How to drop multiple column names given in a list from Spark DataFrame?

Question

I have a dynamic list which is created based on value of n.

n = 3
drop_lst = ['a' + str(i) for i in range(n)]
df.drop(drop_lst)

But the above is not working.

Note:

My use case requires a dynamic list.

If I just do the below without list it works

df.drop('a0','a1','a2')

How do I make drop function work with list?

Spark 2.2 doesn't seem to have this capability. Is there a way to make it work without using select()?

Answer 1

You can use the * operator to pass the contents of your list as arguments to drop():

df.drop(*drop_lst)

Answer 2

You can give column name as comma separated list e.g.

df.drop("col1","col11","col21")

Answer 3

This is how drop specified number of consecutive columns in scala:

val ll = dfwide.schema.names.slice(1,5)
dfwide.drop(ll:_*).show

slice take two parameters star index and end index.