Hi, dear readers! Welcome to my blog. On this post, we will continue to see more features from the Scala language, such as abstract classes, traits and optionals. If you haven’t read the previous post, please go to the “programming languages” menu option to find all of the series. So, without further delay, let’s begin!

Abstract classes

Abstract classes on Scala are just like in any other OO language, that is, they are classes that have methods without implementation, that must be implemented by other classes in order to be used.

On Scala, we can create a abstract class like this, for example:

abstract class MyAbstractClass {
 def methodA(str: String): Set[String]
}

On this code, we are creating a abstract class MyAbstractClass and declaring a method called methodA which has a string as parameter and returns a Set of strings.

In order to implement the class, we could have a class as follows:

class MyAbstractClassImpl extends MyAbstractClass {
 
 def methodA(str: String): Set[String] = ???

}

On this code, we are extending the abstract class – on Scala, like Java, we can’t have multiple inheritance, so we can just extend one class – and provide a empty implementation for the method, with the keyword ???. This keyword produces the equivalent on Java as when we create a method that throws a NotImplementedError. We can see this if we try to instantiate and call the method, which will give us the following output:

scala.NotImplementedError: an implementation is missing

at scala.Predef$.$qmark$qmark$qmark(Predef.scala:284)

at MyAbstractClassImpl.methodA(MyAbstractClassImpl.scala:3)

at Main$.delayedEndpoint$Main$1(Myscript.scala:17)

at Main$delayedInit$body.apply(Myscript.scala:1)

at scala.Function0.apply$mcV$sp(Function0.scala:34)

at scala.Function0.apply$mcV$sp$(Function0.scala:34)

at scala.runtime.AbstractFunction0.apply$mcV$sp(AbstractFunction0.scala:12)

at scala.App.$anonfun$main$1$adapted(App.scala:76)

at scala.collection.immutable.List.foreach(List.scala:378)

at scala.App.main(App.scala:76)

at scala.App.main$(App.scala:74)

at Main$.main(Myscript.scala:1)

at Main.main(Myscript.scala)

at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)

........omitted........

On the next post on the series, we will see how Scala’s inheritance mechanisms work on more detail. For now, let’s move on to our next topic, Traits.

Traits

Traits can be thought out like interfaces. With traits, we can create several different contracts to standardize our classes, while also providing default implementations for any method that requires it – just like default methods from Java 8 onwards.

To create a trait with 2 methods, one with a implementation and one without it, we can code like this:

trait MyLogger {
 
 def logPrintln(msg: String): Unit = println(msg)

 def log(msg: String): Unit

}

On this code, we declared 2 methods that receive a string as parameter and have void returns, one with a implementation and one without it. To test multiple traits inheritance, let’s create another trait as follows:

trait MyMathLibrary {
 
 def add(a: Double, b: Double): Double = a + b

}

If we wanted our previous class to implement our traits as well, we could just change the code as follows:

class MyAbstractClassImpl extends MyAbstractClass with MyLogger with MyMathLibrary {
 
def methodA(str: String): Set[String] = Set[String]("a","b","c")

def log(msg: String): Unit = { 

 println("this log is the same as the other method")
 println(msg)

 }

}

On the code we see that we chained the traits with the with keyword. We also provided a implementation for the abstract class’s method so we don’t receive a not implemented exception anymore.

 

Sealed traits & classes

Another cool feature from Scala are sealed classes and traits. If we want a class or trait to be prohibited of been extended outside of their own source file, we use the keyword sealed. This is particularly useful when implementing libraries, in order to prevent users from the library from changing the behavior of the library.

To seal a class or trait, we just change like this:

sealed abstract class MyAbstractClass {
 def methodA(str: String): Set[String]
}

Now, if we try to compile our code, we will receive the following error:

MyAbstractClassImpl.scala:1: error: illegal inheritance from sealed class MyAbstractClass

class MyAbstractClassImpl extends MyAbstractClass with MyLogger with MyMathLibrary {

                                  ^

one error found

Showing that our seal was successful. To allow our class to compile again without removing the seal, the only way is moving the abstract class to the same file of the implementation, like the following:

sealed abstract class MyAbstractClass {
 def methodA(str: String): Set[String]
}

class MyAbstractClassImpl extends MyAbstractClass with MyLogger with MyMathLibrary {
 
def methodA(str: String): Set[String] = Set[String]("a","b","c")

def log(msg: String): Unit = {

println("this log is the same as the other method")
 println(msg)

}

}

If we try to compile again, we will see that now our class can compile again as normal.

Optionals

Optionals on Scala are called options. With options, we can create code that it is resilient, since we won’t need to worry about shielding our code from null values.

When working with options, we can instantiate the Option type using 2 alternatives:

• Some(value): the Some keyword allows us to return a value on optionals;
• None: the None keyword allow us to represent the null value, that is, the absence of value;

Also, with options, we have two ways to get a value:

• get: using this method, we receive the value inside the option, or a NoSuchElementException if the value is null;

• getOrElse(value): using this method, we receive the value inside the option, or the value passed by parameter if the value is null. This way, we can guarantee a default value in case the data doesn’t exist;

Let’s see a example. On our REPL, let’s create a Map:

val mymap = Map(
 ("1", "value 1"),
 ("2", "value 2")
 )

Next we get values from the map. If we try to get values that exist and don’t exist on the map with the getOrElse method, we receive this output on console:

Welcome to Scala 2.12.1 (Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM, Java 1.8.0_73).
Type in expressions for evaluation. Or try :help.

scala> val mymap = Map(
 | ("1", "value 1"),
 | ("2", "value 2")
 | )
mymap: scala.collection.immutable.Map[String,String] = Map(1 -> value 1, 2 -> value 2)

scala> val value1 = mymap.get("1")
value1: Option[String] = Some(value 1)

scala> val value2 = mymap.get("2")
value2: Option[String] = Some(value 2)

scala> val value3 = mymap.get("3")
value3: Option[String] = None

scala> val value4 = mymap.get("4")
value4: Option[String] = None

scala> println(value1.getOrElse("X"))
value 1

scala> println(value2.getOrElse("X"))
value 2

scala> println(value3.getOrElse("X"))
X

scala> println(value4.getOrElse("X"))
X

scala>

This shows that optionals are a viable option on dealing with optional values on the Scala language.

Error handling

As any other language, Scala also have a error handling system. Like Java, Scala also use exceptions as forms to encapsulate errors. Previously we have seen the ??? keyword and how we receive a NotImplementedError if we try to use a method with that keyword. If we wanted to explicit do what the keyword encapsulates, we could do this:

def methodA(str: String): Set[String] = throw new NotImplementedError()

We can see that it is pretty much very straightforward from anyone who has a background on Java. The catching of exceptions are very similar to Java also, like on the following code, supposing that our method throws several types of exceptions:

try {
 methodA("test")
} catch {
 case e: IOException => println("IO exception")
 case e: Exception => println("general exception")
 case _ => println("general error")
}

Of course, we also have the finally block, that could be used as follows:

try {
 methodA("test")
} catch {
 case e: IOException => println("IO exception")
 case e: Exception => println("general exception")
 case _ => println("general error")
} finally {
 println("this executes no matter what")
}

Did you notice the “_”? That keyword was used to catch not only exceptions, but also error. On Scala we have a exception hierarchy that it is pretty much very similar to his Java counterpart, with two classes, Error and Exception, that extends from a root class called Throwable.

However, there is a key difference: Scala doesn’t have checked exceptions. That means we don’t have exceptions marked on method’s signatures as throwable neither we have the obligation to catch any exceptions that are thrown by a method. This can be considered a bad thing specially when we don’t known all the details from a code we are consuming, but it gives us flexibility to catch the exceptions wherever we want to.

Inheritance on Scala

On Scala, we have 3 types of inheritance, as follows:

• Invariant: invariant inheritance means that only the exact type is allowed;
• Covariant: covariant inheritance means that only the exact type and their subclasses are allowed;
• Contravariant: contravariant inheritance means that only the exact type and their superclasses are allowed;

When using generics on Scala we use square brackets ([]).  When declaring the generic type, we could indicate if it is covariant or contravariant using the “+” and “-” symbols respectively. So, if we wanted to create a generic class to be used for a class and their subclasses, we could declare as:

class mygenericclass[+T](val id: T)

And on the opposite side, if we wanted the class to be using a class and their superclasses, we could declare as:

class mygenericclass[-T](val id: T)

On functions, however, there is a role that must be always remembered: On functions, all the parameters are contravariant, that is, they accept values from the declared type or supertypes, and the return is always covariant, in other words, it accepts values from the declared type or their subtypes.

Implicits

One last feature we will visit on this lab are implicits. With implicits, we can wrap it up classes that already exists with new features, without needing to extend or overload the original class. Even classes from the standard libraries can be wrapped this way!

Let’s see a example. On the REPL, we create a class like this:

case class myclass(val a:String, val b:String)

Now, let’s try to instantiate and use a print method on the class:

scala> val instance = new myclass("a","b")

instance: myclass = myclass(a,b)

scala> instance.print

<console>:13: error: value print is not a member of myclass

       instance.print

                ^

scala>

Of course, we got a error, since this method doesn’t exist. Now, we create a wrapper class:

implicit class myclasswrapper(mycl:myclass) { def print = println(mycl.a+mycl.b) }

 

Notice the implicit keyword? That means our class was created as a implicit, meaning that if we try to invoke the print method again:

scala> instance.print

ab

It will now work, as Scala is implicit converting our class to a myclasswrapper. Please note that, before Scala 2.10, we would need to create a method with the implicit keyword and make the wrapping by hand, instead of the useful declaration on the class level.

It is important to take caution, however, of not abusing of implicits, since we can change the behavior of basically everything on the language, making a application very unpredictable if the feature is overused!

Conclusion

And that concludes our second part on the Scala series. Next, on our last part, we will learn about collections and all that we can benefit from it. Thank you for your attention, until next time!