Fix issue related to RangePartitioning:

- We now defensively copy before computing the partition bounds, which is
  necessary in order to get accurate sampling.
- We now pass the actual partitioner into needToCopyObjectsBeforeShuffle(),
  which guards against the fact that RangePartitioner may produce a shuffle
  with fewer than `numPartitions` partitions.

sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/execution/Exchange.scala

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ package org.apache.spark.sql.execution
 
 import org.apache.spark.annotation.DeveloperApi
 import org.apache.spark.shuffle.sort.SortShuffleManager
-import org.apache.spark.{SparkEnv, HashPartitioner, RangePartitioner}
+import org.apache.spark.{HashPartitioner, Partitioner, RangePartitioner, SparkEnv}
 import org.apache.spark.rdd.{RDD, ShuffledRDD}
 import org.apache.spark.serializer.Serializer
 import org.apache.spark.sql.{SQLContext, Row}
@@ -81,21 +81,25 @@ case class Exchange(
    *
    * See SPARK-2967, SPARK-4479, and SPARK-7375 for more discussion of this issue.
    *
-   * @param numPartitions the number of output partitions produced by the shuffle
+   * @param partitioner the partitioner for the shuffle
    * @param serializer the serializer that will be used to write rows
    * @return true if rows should be copied before being shuffled, false otherwise
    */
   private def needToCopyObjectsBeforeShuffle(
-      numPartitions: Int,
+      partitioner: Partitioner,
       serializer: Serializer): Boolean = {
+    // Note: even though we only use the partitioner's `numPartitions` field, we require it to be
+    // passed instead of directly passing the number of partitions in order to guard against
+    // corner-cases where a partitioner constructed with `numPartitions` partitions may output
+    // fewer partitions (like RangeParittioner, for example).
     if (newOrdering.nonEmpty) {
       // If a new ordering is required, then records will be sorted with Spark's `ExternalSorter`,
       // which requires a defensive copy.
       true
     } else if (sortBasedShuffleOn) {
       // Spark's sort-based shuffle also uses `ExternalSorter` to buffer records in memory.
       // However, there are two special cases where we can avoid the copy, described below:
-      if (numPartitions <= bypassMergeThreshold) {
+      if (partitioner.numPartitions <= bypassMergeThreshold) {
         // If the number of output partitions is sufficiently small, then Spark will fall back to
         // the old hash-based shuffle write path which doesn't buffer deserialized records.
         // Note that we'll have to remove this case if we fix SPARK-6026 and remove this bypass.
@@ -177,8 +181,9 @@ case class Exchange(
         val keySchema = expressions.map(_.dataType).toArray
         val valueSchema = child.output.map(_.dataType).toArray
         val serializer = getSerializer(keySchema, valueSchema, numPartitions)
+        val part = new HashPartitioner(numPartitions)
 
-        val rdd = if (needToCopyObjectsBeforeShuffle(numPartitions, serializer)) {
+        val rdd = if (needToCopyObjectsBeforeShuffle(part, serializer)) {
           child.execute().mapPartitions { iter =>
             val hashExpressions = newMutableProjection(expressions, child.output)()
             iter.map(r => (hashExpressions(r).copy(), r.copy()))
@@ -190,55 +195,59 @@ case class Exchange(
             iter.map(r => mutablePair.update(hashExpressions(r), r))
           }
         }
-        val part = new HashPartitioner(numPartitions)
-        val shuffled =
-          if (newOrdering.nonEmpty) {
-            new ShuffledRDD[Row, Row, Row](rdd, part).setKeyOrdering(keyOrdering)
-          } else {
-            new ShuffledRDD[Row, Row, Row](rdd, part)
-          }
+        val shuffled = new ShuffledRDD[Row, Row, Row](rdd, part)
+        if (newOrdering.nonEmpty) {
+          shuffled.setKeyOrdering(keyOrdering)
+        }
         shuffled.setSerializer(serializer)
         shuffled.map(_._2)
 
       case RangePartitioning(sortingExpressions, numPartitions) =>
         val keySchema = child.output.map(_.dataType).toArray
         val serializer = getSerializer(keySchema, null, numPartitions)
 
-        val rdd = if (needToCopyObjectsBeforeShuffle(numPartitions, serializer)) {
-          child.execute().mapPartitions { iter => iter.map(row => (row.copy(), null))}
+        val childRdd = child.execute()
+        val part: Partitioner = {
+          // Internally, RangePartitioner runs a job on the RDD that samples keys to compute
+          // partition bounds. To get accurate samples, we need to copy the mutable keys.
+          val rddForSampling = childRdd.mapPartitions { iter =>
+            val mutablePair = new MutablePair[Row, Null]()
+            iter.map(row => mutablePair.update(row.copy(), null))
+          }
+          // TODO: RangePartitioner should take an Ordering.
+          implicit val ordering = new RowOrdering(sortingExpressions, child.output)
+          new RangePartitioner(numPartitions, rddForSampling, ascending = true)
+        }
+
+        val rdd = if (needToCopyObjectsBeforeShuffle(part, serializer)) {
+          childRdd.mapPartitions { iter => iter.map(row => (row.copy(), null))}
         } else {
-          child.execute().mapPartitions { iter =>
-            val mutablePair = new MutablePair[Row, Null](null, null)
+          childRdd.mapPartitions { iter =>
+            val mutablePair = new MutablePair[Row, Null]()
             iter.map(row => mutablePair.update(row, null))
           }
         }
 
-        // TODO: RangePartitioner should take an Ordering.
-        implicit val ordering = new RowOrdering(sortingExpressions, child.output)
-
-        val part = new RangePartitioner(numPartitions, rdd, ascending = true)
-        val shuffled =
-          if (newOrdering.nonEmpty) {
-            new ShuffledRDD[Row, Null, Null](rdd, part).setKeyOrdering(keyOrdering)
-          } else {
-            new ShuffledRDD[Row, Null, Null](rdd, part)
-          }
+        val shuffled = new ShuffledRDD[Row, Null, Null](rdd, part)
+        if (newOrdering.nonEmpty) {
+          shuffled.setKeyOrdering(keyOrdering)
+        }
         shuffled.setSerializer(serializer)
         shuffled.map(_._1)
 
       case SinglePartition =>
         val valueSchema = child.output.map(_.dataType).toArray
         val serializer = getSerializer(null, valueSchema, 1)
+        val partitioner = new HashPartitioner(1)
 
-        val rdd = if (needToCopyObjectsBeforeShuffle(numPartitions = 1, serializer)) {
+        val rdd = if (needToCopyObjectsBeforeShuffle(partitioner, serializer)) {
           child.execute().mapPartitions { iter => iter.map(r => (null, r.copy())) }
         } else {
           child.execute().mapPartitions { iter =>
             val mutablePair = new MutablePair[Null, Row]()
             iter.map(r => mutablePair.update(null, r))
           }
         }
-        val partitioner = new HashPartitioner(1)
         val shuffled = new ShuffledRDD[Null, Row, Row](rdd, partitioner)
         shuffled.setSerializer(serializer)
         shuffled.map(_._2)