforms them to one line per column.

For example, with the following dataset representing monthly scores:

person

age

01/2014

02/2014

03/2014

John

24

3

4

3

Sidney

31

6

9

Bill

33

1

4

We would like to get one line per (month, person) couple with the score.

Applying the processor with:

  • 3 columns in the “columns list”: 01/2014, 02/2014, 03/2014

  • “month” as the “fold name column”

  • “score” as the “fold value column”

will generate the following result:

person

age

month

score

John

24

01/2014

3

John

24

02/2014

4

John

24

03/2014

6

Sidney

31

01/2014

Sidney

31

02/2014

6

Sidney

31

03/2014

9

Bill

33

01/2014

1

Bill

33

02/2014

Bill

33

03/2014

4

More details are available in the reference

Fold multiple columns by pattern

This processor is a variant of Fold multiple columns, where the columns to fold are specified by a pattern instead of a list. The processor only creates lines for non-empty columns.

For example, using “tag_(.*)” as column to fold pattern :

name

n_connection

tag_1

tag_2

tag_3

Florian

16570

bigdata

python

puns

becomes

name

n_connection

tag

rank

Florian

16570

bigdata

1

Florian

16570

python

2

Florian

16570

puns

3

More details are available in the reference

Unfold

This processor transforms cell values into binary columns.

For example, with the following dataset:

id

type

0

A

1

A

2

C

3

B

Applying the “Unfold” processor on the “type” column will generate the following result:

id

type_A

type_C

type_B

0

1

1

1

2

1

3

1

Each value of the unfolded column will create a new column. This new column:

  • contain the value “1” if the original column contained this value

  • remains empty else.

Unfolding is often used to find some correlations to a particular value, or for creating graphs.

Warning

Limitations

The Unfold processor dynamically creates new columns based on the actual data within the cells.

Due to the way the schema is handled when you create a preparation recipe, only the values that were found at least once in the sample will create columns in the output dataset.

Unfolding a column with a large number of values will create a large number of columns. This can cause performance issues. It is highly recommended not to unfold columns with more than 100 values, or to limit the number of created columns with the “Max nb. columns to create” option.

More details are available in the reference

Unfold an array

This processor transforms array values into occurence columns.

For example, with the following dataset:

id

words

0

[‘hello’, ‘hello’, ‘world’]

1

[‘hello’, ‘world’]

2

[‘hello’]

3

[‘world’, ‘world’]

Applying the “Unfold an array” processor on the “words” column will generate the following result:

id

words

words_hello

words_world

0

[‘hello’, ‘hello’, ‘world’]

2

1

1

[‘hello’, ‘world’]

1

1

2

[‘hello’]

1

3

[‘world’, ‘world’]

2

Each value of the unfolded column will create a new column. This new column:

  • contains the number of occurrences of the value found in the original column,

  • remains empty if the original column does not contain this value.

Warning

Limitations

The limitations that apply to the Unfold processor also apply to the Unfold an array processor.

More details are available in the reference

Split and Unfold

This processor splits multiple values in a cell and transforms them into columns.

For example, with the following dataset:

customer_id

events

1

login, product, buy

2

login, product, logout

We get:

customer_id

events_login

events_product

events_buy

events_logout

1

1

1

1

2

1

1

1

The unfolded column is deleted.

Warning

Limitations

The limitations that apply to the Unfold processor also apply to the Split and Unfold processor.

More details are available in the reference

Triggered Unfold

This processor is used to reassemble several rows when a specific value is encountered. It is useful for analysis of “interaction sessions” (a series of events with a specific event marking the beginning of a new interaction session). For example, while analyzing the logs of a web game, the “start game” event would be the beginning event.

More details are available in the reference