Q: How to apply a function to a set of columns of a PySpark dataframe by rows? Given a dataframe like:
   A0  A1  A2  A3
0   9   1   2   8
1   9   7   6   9
2   1   7   4   6
3   0   8   4   8
4   0   1   6   0
5   7   1   4   3
6   6   3   5   9
7   3   3   2   8
8   6   3   0   8
9   3   2   7   1

I need to apply a function to a set of the columns row by row to create a new column with the results of this function.
An example in Pandas is:
df = pd.DataFrame(data=None, columns=['A0', 'A1', 'A2', 'A3'])
df['A0'] = np.random.randint(0, 10, 10)
df['A1'] = np.random.randint(0, 10, 10)
df['A2'] = np.random.randint(0, 10, 10)
df['A3'] = np.random.randint(0, 10, 10)

df['mean'] = df.mean(axis=1)
df['std'] = df.iloc[:, :-1].std(axis=1)
df['any'] = df.iloc[:, :-2].apply(lambda x: np.sum(x), axis=1)

And the results is:
   A0  A1  A2  A3  mean       std  any
0   9   1   2   8  5.00  4.082483   20
1   9   7   6   9  7.75  1.500000   31
2   1   7   4   6  4.50  2.645751   18
3   0   8   4   8  5.00  3.829708   20
4   0   1   6   0  1.75  2.872281    7
5   7   1   4   3  3.75  2.500000   15
6   6   3   5   9  5.75  2.500000   23
7   3   3   2   8  4.00  2.708013   16
8   6   3   0   8  4.25  3.500000   17
9   3   2   7   1  3.25  2.629956   13

How can I do something similar in PySpark?

A: For Spark 2.4+, you can use aggregate function. First, create array columns values using all the dataframe columns. Then, calculate std, means and any columns like this:


*

*any: aggregate to sum the array elements

*mean: divide any column by the size of the array values

*std: aggregate and sum (x - mean) ** 2 then divide by the length - 1 of the array


Here is the associated code :
from pyspark.sql.functions import expr, sqrt, size, col, array

data = [
    (9, 1, 2, 8), (9, 7, 6, 9), (1, 7, 4, 6),
    (0, 8, 4, 8), (0, 1, 6, 0), (7, 1, 4, 3),
    (6, 3, 5, 9), (3, 3, 2, 8), (6, 3, 0, 8),
    (3, 2, 7, 1)
]
df = spark.createDataFrame(data, ['A0', 'A1', 'A2', 'A3'])

cols = df.columns

df.withColumn("values", array(*cols)) \
  .withColumn("any", expr("aggregate(values, 0D, (acc, x) -> acc + x)")) \
  .withColumn("mean", col("any") / size(col("values"))) \
  .withColumn("std", sqrt(expr("""aggregate(values, 0D, 
                                           (acc, x) -> acc + power(x - mean, 2), 
                                           acc -> acc / (size(values) -1))"""
                              )
                         )) \
  .drop("values") \
  .show(truncate=False)

#+---+---+---+---+----+----+------------------+
#|A0 |A1 |A2 |A3 |any |mean|std               |
#+---+---+---+---+----+----+------------------+
#|9  |1  |2  |8  |20.0|5.0 |4.08248290463863  |
#|9  |7  |6  |9  |31.0|7.75|1.5               |
#|1  |7  |4  |6  |18.0|4.5 |2.6457513110645907|
#|0  |8  |4  |8  |20.0|5.0 |3.8297084310253524|
#|0  |1  |6  |0  |7.0 |1.75|2.8722813232690143|
#|7  |1  |4  |3  |15.0|3.75|2.5               |
#|6  |3  |5  |9  |23.0|5.75|2.5               |
#|3  |3  |2  |8  |16.0|4.0 |2.70801280154532  |
#|6  |3  |0  |8  |17.0|4.25|3.5               |
#|3  |2  |7  |1  |13.0|3.25|2.6299556396765835|
#+---+---+---+---+----+----+------------------+

Spark < 2.4:
You can use functools.reduce and operator.add to sum the columns. The logic remains the same as above:
from functools import reduce
from operator import add

df.withColumn("any", reduce(add, [col(c) for c in cols])) \
  .withColumn("mean", col("any") / len(cols)) \
  .withColumn("std", sqrt(reduce(add, [(col(c) - col("mean")) ** 2 for c in cols]) / (len(cols) -1)))\
  .show(truncate=False)


A: The above answer is great, however I see the OP is using Python/PySpark and if you don't understand Spark SQL expressions the above logic is not 100% clear.
I would suggest using a Pandas UDAF, unlike UDF's these are vectorized and very efficient. This has been added to the Spark API to lower the learning curve needed to migrate from pandas to Spark. This also means that your code is more maintainable if most of your colleagues, like mine, are more familiar with Pandas/Python.
These are the types of Pandas UDAF's available and their Pandas equivalent
E.g
SparkUdafType → df.pandasEquivalent(...) works on → returns

SCALAR → df.transform(...), Mapping Series → Series

GROUPED_MAP → df.apply(...) , Group & MapDataFrame → DataFrame 

GROUPED_AGG → df.aggregate(...), Reduce Series → Scalar

