How do I pass arguments/variables to notebooks?

[__Databricks_Su]

Executing NotebookB from NotebookA with arguments, you would use the following syntax within NotebookA to define the arguments:

%run path/to/NotebookB $VarA="ValueA" $VarB="ValueB"

Within NotebookB, you'd use the following to receive the argument value:

Scala and Python:

print getArgument("VariableName", "DefaultValue")   

SQL (No default value is supported):

select * from $VariableName

[haidar]

should'nt the SQL be

select * from $VarA

[kruhly]

Is there a way to pass a variable's value from another cell to NotebookB? For example,

----Cell1------------------------

john = 10

-----Cell2--------------------

%run path/to/NotebookB $VarA = john

submits "john" to NotebookB not the value of 10

[arsalan1 · Accepted solution]

@kruhly Unfortunately right now you can't pass specific variable names, only constants. It's on our roadmap to improve/overhaul parameter passing, which would include this capability.

[osr2020]

where there any updates in this regard?

it's been 1.5 years, so i'm hoping this capability was added by now.

[Databricks_-Dat]

Looks like this feature is still not available. is there any plan to pass parameter values from another cell when running the notebook via %run?

[Dior]

Using dbutils.notebook api helped with this. The command follows this syntax:

dbutils.notebook.run("notebook", "timeout_secounds", {"widget_value": " "})

To get a variable in there just do this:

x = "value"

dbutils.notebook.run("run_weekly_notebook", 60, {"stores_available": f"{x}"})

[oren1_558848696]

Is there any plan to support default argument values for SQL?

[HananShteingar1]

@Databricks_Support, When I try the above, first %run tells me it cannot find the notebook (albeit they are in the same folder. I do not know how to set path\to\notebook right). Second, the getArgument gives me an error

py4j.Py4JException: Method createTextWidget([class java.lang.String, class java.lang.Integer, null, null]) does not exist

. I am using Python notebooks.

[nmud19]

Is there any similir functionality for an R notebook?

[SimeonSimeonov_]

@Oren Benjamin you can use a UDF in SQL and then, in the UDF's code, you can use the Scala/Python form.

[naman1994]

If you are running a notebook from another notebook, then use dbutils.notebook.run(path = " ", args={}, timeout='120'), you can pass variables in args = {}. And you will use dbutils.widget.get() in the notebook to receive the variable.

And if you are not running a notebook from another notebook, and just want to a variable before running particular cell in the notebook, use dbutils.widget.text("a","b","c") and dbutils.widget.get().

dbutils.widget.text("a","b","c") :Set the value; a,b,c are mandatory, a : name of the variable, b : default value, c : name of the textbox

dbutils.widget.get(): Assign the value to variable, I am not sure about the arguments here, look it up.

[lshar]

Hello, is there already a solution to this problem?

I have found a workaround for my use case. Hovewer, the workaround seems to have a databricks failure since without using the if statement the %run code is working and with if - an error is displayed as can be seen in the screenshot.

I am very interested in a solution!

[Meghala]

This info also needed to me as well​