A teaser talk for Scala newbies, introducing five basic elements that (in my opinion) make the transition from Java to Scala a no-brainer. Given at the 7th JJTV (Israeli Java/JVM user group) tool night, July 2nd, 2013.

1. Ponies and
unicorns with
A JJTV Tools Night Presentation
Tomer Gabel, Wix.com

2. You want these
• Type inference
• Closures
• Options
• Traits
• Collection Framework

3. Type Inference
#1

4. Saves buttloads of code!
final Map<String, String> parameters =
new HashMap<String, String>();
parameters.put( “param1”, “value” );
parameters.put( “param2”, “value” );
val parameterMap = Map( “param1” → “value”,
“param2” → “value” )

5. Type inference
• Pervasive!
– Locals
– Parameters
– Type parameters
– … everything other than formal
definitions, really!

6. Closures
#2

7. Simply put…
• Short-hand for unnamed functions
val isEven = ( v: Int ) => v % 2 == 0
• Can be passed around as parameters
def filterBy( predicate: Int => Boolean )

8. Functional building block
• All Scala collections (of T) support:
– Filtering by predicate (T=>Boolean)
– Finding a value by predicate
– Mapping by transformation (T=>R)
– Sorting by an arbitrary function

9. Compare…
List<Integer> list = …;
List<Integer> onlyEvens =
filter( list, new Predicate<Integer>() {
public boolean test( Integer value ) {
return value % 2 == 0;
}
} );
val list: List[ Int ] = …;
val onlyEvens = list.filter( _ % 2 == 0 )

10. Callbacks
// Runs a background process
def invokeProcess( command: String,
onExit: Int => Unit )
// Call site:
invokeProcess( “tar –cvjf backup.tar.bz2 *”,
exitCode =>
if ( exitCode <> 0 )
error( “Failed to generate backup!” )
)

11. Options
#3

12. NPEs are crap
String lower( String v ) {
if ( v == null )
return null;
else
return v.toLowerCase();
}
Does not document intent
Redundant
Always needs checking

13. NPEs are still crap
• In Scala, nulls are a code smell
• … except for legacy interop
def lower( v: Option[ String ] ) =
v.map( _.toLowerCase )
Clear semantics
Explicit access

14. Options are great!
• Loads of helpers:
– optional.getOrElse( “default value” )
– optional.orElse( anotherOption )
– optional.orNull // Legacy helper
• Just another collection!
– def lookup( id: Long ): Option[ User ] = …
for ( id <- idList; user <- lookup( id ) )
println( user.name )

15. Traits
#4

16. Multiple inheritance
• Traits are like Java interfaces
• … with optional implementation
• Useful for:
– Helpers
– Functional composition
– Good old interface declarations

17. Boilerplate 101
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
class MyClass {
private static Logger log =
LoggerFactory.getLogger( MyClass.class );
void myMethod() {
log.info( “Some message” );
}
}
x1000 classes
Boilerplate!

18. The Logging trait
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory
trait Logging {
private val log =
LoggerFactory.getLogger( this.getClass );
def info( s: => String ) {
if( log.isInfoEnabled ) log.info( s );
}
def trace( s: => String ) { … }
// etc.
}

19. A better way
• Now you can do..
class MyClass extends Logging {
def myMethod() {
…
info( “Some message” )
}
}

20. Functional composition
• Consider collections…
– Iterable[T] provides iteration
– Seq[T] implies ordering and indexing
– Vector[T] implements Seq[T]
• map, filter, foreach implemented by
Iterable[T]
• … Seq adds indexOf, slice, sortBy…
• … Vector re-implements for performance!

21. Collection Framework
#5

22. It will rock your world
Given the following:
case class Person( name: String, age: Int )
val people: List[ Person ] = …
You can now do…
val firstTen = people.take( 10 )
val onlyMinors = people.filter( _.age < 18 )
val nameSet = people.map( _.name ).toSet

23. … and then some
That was just the tip of the iceberg.
val sorted = people.sortBy( _.age )
val index = people.groupBy( _.name.head )
val pairs = people.sliding( 2, 2 )
val ( minors, adults ) =
people.partition( _.age < 18 )

24. Maps
• Maps are also collections
• … and can be used as lookup functions
val peopleById: Map[ Long, Person ] = …
def getPeople( ids: List[ Long ] ) =
ids map peopleById

25. Over and out
• Thank you for your time!
• Questions and comments welcome!
– tomer@tomergabel.com
– http://www.tomergabel.com