By default mapreduce program accepts text file and it reads line by line. Technically speaking the default input format is text input format and the default delimiter is ‘/n’ (new line).

In several cases, we need to override this property. For example if you have a large text file and you want to read the contents between ‘.’  in each read.

In this case, using the default delimiter will be difficult.

For example.

If you have a file like this


Ice cream (derived from earlier iced cream or cream ice) is a frozen  title="Dessert"  usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners. In some cases, artificial flavourings and colourings are used in addition to, or instead of, the natural ingredients. The mixture of chosen ingredients is stirred slowly while cooling, in order to incorporate air and to prevent large ice crystals from forming. The result is a smoothly textured semi-solid foam that is malleable and can be scooped.

And we want each record as


1) Ice cream (derived from earlier iced cream or cream ice) is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours

2) Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners

3) In some cases, artificial flavourings and colourings are used in addition to, or instead of, the natural ingredients

4) The mixture of chosen ingredients is stirred slowly while cooling, in order to incorporate air and to prevent large ice crystals from forming

5) The result is a smoothly textured semi-solid foam that is malleable and can be scooped

This we can do it by overriding one property textinputformat.record.delimiter

We can either set this property in the driver class or just changing the value of delimiter in the TextInputFormat class.

The first method is the easiest way.

Setting the textinputformat.record.delimiter in Driver class

The format for setting it in the program (Driver class)  is


conf.set(“textinputformat.record.delimiter”, “delimiter”)

The value you are setting by this method is ultimately going into the TextInputFormat class. This is explained below.

Editting the TextInputFormat class

.

Default TextInputFormat class

public class TextInputFormat extends FileInputFormat<LongWritable, Text> {

  @Override
  public RecordReader<LongWritable, Text>
    createRecordReader(InputSplit split,
                       TaskAttemptContext context) {
// By default,textinputformat.record.delimiter = ‘/n’(Set in configuration file)
    String delimiter = context.getConfiguration().get(
        "textinputformat.record.delimiter");
    byte[] recordDelimiterBytes = null;
    if (null != delimiter)
      recordDelimiterBytes = delimiter.getBytes();
    return new LineRecordReader(recordDelimiterBytes);
  }

  @Override
  protected boolean isSplitable(JobContext context, Path file) {
    CompressionCodec codec =
      new CompressionCodecFactory(context.getConfiguration()).getCodec(file);
    return codec == null;
  }
}

Editted TextInputFormat class


public class TextInputFormat extends FileInputFormat<LongWritable, Text> {

  @Override
  public RecordReader<LongWritable, Text>
    createRecordReader(InputSplit split,
                       TaskAttemptContext context) {

// Hardcoding this value as “.”
// You can add any delimiter as your requirement

    String delimiter = “.”;
    byte[] recordDelimiterBytes = null;
    if (null != delimiter)
      recordDelimiterBytes = delimiter.getBytes();
    return new LineRecordReader(recordDelimiterBytes);
  }

  @Override
  protected boolean isSplitable(JobContext context, Path file) {
    CompressionCodec codec =
      new CompressionCodecFactory(context.getConfiguration()).getCodec(file);
    return codec == null;
  }
}
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