Try flatMap with an identity map function (y => y
):
scala> val x = sc.parallelize(List(List("a"), List("b"), List("c", "d")))
x: org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD[List[String]] = ParallelCollectionRDD[1] at parallelize at <console>:12
scala> x.collect()
res0: Array[List[String]] = Array(List(a), List(b), List(c, d))
scala> x.flatMap(y => y)
res3: org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD[String] = FlatMappedRDD[3] at flatMap at <console>:15
scala> x.flatMap(y => y).collect()
res4: Array[String] = Array(a, b, c, d)