Scala - Overview

Scala, short for Scalable Language, is a hybrid functional programming language. It was created by Martin Odersky. Scala smoothly integrates the features of object-oriented and functional languages. Scala is compiled to run on the Java Virtual Machine.

Scala - Environment Setup

Try it Option Online

We have set up the Scala Programming environment on-line, so that you can compile and execute all the available examples on line. It gives you confidence in what you are reading and enables you to verify the programs with different options. Feel free to modify any example and execute it on-line.

Scala - Basic Syntax

If you have a good understanding on Java, then it will be very easy for you to learn Scala. The biggest syntactic difference between Scala and Java is that the ';' line end character is optional.

Scala - Data Types

Scala has all the same data types as Java, with the same memory footprint and precision. Following is the table giving details about all the data types available in Scala −

Scala - Variables

Variables are nothing but reserved memory locations to store values. This means that when you create a variable, you reserve some space in memory.
Based on the data type of a variable, the compiler allocates memory and decides what can be stored in the reserved memory.

Scala - Classes & Objects

This chapter takes you through how to use classes and objects in Scala programming. A class is a blueprint for objects. Once you define a class, you can create objects from the class blueprint with the keyword new. Through the object you can use all functionalities of the defined class.

Scala - Access Modifiers

This chapter takes you through the Scala access modifiers. Members of packages, classes or objects can be labeled with the access modifiers private and protected, and if we are not using either of these two keywords, then access will be assumed as public.

Scala - Operators

An operator is a symbol that tells the compiler to perform specific mathematical or logical manipulations. Scala is rich in built-in operators and provides the following types of operators −

• Arithmetic Operators
• Relational Operators
• Logical Operators
• Bitwise Operators
• Assignment Operators

Scala - IF ELSE Statements

This chapter takes you through the conditional construction statements in Scala programming. Following is the general form of a typical decision making IF...ELSE structure found in most of the programming languages.

Scala - Loop Statements

This chapter takes you through the loop control structures in Scala programming languages.
There may be a situation, when you need to execute a block of code several number of times. In general, statements are executed sequentially: The first statement in a function is executed first, followed by the second, and so on.

Scala - Functions

A function is a group of statements that perform a task. You can divide up your code into separate functions. How you divide up your code among different functions is up to you, but logically, the division usually is so that each function performs a specific task.

Scala - Closures

A closure is a function, whose return value depends on the value of one or more variables declared outside this function.
The following piece of code with anonymous function.

val multiplier = (i:Int) => i * 10

Scala - Strings

This chapter takes you through the Scala Strings. In Scala, as in Java, a string is an immutable object, that is, an object that cannot be modified. On the other hand, objects that can be modified, like arrays, are called mutable objects. Strings are very useful objects, in the rest of this section, we present important methods of java.lang.String class.

Scala - Arrays

Scala provides a data structure, the array, which stores a fixed-size sequential collection of elements of the same type. An array is used to store a collection of data, but it is often more useful to think of an array as a collection of variables of the same type.

Scala - Collections

Scala has a rich set of collection library. Collections are containers of things. Those containers can be sequenced, linear sets of items like List, Tuple, Option, Map, etc. The collections may have an arbitrary number of elements or be bounded to zero or one element (e.g., Option).

Scala - Traits

A trait encapsulates method and field definitions, which can then be reused by mixing them into classes. Unlike class inheritance, in which each class must inherit from just one superclass, a class can mix in any number of traits.

Scala - Pattern Matching

Pattern matching is the second most widely used feature of Scala, after function values and closures. Scala provides great support for pattern matching, in processing the messages.

Scala - Regular Expressions

This chapter explains how Scala supports regular expressions through Regex class available in the scala.util.matching package.
Try the following example program where we will try to find out word Scala from a statement.

Scala - Exception Handling

Scala's exceptions work like exceptions in many other languages like Java. Instead of returning a value in the normal way, a method can terminate by throwing an exception. However, Scala doesn't actually have checked exceptions.

Scala - Extractors

An extractor in Scala is an object that has a method called unapply as one of its members. The purpose of that unapply method is to match a value and take it apart. Often, the extractor object also defines a dual method apply for building values, but this is not required.