Broadcast variables（广播变量）允许程序员将一个 read-only（只读的）变量缓存到每台机器上，而不是给任务传递一个副本。它们是如何来使用呢，例如，广播变量可以用一种高效的方式给每个节点传递一份比较大的 input dataset（输入数据集）副本。在使用广播变量时，Spark 也尝试使用高效广播算法分发 broadcast variables（广播变量）以降低通信成本。
Spark 的 action（动作）操作是通过一系列的 stage（阶段）进行执行的，这些 stage（阶段）是通过分布式的 “shuffle” 操作进行拆分的。Spark 会自动广播出每个 stage（阶段）内任务所需要的公共数据。这种情况下广播的数据使用序列化的形式进行缓存，并在每个任务运行前进行反序列化。这也就意味着，只有在跨越多个 stage（阶段）的多个任务会使用相同的数据，或者在使用反序列化形式的数据特别重要的情况下，使用广播变量会有比较好的效果。
广播变量通过在一个变量 v 上调用 SparkContext.broadcast(v) 方法来进行创建。广播变量是 v 的一个 wrapper（包装器），可以通过调用 value 方法来访问它的值。代码示例如下:
scala> import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession scala> val spark=SparkSession.builder().appName("Broadcast").getOrCreate() 18/03/05 13:59:26 WARN SparkSession$Builder: Using an existing SparkSession; some configuration may not take effect. spark: org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession = org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession@3346e906 scala> val slices=2 slices: Int = 2 scala> val num=1000000 num: Int = 1000000 scala> val arr1=new Array[Int](num) arr1: Array[Int] = Array(0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0... scala> for(i<-0 until arr1.length){ | arr1(i)=i | } scala> val arr2=new Array[Int](num) arr2: Array[Int] = Array(0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0... scala> for (i<-0 until arr2.length){ | arr2(i)=i | } scala> val barr1=spark.sparkContext.broadcast(arr1) barr1: org.apache.spark.broadcast.Broadcast[Array[Int]] = Broadcast(0) scala> val barr2=spark.sparkContext.broadcast(arr2) barr2: org.apache.spark.broadcast.Broadcast[Array[Int]] = Broadcast(1) scala> val observedSizes=spark.sparkContext.parallelize(0 to 10,slices).map(_=>(barr1.value.length,barr2.value.length)) observedSizes: org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD[(Int, Int)] = MapPartitionsRDD[1] at map at <console>:40 scala> observedSizes.collect().foreach(i => println(i)) (1000000,1000000) (1000000,1000000) (1000000,1000000) (1000000,1000000) (1000000,1000000) (1000000,1000000) (1000000,1000000) (1000000,1000000) (1000000,1000000) (1000000,1000000) (1000000,1000000)