Implement Comet Expression

Implement Comet support for the $ARGUMENTS Spark expression.

Background reading

The contributor guide is the canonical reference. Read these before writing code:

• docs/source/contributor-guide/adding_a_new_expression.md covers the Scala serde, protobuf, Rust scalar function flow, support levels, shims, and tests.
• docs/source/contributor-guide/sql-file-tests.md describes the Comet SQL Tests format.
• docs/source/user-guide/latest/expressions.md lists the support status for every expression.

Workflow

1. Study the Spark master implementation first

Always start from the latest Spark master. Shallow clone if not already present:

if [ ! -d /tmp/spark-master ]; then
  git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/apache/spark.git /tmp/spark-master
fi

Find the expression class and tests:

find /tmp/spark-master/sql -name "*.scala" | \
  xargs grep -l "case class $ARGUMENTS\b\|object $ARGUMENTS\b" 2>/dev/null

find /tmp/spark-master/sql -name "*.scala" -path "*/test/*" | \
  xargs grep -l "$ARGUMENTS" 2>/dev/null

Read the source. Note inputTypes, dataType, eval / nullSafeEval, ANSI mode branches, and any require guards. These define the contract Comet must match.

2. Check for an upstream datafusion-spark implementation

Before writing a Comet-specific native function, check whether the expression is already available in the upstream datafusion-spark crate. It is a Spark-compatible function library maintained alongside DataFusion, so its semantics are usually a closer match to Spark than a generic datafusion-functions built-in.

grep -rn "fn name\|SparkFunctionName" ~/.cargo/registry/src/*/datafusion-spark-*/src/function/ 2>/dev/null | grep -i "$ARGUMENTS"

Functions are organized as datafusion_spark::function::<category>::<name>::Spark<Name>. Existing wire-ups can be found in native/core/src/execution/planner.rs (e.g. SparkDateAdd, SparkDateSub, SparkCollectSet).

When the upstream implementation matches Spark's semantics, prefer it: register the ScalarUDF from datafusion-spark rather than re-implementing. This keeps the maintenance burden upstream. If the upstream version is missing, incomplete, or diverges from Spark, fall through to step 3 and write the function locally.

3. Implement the initial version

Follow adding_a_new_expression.md:

1. Add a CometExpressionSerde[T] in the appropriate file under spark/src/main/scala/org/apache/comet/serde/.
2. Register it in the matching map in QueryPlanSerde.scala.
3. If the function name collides with a DataFusion built-in that has a different signature, use scalarFunctionExprToProtoWithReturnType (see "When to set the return type explicitly").
4. For a new scalar function, add a match case in native/spark-expr/src/comet_scalar_funcs.rs::create_comet_physical_fun. If step 2 found an upstream implementation, wire that in. Otherwise implement the function under native/spark-expr/src/.
5. Add at least one Comet SQL Test at spark/src/test/resources/sql-tests/expressions/<category>/$ARGUMENTS.sql exercising column references, literals, and NULL.

Build and smoke-test:

make
./mvnw test -Dsuites="org.apache.comet.CometSqlFileTestSuite $ARGUMENTS" -Dtest=none

4. Run the audit skill

Once the initial implementation passes its smoke test, run the audit-comet-expression skill on $ARGUMENTS. It compares the implementation and tests against Spark 3.4.3, 3.5.8, and 4.0.1 and produces a prioritized list of gaps.

5. Implement audit-recommended tests and iterate

Add the missing test cases the audit recommends, then re-run the targeted suite:

./mvnw test -Dsuites="org.apache.comet.CometSqlFileTestSuite $ARGUMENTS" -Dtest=none

Surface findings to the user and ask whether the coverage is sufficient. Continue iterating (adding tests, fixing bugs, refining getSupportLevel / getIncompatibleReasons / getUnsupportedReasons) until the user confirms they are happy.

6. Final checks

Before opening a PR:

make format
cd native && cargo clippy --all-targets --workspace -- -D warnings

7. Open the PR

Use the repo's PR template at .github/pull_request_template.md and fill in every section: "Which issue does this PR close?", "Rationale for this change", "What changes are included in this PR?", and "How are these changes tested?". Do not add a separate test plan section.

In the "What changes are included in this PR?" section, add a brief note that the implement-comet-expression skill was used to scaffold the implementation, so reviewers know which workflow produced the change.

Source: apache/datafusion-comet — distributed by TomeVault.