[SPARK-18365][DOCS] Improve Sample Method Documentation

## What changes were proposed in this pull request?

I found the documentation for the sample method to be confusing, this adds more clarification across all languages.

- [x] Scala
- [x] Python
- [x] R
- [x] RDD Scala
- [ ] RDD Python with SEED
- [X] RDD Java
- [x] RDD Java with SEED
- [x] RDD Python

## How was this patch tested?

NA

Please review https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/SPARK/Contributing+to+Spark before opening a pull request.

Author: anabranch <wac.chambers@gmail.com>
Author: Bill Chambers <bill@databricks.com>

Closes #15815 from anabranch/SPARK-18365.

6 files changed, 30 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/R/pkg/R/DataFrame.R b/R/pkg/R/DataFrame.R
index 1cf9b38ea6..4e3d97bb3a 100644
--- a/R/pkg/R/DataFrame.R
+++ b/R/pkg/R/DataFrame.R
@@ -936,7 +936,9 @@ setMethod("unique",
 
 #' Sample
 #'
-#' Return a sampled subset of this SparkDataFrame using a random seed.
+#' Return a sampled subset of this SparkDataFrame using a random seed. 
+#' Note: this is not guaranteed to provide exactly the fraction specified
+#' of the total count of of the given SparkDataFrame.
 #'
 #' @param x A SparkDataFrame
 #' @param withReplacement Sampling with replacement or not
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaRDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaRDD.scala
index 20d6c9341b..d67cff64e6 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaRDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/api/java/JavaRDD.scala
@@ -98,7 +98,9 @@ class JavaRDD[T](val rdd: RDD[T])(implicit val classTag: ClassTag[T])
   def repartition(numPartitions: Int): JavaRDD[T] = rdd.repartition(numPartitions)
 
   /**
-   * Return a sampled subset of this RDD.
+   * Return a sampled subset of this RDD with a random seed.
+   * Note: this is NOT guaranteed to provide exactly the fraction of the count
+   * of the given [[RDD]].
    *
    * @param withReplacement can elements be sampled multiple times (replaced when sampled out)
    * @param fraction expected size of the sample as a fraction of this RDD's size
@@ -109,7 +111,9 @@ class JavaRDD[T](val rdd: RDD[T])(implicit val classTag: ClassTag[T])
     sample(withReplacement, fraction, Utils.random.nextLong)
 
   /**
-   * Return a sampled subset of this RDD.
+   * Return a sampled subset of this RDD, with a user-supplied seed.
+   * Note: this is NOT guaranteed to provide exactly the fraction of the count
+   * of the given [[RDD]].
    *
    * @param withReplacement can elements be sampled multiple times (replaced when sampled out)
    * @param fraction expected size of the sample as a fraction of this RDD's size
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
index e018af35cb..cded899db1 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
@@ -466,6 +466,9 @@ abstract class RDD[T: ClassTag](
   /**
    * Return a sampled subset of this RDD.
    *
+   * Note: this is NOT guaranteed to provide exactly the fraction of the count
+   * of the given [[RDD]].
+   *
    * @param withReplacement can elements be sampled multiple times (replaced when sampled out)
    * @param fraction expected size of the sample as a fraction of this RDD's size
    *  without replacement: probability that each element is chosen; fraction must be [0, 1]
diff --git a/python/pyspark/rdd.py b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
index 2de2c2fd1a..a163ceafe9 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/rdd.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/rdd.py
@@ -386,6 +386,11 @@ class RDD(object):
             with replacement: expected number of times each element is chosen; fraction must be >= 0
         :param seed: seed for the random number generator
 
+        .. note::
+
+            This is not guaranteed to provide exactly the fraction specified of the total count
+            of the given :class:`DataFrame`.
+
         >>> rdd = sc.parallelize(range(100), 4)
         >>> 6 <= rdd.sample(False, 0.1, 81).count() <= 14
         True
diff --git a/python/pyspark/sql/dataframe.py b/python/pyspark/sql/dataframe.py
index 29710acf54..3899890083 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/sql/dataframe.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/sql/dataframe.py
@@ -549,6 +549,11 @@ class DataFrame(object):
     def sample(self, withReplacement, fraction, seed=None):
         """Returns a sampled subset of this :class:`DataFrame`.
 
+        .. note::
+
+            This is not guaranteed to provide exactly the fraction specified of the total count
+            of the given :class:`DataFrame`.
+
         >>> df.sample(False, 0.5, 42).count()
         2
         """
diff --git a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala
index af30683cc0..3761773698 100644
--- a/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala
+++ b/sql/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/Dataset.scala
@@ -1646,7 +1646,10 @@ class Dataset[T] private[sql](
   }
 
   /**
-   * Returns a new Dataset by sampling a fraction of rows.
+   * Returns a new [[Dataset]] by sampling a fraction of rows, using a user-supplied seed.
+   *
+   * Note: this is NOT guaranteed to provide exactly the fraction of the count
+   * of the given [[Dataset]].
    *
    * @param withReplacement Sample with replacement or not.
    * @param fraction Fraction of rows to generate.
@@ -1665,7 +1668,10 @@ class Dataset[T] private[sql](
   }
 
   /**
-   * Returns a new Dataset by sampling a fraction of rows, using a random seed.
+   * Returns a new [[Dataset]] by sampling a fraction of rows, using a random seed.
+   *
+   * Note: this is NOT guaranteed to provide exactly the fraction of the total count
+   * of the given [[Dataset]].
    *
    * @param withReplacement Sample with replacement or not.
    * @param fraction Fraction of rows to generate.