Packages

This is the documentation for the Scala standard library.

Package structure

The scala package contains core types like Int, Float, Array or Option which are accessible in all Scala compilation units without explicit qualification or imports.

Notable packages include:

scala.collection and its sub-packages contain Scala's collections framework
- scala.collection.immutable - Immutable, sequential data-structures such as Vector, List, Range, HashMap or HashSet
- scala.collection.mutable - Mutable, sequential data-structures such as ArrayBuffer, StringBuilder, HashMap or HashSet
- scala.collection.concurrent - Mutable, concurrent data-structures such as TrieMap
scala.concurrent - Primitives for concurrent programming such as Futures and Promises
scala.io - Input and output operations
scala.math - Basic math functions and additional numeric types like BigInt and BigDecimal
scala.sys - Interaction with other processes and the operating system
scala.util.matching - Regular expressions

Other packages exist. See the complete list on the right.

Additional parts of the standard library are shipped as separate libraries. These include:

scala.reflect - Scala's reflection API (scala-reflect.jar)
scala.xml - XML parsing, manipulation, and serialization (scala-xml.jar)
scala.collection.parallel - Parallel collections (scala-parallel-collections.jar)
scala.util.parsing - Parser combinators (scala-parser-combinators.jar)
scala.swing - A convenient wrapper around Java's GUI framework called Swing (scala-swing.jar)

Automatic imports

Identifiers in the scala package and the scala.Predef object are always in scope by default.

Some of these identifiers are type aliases provided as shortcuts to commonly used classes. For example, List is an alias for scala.collection.immutable.List.

Other aliases refer to classes provided by the underlying platform. For example, on the JVM, String is an alias for java.lang.String.

Definition Classes: root

package scala

Core Scala types.

Core Scala types. They are always available without an explicit import.

Definition Classes: root

package annotation

Definition Classes: scala

package beans

Definition Classes: scala

package collection

Definition Classes: scala

package compat

Definition Classes: scala

package concurrent

This package object contains primitives for concurrent and parallel programming.

Guide

A more detailed guide to Futures and Promises, including discussion and examples can be found at http://docs.scala-lang.org/overviews/core/futures.html.

Common Imports

When working with Futures, you will often find that importing the whole concurrent package is convenient:

import scala.concurrent._

When using things like Futures, it is often required to have an implicit ExecutionContext in scope. The general advice for these implicits are as follows.

If the code in question is a class or method definition, and no ExecutionContext is available, request one from the caller by adding an implicit parameter list:

def myMethod(myParam: MyType)(implicit ec: ExecutionContext) = …
//Or
class MyClass(myParam: MyType)(implicit ec: ExecutionContext) { … }

This allows the caller of the method, or creator of the instance of the class, to decide which ExecutionContext should be used.

For typical REPL usage and experimentation, importing the global ExecutionContext is often desired.

import scala.concurrent.ExcutionContext.Implicits.global

Specifying Durations

Operations often require a duration to be specified. A duration DSL is available to make defining these easier:

import scala.concurrent.duration._
val d: Duration = 10.seconds

Using Futures For Non-blocking Computation

Basic use of futures is easy with the factory method on Future, which executes a provided function asynchronously, handing you back a future result of that function without blocking the current thread. In order to create the Future you will need either an implicit or explicit ExecutionContext to be provided:

import scala.concurrent._
import ExecutionContext.Implicits.global  // implicit execution context

val firstZebra: Future[Int] = Future {
  val source = scala.io.Source.fromFile("/etc/dictionaries-common/words")
  source.toSeq.indexOfSlice("zebra")
}

Avoid Blocking

Although blocking is possible in order to await results (with a mandatory timeout duration):

import scala.concurrent.duration._
Await.result(firstZebra, 10.seconds)

and although this is sometimes necessary to do, in particular for testing purposes, blocking in general is discouraged when working with Futures and concurrency in order to avoid potential deadlocks and improve performance. Instead, use callbacks or combinators to remain in the future domain:

val animalRange: Future[Int] = for {
  aardvark <- firstAardvark
  zebra <- firstZebra
} yield zebra - aardvark

animalRange.onSuccess {
  case x if x > 500000 => println("It's a long way from Aardvark to Zebra")
}

Definition Classes: scala

package io

Definition Classes: scala

package math

The package object scala.math contains methods for performing basic numeric operations such as elementary exponential, logarithmic, root and trigonometric functions.

All methods forward to java.lang.Math unless otherwise noted.

Definition Classes: scala
See also: java.lang.Math

package ref

Definition Classes: scala

package reflect

Definition Classes: scala

package sys

The package object scala.sys contains methods for reading and altering core aspects of the virtual machine as well as the world outside of it.

Definition Classes: scala
Since: 2.9

package util

Definition Classes: scala

#::

<:<

=:=

Any

App

Int

ScalaReflectionException

UninitializedFieldError

Unit

ValueOf

deprecated

deprecatedInheritance

Nothing

abstract final class Nothing extends Any

Nothing is - together with scala.Null - at the bottom of Scala's type hierarchy.

Nothing is a subtype of every other type (including scala.Null); there exist no instances of this type. Although type Nothing is uninhabited, it is nevertheless useful in several ways. For instance, the Scala library defines a value scala.collection.immutable.Nil of type List[Nothing]. Because lists are covariant in Scala, this makes scala.collection.immutable.Nil an instance of List[T], for any element of type T.

Another usage for Nothing is the return type for methods which never return normally. One example is method error in scala.sys, which always throws an exception.

Linear Supertypes

Any

Type Hierarchy

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Abstract Value Members

abstract def getClass(): Class[_]
Returns the runtime class representation of the object.
Returns the runtime class representation of the object.
returns
a class object corresponding to the runtime type of the receiver.
Definition Classes
Any

Concrete Value Members

final def !=(arg0: Any): Boolean
Test two objects for inequality.
Test two objects for inequality.
returns
true if !(this == that), false otherwise.
Definition Classes
Any
final def ##(): Int
Equivalent to x.hashCode except for boxed numeric types and null.
Equivalent to x.hashCode except for boxed numeric types and null. For numerics, it returns a hash value which is consistent with value equality: if two value type instances compare as true, then ## will produce the same hash value for each of them. For null returns a hashcode where null.hashCode throws a NullPointerException.
returns
a hash value consistent with ==
Definition Classes
Any
final def ==(arg0: Any): Boolean
Test two objects for equality.
Test two objects for equality. The expression x == that is equivalent to if (x eq null) that eq null else x.equals(that).
returns
true if the receiver object is equivalent to the argument; false otherwise.
Definition Classes
Any
final def asInstanceOf[T0]: T0
Cast the receiver object to be of type T0.
Cast the receiver object to be of type T0.
Note that the success of a cast at runtime is modulo Scala's erasure semantics. Therefore the expression 1.asInstanceOf[String] will throw a ClassCastException at runtime, while the expression List(1).asInstanceOf[List[String]] will not. In the latter example, because the type argument is erased as part of compilation it is not possible to check whether the contents of the list are of the requested type.
returns
the receiver object.
Definition Classes
Any
Exceptions thrown
ClassCastException if the receiver object is not an instance of the erasure of type T0.
def equals(arg0: Any): Boolean
Compares the receiver object (this) with the argument object (that) for equivalence.
Compares the receiver object (this) with the argument object (that) for equivalence.
Any implementation of this method should be an equivalence relation:
- It is reflexive: for any instance x of type Any, x.equals(x) should return true.
- It is symmetric: for any instances x and y of type Any, x.equals(y) should return true if and only if y.equals(x) returns true.
- It is transitive: for any instances x, y, and z of type Any if x.equals(y) returns true and y.equals(z) returns true, then x.equals(z) should return true.
If you override this method, you should verify that your implementation remains an equivalence relation. Additionally, when overriding this method it is usually necessary to override hashCode to ensure that objects which are "equal" (o1.equals(o2) returns true) hash to the same scala.Int. (o1.hashCode.equals(o2.hashCode)).
returns
true if the receiver object is equivalent to the argument; false otherwise.
Definition Classes
Any
def hashCode(): Int
Calculate a hash code value for the object.
Calculate a hash code value for the object.
The default hashing algorithm is platform dependent.
Note that it is allowed for two objects to have identical hash codes (o1.hashCode.equals(o2.hashCode)) yet not be equal (o1.equals(o2) returns false). A degenerate implementation could always return 0. However, it is required that if two objects are equal (o1.equals(o2) returns true) that they have identical hash codes (o1.hashCode.equals(o2.hashCode)). Therefore, when overriding this method, be sure to verify that the behavior is consistent with the equals method.
returns
the hash code value for this object.
Definition Classes
Any
final def isInstanceOf[T0]: Boolean
Test whether the dynamic type of the receiver object is T0.
Test whether the dynamic type of the receiver object is T0.
Note that the result of the test is modulo Scala's erasure semantics. Therefore the expression 1.isInstanceOf[String] will return false, while the expression List(1).isInstanceOf[List[String]] will return true. In the latter example, because the type argument is erased as part of compilation it is not possible to check whether the contents of the list are of the specified type.
returns
true if the receiver object is an instance of erasure of type T0; false otherwise.
Definition Classes
Any
def toString(): String
Returns a string representation of the object.
Returns a string representation of the object.
The default representation is platform dependent.
returns
a string representation of the object.
Definition Classes
Any

Packages

Package structure

Automatic imports

Guide

Common Imports

Specifying Durations

Using Futures For Non-blocking Computation

Avoid Blocking

Nothing

abstract final class Nothing extends Any

Abstract Value Members

Concrete Value Members

Inherited from Any

Ungrouped

Packages

Package structure

Automatic imports

Guide

Common Imports

Specifying Durations

Using Futures For Non-blocking Computation

Avoid Blocking

Nothing

abstract final class Nothing extends Any

Abstract Value Members

Concrete Value Members

Inherited from Any

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Nothing