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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SPARK-38483?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=17504529#comment-17504529
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Brian Schaefer commented on SPARK-38483:
----------------------------------------

The column name does differ between the two when selecting a struct field, but 
handling that case seems fairly straightforward.
{code:python}
>>> df = spark.createDataFrame([{"struct": {"outer_field": {"inner_field": 
>>> 1}}}])
>>> values = F.col("struct.outer_field.inner_field")
>>> print(df.select(values).schema[0].name)
inner_field
>>> print(values._jc.toString())
struct.outer_field.inner_field
>>> print(values._jc.toString().split(".")[-1]) 
inner_field{code}
 

> Column name or alias as an attribute of the PySpark Column class
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                 Key: SPARK-38483
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SPARK-38483
>             Project: Spark
>          Issue Type: New Feature
>          Components: PySpark
>    Affects Versions: 3.2.1
>            Reporter: Brian Schaefer
>            Priority: Minor
>              Labels: starter
>
> Having the name of a column as an attribute of PySpark {{Column}} class 
> instances can enable some convenient patterns, for example:
> Applying a function to a column and aliasing with the original name:
> {code:java}
> values = F.col("values")
> # repeating the column name as an alias
> distinct_values = F.array_distinct(values).alias("values")
> # re-using the existing column name
> distinct_values = F.array_distinct(values).alias(values._name){code}
> Checking the column name inside a custom function and applying conditional 
> logic on the name:
> {code:java}
> def custom_function(col: Column) -> Column:
>     if col._name == "my_column":
>         return col.astype("int")
>     return col.astype("string"){code}
> The proposal in this issue is to add a property {{Column.\_name}} that 
> obtains the name or alias of a column in a similar way as currently done in 
> the {{Column.\_\_repr\_\_}} method: 
> [https://github.com/apache/spark/blob/master/python/pyspark/sql/column.py#L1062.]
>  The choice of {{_name}} intentionally avoids collision with the existing 
> {{Column.name}} method, which is an alias for {{{}Column.alias{}}}.



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