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PySpark Convert String to Array Column

To convert a string column (StringType) to an array column (ArrayType) in PySpark, you can use the  split()  function from the  pyspark.sql.…

Author

SQLDataDev Editorial Team

Mar 19, 2026 1 min read

To convert a string column (StringType) to an array column (ArrayType) in PySpark, you can use the split() function from the pyspark.sql.functions module. This function splits a string on a specified delimiter like space, comma, pipe e.t.c and returns an array.

Python 
from pyspark.sql import functions as F

data = 

columns=

# Create DataFrame
df=spark.createDataFrame(data,columns)
df.printSchema()
df.show()
Bash 
df.withColumn("Name_", F.explode(F.split(F.col("Name"), ""))).show()
SQL 
df.createOrReplaceTempView("PERSON")
spark.sql("select SPLIT(name,',') as NameArray from PERSON") \
    .show()

Topics covered

PySpark Convert String to Array ColumnSPLITPySpark

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