Implement sharding on merged iterable datasets
State: closed | Author: bruno-hays (CONTRIBUTOR)

This PR allows sharding of merged iterable datasets.

Merged iterable datasets with for instance the `interleave_datasets` command are comprised of multiple sub-iterable, one for each dataset that has been merged.

With this PR, sharding a merged iterable will result in multiple merged datasets each comprised of sharded sub-iterable, ensuring that there is no duplication of data.

As a result it is now possible to set any amount of workers in the dataloader as long as it is lower or equal to the lowest amount of shards amongst the datasets. Before it had to be set to 0.

I previously talked about this issue on the forum [here](https://discuss.huggingface.co/t/interleaving-iterable-dataset-with-num-workers-0/35801) 

Comments: _The documentation is not available anymore as the PR was closed or merged._

Hi ! What if one of the sub-iterables only has one shard ? In that case I don't think we'd end up with a correctly interleaved dataset, since only rank 0 would yield examples from this sub-iterable

Hi ! 
I just tested this out with the code below and it seems to be ok. Both datasets are alternating and we get all the examples with no duplicates.

On thing to keep in mind is that the max amount of workers is equal to the lowest amount of shard amongst the datasets to be merged (1 in this example).

 ```python
from torch.utils.data import DataLoader

from datasets import load_dataset, interleave_datasets


def process_dataset_train(batch):
    return {"input": f'train: {batch["review"][:20]}'}


def process_dataset_test(batch):
    return {"input": f'test: {batch["review"][:20]}'}


def identity_collator(x):
    return x


if __name__ == "__main__":
    ds = load_dataset("lhoestq/demo1")
    ds["train"] = ds["train"].map(process_dataset_train, remove_columns=ds["train"].column_names)
    ds["test"] = ds["test"].map(process_dataset_test, remove_columns=ds["test"].column_names)

    ds1 = ds["train"].to_iterable_dataset(num_shards=5)
    ds2 = ds["test"].to_iterable_dataset(num_shards=1)

    ds_merged = interleave_datasets([ds1, ds2], stopping_strategy="all_exhausted")

    dataloader = DataLoader(ds_merged, collate_fn=identity_collator, num_workers=1, batch_size=1)

    for i, element in enumerate(dataloader):
        print(i, element)

```

```
0 [{'input': 'train: Great app! The new v'}]
1 [{'input': 'test: Works with RTL and N'}]
2 [{'input': "train: Great It's not fully"}]
3 [{'input': 'test: Works with RTL SDR W'}]
4 [{'input': 'train: Works on a Nexus 6p '}]
5 [{'input': 'test: Awsome App! Easy to '}]
6 [{'input': 'train: The bandwidth seemed'}]
7 [{'input': "test: I'll forgo the refun"}]
8 [{'input': 'train: Works well with my H'}]
9 [{'input': 'test: looks like a great p'}]
```


 Could you try with `num_workers>1` ? 


edit: Oh I see

> On thing to keep in mind is that the max amount of workers is equal to the lowest amount of shard amongst the datasets to be merged (1 in this example).

Great ! It's ok to have the max amount of workers is equal to the lowest amount of shard :)

So in the case of `num_workers>min(n_shards_per_dataset)` maybe some workers should turn off, and a warning can probably be shown. This is already the case if you use a single dataset with a single shard and `num_workers>1`.


Right now it seems to raise an error:

```python
  File "/Users/quentinlhoest/hf/datasets/src/datasets/iterable_dataset.py", line 979, in __iter__
    yield from self._iter_pytorch(ex_iterable)
  File "/Users/quentinlhoest/hf/datasets/src/datasets/iterable_dataset.py", line 912, in _iter_pytorch
    for key, example in ex_iterable.shard_data_sources(worker_info.id, worker_info.num_workers):
  File "/Users/quentinlhoest/hf/datasets/src/datasets/iterable_dataset.py", line 259, in shard_data_sources
    [iterable.shard_data_sources(worker_id, num_workers) for iterable in self.ex_iterables],
  File "/Users/quentinlhoest/hf/datasets/src/datasets/iterable_dataset.py", line 259, in <listcomp>
    [iterable.shard_data_sources(worker_id, num_workers) for iterable in self.ex_iterables],
  File "/Users/quentinlhoest/hf/datasets/src/datasets/iterable_dataset.py", line 125, in shard_data_sources
    requested_gen_kwargs = _merge_gen_kwargs([gen_kwargs_list[i] for i in shard_indices])
  File "/Users/quentinlhoest/hf/datasets/src/datasets/utils/sharding.py", line 76, in _merge_gen_kwargs
    for key in gen_kwargs_list[0]
IndexError: list index out of range
```

Good point. I have fixed the n_shards property of merged iterable datasets so that this warning is raised properly

Hey @lhoestq, what do you think of the last modifications ? 

Hello! No problem :)

- About HorizontallyConcatenatedMultiSourcesExamplesIterable, I've haven't been able to create a bug with sharding. So either I missed something or it's working somehow:

```python
from torch.utils.data import DataLoader

from datasets import load_dataset, interleave_datasets, concatenate_datasets


def process_dataset_train(batch):
    return {"input": f'train: {batch["review"][:20]}'}


def process_dataset_test(batch):
    return {"input": f'test: {batch["review"][:20]}'}


def identity_collator(x):
    return x


if __name__ == "__main__":
    ds = load_dataset("lhoestq/demo1")
    ds["train"] = ds["train"].map(process_dataset_train, remove_columns=ds["train"].column_names)
    ds["test"] = ds["test"].map(process_dataset_test, remove_columns=ds["test"].column_names)
    ds["test"] = ds["test"].rename_columns({"input": "input2"})

    ds1 = ds["train"].to_iterable_dataset(num_shards=5)
    ds2 = ds["test"].to_iterable_dataset(num_shards=3)

    ds_merged = concatenate_datasets([ds1, ds2], axis=1)

    #n_shards is always 1 for HorizontallyConcatenatedMultiSourcesExamplesIterable
    dataloader = DataLoader(ds_merged, collate_fn=identity_collator, num_workers=1, batch_size=1)

    for i, element in enumerate(dataloader):
        print(i, element)
```

```
0 [{'input': 'train: Great app! The new v', 'input2': 'test: Works with RTL and N'}]
1 [{'input': "train: Great It's not fully", 'input2': 'test: Works with RTL SDR W'}]
2 [{'input': 'train: Works on a Nexus 6p ', 'input2': 'test: Awsome App! Easy to '}]
3 [{'input': 'train: The bandwidth seemed', 'input2': "test: I'll forgo the refun"}]
4 [{'input': 'train: Works well with my H', 'input2': 'test: looks like a great p'}]
```

- I've added a test but I'm not completely happy with it. My issue is that multiprocessing makes interleaving not completely deterministic as samples are yielded whenever ready by each process, if I'm correct.
As a result I opted to check for the amount of samples yielded and make that they are all unique, which should be equivalent.
But now my issue is that the "first_exhausted" method breaks the loop when one of the datasets of one of the shards is empty which means that all shards stop yielding and we could be missing up to n_workers samples. I don't know if this is the behaviour expected, but I had to modify the  test to accomodate this.

What are your thoughts about this ?

Ah indeed it works because it's set to be only 1 shard - my bad :)

> But now my issue is that the "first_exhausted" method breaks the loop when one of the datasets of one of the shards is empty which means that all shards stop yielding and we could be missing up to n_workers samples. I don't know if this is the behaviour expected, but I had to modify the test to accomodate this.

This looks reasonable, maybe this can be documented in the `interleave_datasets` docstring ?
```
Note for iterable datasets:

In a distributed setup or in PyTorch DataLoader workers, the stopping strategy is applied per process.
Therefore the "first_exhausted" strategy on an sharded iterable dataset can generate less samples in total (up to 1 missing sample per subdataset per worker).
```

<details>
<summary>Show benchmarks</summary>

PyArrow==8.0.0

<details>
<summary>Show updated benchmarks!</summary>

### Benchmark: benchmark_array_xd.json

| metric | read_batch_formatted_as_numpy after write_array2d | read_batch_formatted_as_numpy after write_flattened_sequence | read_batch_formatted_as_numpy after write_nested_sequence | read_batch_unformated after write_array2d | read_batch_unformated after write_flattened_sequence | read_batch_unformated after write_nested_sequence | read_col_formatted_as_numpy after write_array2d | read_col_formatted_as_numpy after write_flattened_sequence | read_col_formatted_as_numpy after write_nested_sequence | read_col_unformated after write_array2d | read_col_unformated after write_flattened_sequence | read_col_unformated after write_nested_sequence | read_formatted_as_numpy after write_array2d | read_formatted_as_numpy after write_flattened_sequence | read_formatted_as_numpy after write_nested_sequence | read_unformated after write_array2d | read_unformated after write_flattened_sequence | read_unformated after write_nested_sequence | write_array2d | write_flattened_sequence | write_nested_sequence |
|--------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| new / old (diff) | 0.006441 / 0.011353 (-0.004912) | 0.004551 / 0.011008 (-0.006457) | 0.099144 / 0.038508 (0.060636) | 0.028163 / 0.023109 (0.005054) | 0.386342 / 0.275898 (0.110444) | 0.398347 / 0.323480 (0.074867) | 0.004836 / 0.007986 (-0.003150) | 0.004724 / 0.004328 (0.000395) | 0.076277 / 0.004250 (0.072027) | 0.036305 / 0.037052 (-0.000747) | 0.377179 / 0.258489 (0.118690) | 0.410694 / 0.293841 (0.116853) | 0.030196 / 0.128546 (-0.098351) | 0.011436 / 0.075646 (-0.064211) | 0.325911 / 0.419271 (-0.093360) | 0.043709 / 0.043533 (0.000177) | 0.375801 / 0.255139 (0.120662) | 0.396511 / 0.283200 (0.113311) | 0.088346 / 0.141683 (-0.053337) | 1.483427 / 1.452155 (0.031272) | 1.553708 / 1.492716 (0.060992) |

### Benchmark: benchmark_getitem\_100B.json

| metric | get_batch_of\_1024\_random_rows | get_batch_of\_1024\_rows | get_first_row | get_last_row |
|--------|---|---|---|---|
| new / old (diff) | 0.190974 / 0.018006 (0.172968) | 0.451309 / 0.000490 (0.450819) | 0.004045 / 0.000200 (0.003845) | 0.000077 / 0.000054 (0.000022) |

### Benchmark: benchmark_indices_mapping.json

| metric | select | shard | shuffle | sort | train_test_split |
|--------|---|---|---|---|---|
| new / old (diff) | 0.023814 / 0.037411 (-0.013597) | 0.096922 / 0.014526 (0.082396) | 0.101506 / 0.176557 (-0.075050) | 0.164694 / 0.737135 (-0.572441) | 0.106899 / 0.296338 (-0.189439) |

### Benchmark: benchmark_iterating.json

| metric | read 5000 | read 50000 | read_batch 50000 10 | read_batch 50000 100 | read_batch 50000 1000 | read_formatted numpy 5000 | read_formatted pandas 5000 | read_formatted tensorflow 5000 | read_formatted torch 5000 | read_formatted_batch numpy 5000 10 | read_formatted_batch numpy 5000 1000 | shuffled read 5000 | shuffled read 50000 | shuffled read_batch 50000 10 | shuffled read_batch 50000 100 | shuffled read_batch 50000 1000 | shuffled read_formatted numpy 5000 | shuffled read_formatted_batch numpy 5000 10 | shuffled read_formatted_batch numpy 5000 1000 |
|--------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| new / old (diff) | 0.432164 / 0.215209 (0.216954) | 4.308076 / 2.077655 (2.230421) | 2.092434 / 1.504120 (0.588314) | 1.937405 / 1.541195 (0.396210) | 1.988030 / 1.468490 (0.519540) | 0.695476 / 4.584777 (-3.889301) | 3.436413 / 3.745712 (-0.309299) | 2.892954 / 5.269862 (-2.376908) | 1.519906 / 4.565676 (-3.045771) | 0.082579 / 0.424275 (-0.341696) | 0.012233 / 0.007607 (0.004626) | 0.531329 / 0.226044 (0.305284) | 5.365272 / 2.268929 (3.096344) | 2.391452 / 55.444624 (-53.053172) | 2.051116 / 6.876477 (-4.825361) | 2.140663 / 2.142072 (-0.001410) | 0.807262 / 4.805227 (-3.997966) | 0.151290 / 6.500664 (-6.349374) | 0.066137 / 0.075469 (-0.009333) |

### Benchmark: benchmark_map_filter.json

| metric | filter | map fast-tokenizer batched | map identity | map identity batched | map no-op batched | map no-op batched numpy | map no-op batched pandas | map no-op batched pytorch | map no-op batched tensorflow |
|--------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| new / old (diff) | 1.193106 / 1.841788 (-0.648682) | 13.577240 / 8.074308 (5.502932) | 14.280126 / 10.191392 (4.088734) | 0.142538 / 0.680424 (-0.537886) | 0.016641 / 0.534201 (-0.517560) | 0.386318 / 0.579283 (-0.192965) | 0.385991 / 0.434364 (-0.048373) | 0.440712 / 0.540337 (-0.099625) | 0.524189 / 1.386936 (-0.862747) |

</details>
PyArrow==latest

<details>
<summary>Show updated benchmarks!</summary>

### Benchmark: benchmark_array_xd.json

| metric | read_batch_formatted_as_numpy after write_array2d | read_batch_formatted_as_numpy after write_flattened_sequence | read_batch_formatted_as_numpy after write_nested_sequence | read_batch_unformated after write_array2d | read_batch_unformated after write_flattened_sequence | read_batch_unformated after write_nested_sequence | read_col_formatted_as_numpy after write_array2d | read_col_formatted_as_numpy after write_flattened_sequence | read_col_formatted_as_numpy after write_nested_sequence | read_col_unformated after write_array2d | read_col_unformated after write_flattened_sequence | read_col_unformated after write_nested_sequence | read_formatted_as_numpy after write_array2d | read_formatted_as_numpy after write_flattened_sequence | read_formatted_as_numpy after write_nested_sequence | read_unformated after write_array2d | read_unformated after write_flattened_sequence | read_unformated after write_nested_sequence | write_array2d | write_flattened_sequence | write_nested_sequence |
|--------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| new / old (diff) | 0.006628 / 0.011353 (-0.004725) | 0.004664 / 0.011008 (-0.006344) | 0.077254 / 0.038508 (0.038746) | 0.028369 / 0.023109 (0.005259) | 0.343076 / 0.275898 (0.067178) | 0.376491 / 0.323480 (0.053011) | 0.005298 / 0.007986 (-0.002687) | 0.004853 / 0.004328 (0.000524) | 0.075927 / 0.004250 (0.071677) | 0.039951 / 0.037052 (0.002899) | 0.346225 / 0.258489 (0.087736) | 0.382367 / 0.293841 (0.088526) | 0.031133 / 0.128546 (-0.097413) | 0.011666 / 0.075646 (-0.063981) | 0.086383 / 0.419271 (-0.332889) | 0.042885 / 0.043533 (-0.000647) | 0.343885 / 0.255139 (0.088746) | 0.366840 / 0.283200 (0.083640) | 0.095942 / 0.141683 (-0.045741) | 1.528972 / 1.452155 (0.076817) | 1.586392 / 1.492716 (0.093676) |

### Benchmark: benchmark_getitem\_100B.json

| metric | get_batch_of\_1024\_random_rows | get_batch_of\_1024\_rows | get_first_row | get_last_row |
|--------|---|---|---|---|
| new / old (diff) | 0.223952 / 0.018006 (0.205946) | 0.410767 / 0.000490 (0.410277) | 0.001014 / 0.000200 (0.000814) | 0.000067 / 0.000054 (0.000012) |

### Benchmark: benchmark_indices_mapping.json

| metric | select | shard | shuffle | sort | train_test_split |
|--------|---|---|---|---|---|
| new / old (diff) | 0.024210 / 0.037411 (-0.013201) | 0.100308 / 0.014526 (0.085782) | 0.106899 / 0.176557 (-0.069658) | 0.156514 / 0.737135 (-0.580621) | 0.109548 / 0.296338 (-0.186790) |

### Benchmark: benchmark_iterating.json

| metric | read 5000 | read 50000 | read_batch 50000 10 | read_batch 50000 100 | read_batch 50000 1000 | read_formatted numpy 5000 | read_formatted pandas 5000 | read_formatted tensorflow 5000 | read_formatted torch 5000 | read_formatted_batch numpy 5000 10 | read_formatted_batch numpy 5000 1000 | shuffled read 5000 | shuffled read 50000 | shuffled read_batch 50000 10 | shuffled read_batch 50000 100 | shuffled read_batch 50000 1000 | shuffled read_formatted numpy 5000 | shuffled read_formatted_batch numpy 5000 10 | shuffled read_formatted_batch numpy 5000 1000 |
|--------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| new / old (diff) | 0.434763 / 0.215209 (0.219554) | 4.348485 / 2.077655 (2.270831) | 2.064255 / 1.504120 (0.560135) | 1.864394 / 1.541195 (0.323199) | 1.899732 / 1.468490 (0.431242) | 0.694147 / 4.584777 (-3.890630) | 3.357898 / 3.745712 (-0.387815) | 2.909155 / 5.269862 (-2.360707) | 1.424790 / 4.565676 (-3.140886) | 0.082597 / 0.424275 (-0.341678) | 0.012442 / 0.007607 (0.004835) | 0.538758 / 0.226044 (0.312713) | 5.390288 / 2.268929 (3.121359) | 2.532016 / 55.444624 (-52.912609) | 2.185724 / 6.876477 (-4.690753) | 2.274176 / 2.142072 (0.132104) | 0.804785 / 4.805227 (-4.000442) | 0.152649 / 6.500664 (-6.348015) | 0.067707 / 0.075469 (-0.007762) |

### Benchmark: benchmark_map_filter.json

| metric | filter | map fast-tokenizer batched | map identity | map identity batched | map no-op batched | map no-op batched numpy | map no-op batched pandas | map no-op batched pytorch | map no-op batched tensorflow |
|--------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| new / old (diff) | 1.285219 / 1.841788 (-0.556568) | 13.958098 / 8.074308 (5.883790) | 14.043653 / 10.191392 (3.852261) | 0.144526 / 0.680424 (-0.535898) | 0.016813 / 0.534201 (-0.517388) | 0.390286 / 0.579283 (-0.188997) | 0.389184 / 0.434364 (-0.045180) | 0.470810 / 0.540337 (-0.069527) | 0.562391 / 1.386936 (-0.824545) |

</details>
</details>

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