Add `pivot` & `unpivot` (melt) to DataFrame

[ion-elgreco]

Is your feature request related to a problem or challenge?

Pivoting and unpivoting is a common use case for data scientists, this is currently missing in the DF api.

Describe the solution you'd like

Add two methods to DataFrame struct:

• pivot
  • possibility to add distinct values in advance (would be optimized into groupby.agg() directly)
  • let DataFusion calculate distinct values automatically
• unpivot

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

No response

[Omega359]

referenced in https://github.com/apache/datafusion-python/issues/875

[jonmmease]

Out of curiosity, would it be possible to implement pivot using DataFusion's current extension mechanisms? I had hoped it would be possible as a UDTF, but it doesn't look like UDTFs can input a table.

[riziles]

@jonmmease , not sure if it's helpful, but Ibis has a pure Python implementation that works on DataFusion dataframes:

https://github.com/ibis-project/ibis/blob/20bec137463d0dba71e741247624119b7a7b3452/ibis/expr/types/relations.py#L4005

[alamb]

@chenkovsky has a PR to implement this:

• https://github.com/apache/datafusion/pull/17946

It looks perhaps similar to the PIVOT from @simonvandel in

• https://github.com/apache/datafusion/pull/17365

[simonvandel]

@chenkovsky your PR seems better than my attempt, so let's go for that. I'll be happy to use the LogicalPlanBuilder::pivot from your PR in my pipe operator PR