Scala: Future recover in Future traverse - scala

I have a method, which may throw an Exception depends on passed value:
private def transform(in: Int): Future[Boolean] = in match {
case i if i < 0 => Future.successful(true)
case i if i > 0 => Future.successful(false)
case i if i == 0 => throw new IllegalStateException()
}
And second method, which apply above method to each element of List in parallel way.
def massTransform(ints: List[Int])(implicit ex: ExecutionContext):
Future[List[Boolean]] = {
Future.traverse(ints){
i => transform(i).recover {
case e: IllegalStateException => false
}
}
}
I expected, recover will capture the IllegalStateException and return Future(false). But my code fails with IllegalStateException

The problem is that you are throwing outside of a Future. You need to wrap your exception in a Future, otherwise what happens is that the method itself throws instead of returning a failed Future. You can simplify your method as follows:
def transform(in: Int): Future[Boolean] =
if (in == 0) Future.failed(new IllegalStateException)
else Future.successful(in < 0)
You can play around with this code here on Scastie.
This looks like a simplification of your actual logic. If by any chance that's not (or not completely) the case, I recommend removing the unnecessary Future nesting as follows:
def transform(in: Int): Boolean =
if (in == 0) throw new IllegalStateException else in < 0
def massTransform(
ints: List[Int]
)(implicit ex: ExecutionContext): Future[List[Boolean]] =
Future(ints.map { i =>
try transform(i)
catch { case e: IllegalStateException => false }
})
Notice how now the transform method throws and exception handling is done in the Future constructor.
You can play around with this second version on Scastie as well.

transform is implemented in incorrectly, should be:
case i if i == 0 => Future.failed(new IllegalStateException())
I guess this is a simplified example, because this code does not really parallelise the computation btw, unless transform is in reality doing IO or quite expensive computation.

Related

Is there a way to chain `Try` as a monad while also not catching exceptions raised along the chain?

The Scala Try construct together with its flatMap does not work as I would expect or want it to. The TL;DR is that I want to do a series of operations that can fail in two ways: either by raising an exception, which should be promoted and caught higher up in the call stack, or by returning Failure, as the failure must logically be handled in different parts of the program.
I would expect something like this to do the trick:
def firstStepSucceeds(): Try[Int] = Try {
1
}
def secondStepThrows(input: Int) = {
throw new Exception("Exception thrown in second step")
}
// I expect this to propagate the exception thrown in secondStepThrows
firstStepSucceeds() flatMap (secondStepThrows _)
(Full Scastie with example)
However, in this case, the flatMap() call actually implicitly catches the uncaught exception thrown by secondStepThrows, which is not what I want (which is why I left out the Try block). Is there a way to get the same behaviour without the implicit exception-catching?
What happens in a Try should stay in a Try. Most Scala programmers would be very surprised if a function returning a Try also sometimes threw an exception.
The typical pattern if you want to handle exceptions in different places is to differentiate by the type of the exception. So
val partiallyRecoveredTry = originalTry.recover{
case _: SecondStepException => "second step had an exception"
}
// Further up the call stack
partiallyRecoveredTry.getOrElse("first step had an exception")
Try.flatMap() did not caught exceptions implicitely, it is the essence of Try.
When you use it, it is very explicit, and that's the goal.
I don't really understand what you want, but is something like that is possible for you ?
try {
val first = firstStepSucceeds()
val second = first.map(secondStepThrows).get
val third = secondStepFails(second)
// ...
}
catch {
case e: Exception => ???
}
I did some further experimentation, and what I ended up with was this reimplementation of Try as (the now right-biased and hence monadic) Either:
object CatchAll {
def apply[SomeType](block: => SomeType) = try { Right(block) }
catch { case e: Throwable => Left(e) }
}
def firstStepSucceeds() = CatchAll {
1
}
def firstStepFails() = CatchAll {
throw new Exception("First step failed")
}
def secondStepSucceeds(input: Int) = CatchAll {
input + 1
}
def secondStepFails(input: Int) = CatchAll {
throw new Exception("Second step failed in try block!")
}
def secondStepThrows(input: Int) = {
throw new Exception("Second step failed unexpectedly!")
}
firstStepSucceeds() flatMap (secondStepSucceeds _)
firstStepFails() flatMap (secondStepSucceeds _)
firstStepSucceeds() flatMap (secondStepFails _)
// This now throws an exception as expected
//firstStepSucceeds() flatMap (secondStepThrows _)

Propagate errors through a chain of Scala futures

Considering a sequence of futures each returning Either[Status, Resp].
How would you propagate error status codes through a for comprehension which is using Future and not Either?
The code bellow does not work, since the parsing exception is not caught by .recover of the last future
The use case is Scala Play ActionRefiners which returns Future[Either[Status, TRequest[A]]].
def parseId(id: String):Future[Int] = {
Future.successful(Integer.parseInt(id))
}
def getItem(id: Int)(implicit ec: ExecutionContext): Future[Either[Status, String]] =
Future(Some("dummy res from db " + id)).transformWith {
case Success(opt) => opt match {
case Some(item) => Future.successful(Right(item))
case _ => Future.successful(Left(NotFound))
}
case Failure(_) => Future.successful(Left(InternalServerError))
}
(for {
id <- parseId("bad request")
resp <- getItem(id)
} yield resp).recover {
case _:NumberFormatException => Left(BadRequest)
}
I could move the .recover to parseId, but this makes the for comprehension very ugly - having to treat the Either[Status, id] in the middle
def parseId(id: String):Future[Either[Status, Int]] = {
Future.successful(Right(Integer.parseInt(id))).recover {
case _:NumberFormatException => Left(BadRequest)
}
}
Your exception is not caught because you are not throwing it inside the Future: Future.successful is immediately satisfied with the result of the expression you give it, if it throws an exception, it is executed on the current thread.
Try removing the .successful: Future(id.toInt) will do what you want.
Also, I would recommend to get rid of all the Eithers: these are highly overrated/overused, especially in the context of Future (that already wrap their result into Try anyhow), and just make the code more complicated and less readable without offering much benefit.
case class FailureReason(status: Status)
extends Exception(status.toString)
def notFound() = throw FailureReason(NotFound)
def internalError() = throw FailureReason(InternalError)
def badRequest() = throw FailureReason(BadRequest)
def parseId(id: String):Future[Int] = Future(id.toInt)
def getItem(id: Int): Future[String] = Future(Some("dummy"))
.map { _.getOrElse(notFound) }
.recover { _ => internalError }
// this is the same as your for-comprehension, just looking less ugly imo :)
parseId("foo").flatMap(getItem).recover {
case _: NumberFormatException => badRequest()
}
// if you still want `Either` in the end for some reason:
.map(Right.apply[Status, String])
.recover {
case _: NumberFormatException => Left(BadRequest) // no need for the first recover above if you do this
case FailureReason(status) => Left(status)
}

How to NOT throw an exception?

I have the following Slick code that given an id returns a customer (if exists). If there's a problem (such as connectivity lost) a Failure clause will throw an exception:
def read (id: Int): Future[Option[Customer]] = {
val db = // ....
val customers = TableQuery[CustomerDB]
val action = customers.filter(_.id === id).result
val future = db.run(action.asTry)
future.map{
case Success(s) =>
if (s.length>0)
Some(s(0))
else
None
case Failure(f) => throw new Exception (f.getMessage)
}
}
Now, my understanding is that instead of using try/catch/finally of exceptions, in Scala one should use Try. In addition, no exceptions should be thrown. But if the exception is not thrown, how to notify the upper layer that a problem occurred?
Future itself does already have Try inside. So, I would say that you need to just flatten (also you code a bit complicated, I simplified):
future.flatMap {
case Success(s) => Future.successful(s.headOption)
case Failure(f) => Future.failed(f)
}
Result Future when in failed state notifies caller that execution failed (with wrapped original exception). Otherwise, successful.
The right way to do report errors is by using Either.
trait Error
case class NotFound(id: Int) extends Error
case class QueryFailed(msg: String) extends Error
def read (id: Int): Future[Either[Error, Customer]] = {
val db = // ....
val customers = TableQuery[CustomerDB]
val action = customers.filter(_.id === id).result
val future = db.run(action.asTry)
future.map{
case Success(s) =>
if (s.length>0)
Right(s(0))
else
Left(NotFound(id))
case Failure(f) => Left(QueryFailed(f.getMessage))
}
}
Ok so, in general you can use Future.successful or Future.failed(msg: String) to "signal" the upper level (aka calling method) you got the value or not.
Better approach
A good approach is however to use .recoverWith{} on a Future in case of failure.
For example:
def getUserFromCloud (userId: String): Future[String] = Future{
cloudProviderApi.getUsername(userId)
}.recoverWith{
Future.failed(s"$userId does not exist.")
}
What about the calling method?
Well you just map the success with and underscode and deal with the error by using recover:
getUserFromCloud("test").map(_ => {
//In case of success
}).recover{
//In case of failure, like return BadRequest.
}
More on recover and recoverWith in case you are interested: Scala recover or recoverWith

Try Failure is not catching exceptions

In the code below I have two Play for Scala functions, the first one catches an exception (this works fine) and in the second one I'm trying to rewrite it using Try.
I have two problems with Try: (1) when the number is negative the method doesn't fail, (2) I need to wrap all the responses with Future.successful.
How to fix this code?
class Test extends Controller {
def test1 = Action.async { request =>
val future = isPositive(-1)
future.map { result =>
Ok("OK, it's positive")
}
.recover {
case e => Ok(e.getMessage)
}
}
def isPositive(i: Int) = Future {
if (i<0)
throw new Exception ( "Number is negative" )
else
i
}
def test2 = Action.async { request =>
isPositiveWithTry(-1) match {
case Success(s) => Future.successful(Ok("OK, it's positive (Try succeded)"))
case Failure(f) => Future.successful(Ok(f.getMessage + " (Try failed)"))
}
}
def isPositiveWithTry(i: Int) : Try[Future[Int]] = Try {
isPositive(i)
}
}
In isPositive method exceptions are already caught by Future
def isPositive(i: Int) = Future {
if (i<0)
throw new Exception ( "Number is negative" )
else
i
}
In the below code
def isPositiveWithTry(i: Int) : Try[Future[Int]] = Try {
isPositive(i)
}
isPositive already catches all expections and Try is always a success.
So, when i is negative. Exception raised are handled by future and try gets a success value, resultant Try is a success. So you get successful Try with a failed Future inside.
Understanding using Grenade example
Assume throwing the exception as blowing up a Grenade.
Assume Future and Try as two layers. When grenade is blasted inside the double layer of Try[Future] i.e Try is around Future and grenade is gone off in the Future.
Now Future withstands the blast and becomes a failed value. As Future already took the damage caused by the damage of exception(grenade). Try will be a success but the value inside the Try is a failed future value. That failed future value is nothing but the exception raised.
Try is redundant when you are using Future
You can refactor your code to below one
Get rid of isPositiveWithTry. This method is not needed.
def isPositive(i: Int) = Future {
if (i<0)
throw new Exception ( "Number is negative" )
else
i
}
def test2 = Action.async { request =>
isPositive(-1).flatMap { _ =>
Future.successful(Ok("OK, it's positive (Try succeded)"))
}.recoverWith {
case f: Throwable => Future.successful(Ok(f.getMessage + " (Try failed)"))
}
}
Again test2 can also be written as
def test2 = Action.async { request =>
isPositive(-1).map { _ =>
Ok("OK, it's positive (Try succeded)")
}.recover {
case f: Throwable => Ok(f.getMessage + " (Try failed)")
}
}
In case isPositive returns Try
def isPositive(i: Int) = Try {
if (i<0)
throw new Exception ( "Number is negative" )
else
i
}
Now test2 will look like
def test2 = Action.async { request =>
isPositive(-1) match {
case Success(s) => Future.successful(Ok("OK, it's positive (Try succeded)"))
case Failure(f) => Future.successful(Ok(f.getMessage + " (Try failed)"))
}
}
Couple points:
1) You need to rewrite your isPositive such that it does not surround itself via a Future. The Future is catching the exception.
def isPositive(i: Int) ={
if (i<0)
throw new Exception ( "Number is negative" )
else
i
}
2) If you have a Try and you want a Future, then you can use the method on the companion object of Future, Future.fromTry. That will take a Try and turn it into the correct state of a Future.

waiting for "recursive" futures in scala

a simple code sample that describes my problem:
import scala.util._
import scala.concurrent._
import scala.concurrent.duration._
import ExecutionContext.Implicits.global
class LoserException(msg: String, dice: Int) extends Exception(msg) { def diceRoll: Int = dice }
def aPlayThatMayFail: Future[Int] = {
Thread.sleep(1000) //throwing a dice takes some time...
//throw a dice:
(1 + Random.nextInt(6)) match {
case 6 => Future.successful(6) //I win!
case i: Int => Future.failed(new LoserException("I did not get 6...", i))
}
}
def win(prefix: String): String = {
val futureGameLog = aPlayThatMayFail
futureGameLog.onComplete(t => t match {
case Success(diceRoll) => "%s, and finally, I won! I rolled %d !!!".format(prefix, diceRoll)
case Failure(e) => e match {
case ex: LoserException => win("%s, and then i got %d".format(prefix, ex.diceRoll))
case _: Throwable => "%s, and then somebody cheated!!!".format(prefix)
}
})
"I want to do something like futureGameLog.waitForRecursiveResult, using Await.result or something like that..."
}
win("I started playing the dice")
this simple example illustrates what i want to do. basically, if to put it in words, i want to wait for a result for some computation, when i compose different actions on previous success or failed attampts.
so how would you implement the win method?
my "real world" problem, if it makes any difference, is using dispatch for asynchronous http calls, where i want to keep making http calls whenever the previous one ends, but actions differ on wether the previous http call succeeded or not.
You can recover your failed future with a recursive call:
def foo(x: Int) = x match {
case 10 => Future.successful(x)
case _ => Future.failed[Int](new Exception)
}
def bar(x: Int): Future[Int] = {
foo(x) recoverWith { case _ => bar(x+1) }
}
scala> bar(0)
res0: scala.concurrent.Future[Int] = scala.concurrent.impl.Promise$DefaultPromise#64d6601
scala> res0.value
res1: Option[scala.util.Try[Int]] = Some(Success(10))
recoverWith takes a PartialFunction[Throwable,scala.concurrent.Future[A]] and returns a Future[A]. You should be careful though, because it will use quite some memory when it does lots of recursive calls here.
As drexin answered the part about exception handling and recovering, let me try and answer the part about a recursive function involving futures. I believe using a Promise will help you achieve your goal. The restructured code would look like this:
def win(prefix: String): String = {
val prom = Promise[String]()
def doWin(p:String) {
val futureGameLog = aPlayThatMayFail
futureGameLog.onComplete(t => t match {
case Success(diceRoll) => prom.success("%s, and finally, I won! I rolled %d !!!".format(prefix, diceRoll))
case Failure(e) => e match {
case ex: LoserException => doWin("%s, and then i got %d".format(prefix, ex.diceRoll))
case other => prom.failure(new Exception("%s, and then somebody cheated!!!".format(prefix)))
}
})
}
doWin(prefix)
Await.result(prom.future, someTimeout)
}
Now this won't be true recursion in the sense that it will be building up one long stack due to the fact that the futures are async, but it is similar to recursion in spirit. Using the promise here gives you something to block against while the recursion does it's thing, blocking the caller from what's happening behind the scene.
Now, if I was doing this, I would probable redefine things like so:
def win(prefix: String): Future[String] = {
val prom = Promise[String]()
def doWin(p:String) {
val futureGameLog = aPlayThatMayFail
futureGameLog.onComplete(t => t match {
case Success(diceRoll) => prom.success("%s, and finally, I won! I rolled %d !!!".format(prefix, diceRoll))
case Failure(e) => e match {
case ex: LoserException => doWin("%s, and then i got %d".format(prefix, ex.diceRoll))
case other => prom.failure(new Exception("%s, and then somebody cheated!!!".format(prefix)))
}
})
}
doWin(prefix)
prom.future
}
This way you can defer the decision on whether to block or use async callbacks to the caller of this function. This is more flexible, but it also exposes the caller to the fact that you are doing async computations and I'm not sure that is going to be acceptable for your scenario. I'll leave that decision up to you.
This works for me:
def retryWithFuture[T](f: => Future[T],retries:Int, delay:FiniteDuration) (implicit ec: ExecutionContext, s: Scheduler): Future[T] ={
f.recoverWith { case _ if retries > 0 => after[T](delay,s)(retryWithFuture[T]( f , retries - 1 , delay)) }
}