Kotlin Standard lib contains the 'with' method that receives an object and a method of that object defined as:
public inline fun <T, R> with(receiver: T, block: T.() -> R): R = receiver.block()
And can be used as:
val str = "string"
with(str) {
println(size)) // will print 6; equals to "string".size
println(substring(3)) // will print (ing); equals to "string".substring(3)
}
How to define similar method in Scala?
There is no way to define such a method in Scala, because the concept of function literals with receiver does not exist in Scala.
However, Scala's import is general enough that you can use it instead of with. Your example would write as:
val str = "string"
import str._
println(length)
println(substring(3))
Note that size specifically does not work with this scheme because it happens to be implicitly pimped on String, so I had to use length instead. However, in general, this is the pattern we use.
Edit after comment: if you want to explicitly scope the import to a portion of your code, you can do so with braces, which are always allowed to scope things:
val str = "string"
{
import str._
println(length)
println(substring(3))
}
println(length) // does not compile
Note that the blank line is necessary, otherwise it will be parsed as trying to call the apply method on "string" with the {...} as argument. To avoid this problem, you can use the locally method:
val str = "string"
locally {
import str._
println(length)
println(substring(3))
}
println(length) // does not compile
locally per se doesn't do anything; it is only used to visually highlight that the braces are there only for scoping reasons, and by extension to help parsing do the right thing.
Related
I'm trying to create a class with an attribute named _1d_matrix, which is a 1D matrix. I would want to fill it with 0.
Thus, I tried to call the method empty of the Seq object (of course not the trait), as mentionned in the documentation : http://www.scala-lang.org/api/2.12.3/scala/collection/Seq$.html#empty[A]:CC[A]
For the moment my code is :
class Calc(val width : Int) {
private val _1d_matrix : Seq.empty[Int]()
}
But there are three errors :
empty is undefined
() can't be written (2 errors : "; or newline is expected" + "definition or declaration is expected")
I think it's because it's not allowed to directly make use of Seq instead of List (e.g.). But : why ? After all, Seq is an object (and a trait but not in my code).
Right way to initialize field looks like this:
private val _1d_matrix = Seq.empty[Int]
or
private val _1d_matrix: Seq[Int] = Seq()
There are two ways to define a 0-arity (no arguments) method in scala - with a pair of parenthesis after the name def exit(), and without one: def empty.
When it is defined in the former way, you can call it with or without parenthesis: exit() or exit - both work. But when parenthesis are not included into the method definition, you can not have them at the call site either: Seq.empty[Int] works, but Seq.empty[Int]() does not.
The convention is to use parenthesis for functions that have side effects, and not use them for purely functional calls.
The other problem with your code is that you have a : where it needs to be an assignment.
So, something like this should work:
val _1d_matrix = Seq.empty[Int]
Your thinking is correct but you have a couple syntax errors.
private val _1d_matrix : Seq.empty[Int]()
: here is used to define a type annotation, so it's trying to find the type Seq.empty rather than the method. That fails because there is no such type.
Use = instead to assign a value. Adding the type here is optional since Scala is able to infer the correct type.
The other is that the empty method is defined without parens, so you must use Seq.empty[Int] instead of Seq.empty[Int]()
If I remove the parentheses from below to read printFn hc I get an error. I thought in Scala one parameter functions don't need the parens?
case class HelloClass(arg1:String)
object HelloWorld extends App {
var hc = HelloClass("Hello World")
printFn(hc)
def printFn(a1:HelloClass) : Unit = {
println(a1 arg1) /* or a1.arg1 */
}
}
I think you mixed it up with the infix method notation. In Scala you can write either obj.method(argument) or obj method argument.
To apply this to your example, you need the "obj" part of the expression, so if you want to avoid parenthesis, you can write
this printFn hc
See also "When to use parenthesis in Scala infix notation".
I Would like to add something about postfix as another answer covered about infix.Copied from Programming Scala
So, 1 + 2 is the same as 1.+(2), because of the “infix” notation where
we can drop the period and parentheses for single-argument methods.1
Similarly, a method with no arguments can be invoked without the
period. This is called “postfix” notation. However, use of this
postfix convention can sometimes be confusing, so Scala 2.10 made it
an optional feature.
Example for Postfix
1 toString
Example for Infix
private def testMethod(arg1: String): String = {
arg1
}
//this specifies current instance
println(this testMethod "Hello Scala")
New to Scala and looking for pointers to an idiomatic solution, if there is one.
I'd like to have arbitrary user-supplied Scala functions (which are allowed to reference functions/classes I have defined in my code) applied to some data.
For example: I have foo(s: String): String and bar(s: String): String functions defined in my myprog.scala. The user runs my program like this:
$ scala myprog data.txt --func='(s: Str) => foo(bar(s)).reverse'
This would run line by line through the data file and emit the result of applying the user-specified function to that line.
For extra points, can I ensure that there are no side-effects in the user-defined function? If not, can I restrict the function to use only a restricted subset of functions (which I can assure to be safe)?
#kenjiyoshida has a nice gist that shows how to eval Scala code. Note that when using Eval from that gist, not specifying a return value will result in a runtime failure when Scala defaults to inferring Nothing.
scala> Eval("println(\"Hello\")")
Hello
java.lang.ClassCastException: scala.runtime.BoxedUnit cannot be cast to scala.runtime.Nothing$
... 42 elided
vs
scala> Eval[Unit]("println(\"Hello\")")
Hello
It nicely handles whatever's in scope as well.
object Thing {
val thing: Int = 5
}
object Eval {
def apply[A](string: String): A = {
val toolbox = currentMirror.mkToolBox()
val tree = toolbox.parse(string)
toolbox.eval(tree).asInstanceOf[A]
}
def fromFile[A](file: File): A =
apply(scala.io.Source.fromFile(file).mkString(""))
def fromFileName[A](file: String): A =
fromFile(new File(file))
}
object Thing2 {
val thing2 = Eval[Int]("Thing.thing") // 5
}
Twitter's util package used to have util-eval, but that seems to have been deprecated now (and also triggers a compiler bug when compiled).
As for the second part of your question, the answer seems to be no. Even if you disable default Predef and imports yourself, a user can always get to those functions with the fully qualified package name. You could perhaps use Scala's scala.tools.reflect.ToolBox to first parse your string and then compare against a whitelist, before passing to eval, but at that point things could get pretty hairy since you'll be manually writing code to sanitize the Scala AST (or at the very least reject dangerous input). It definitely doesn't seem to be an "idiomatic solution."
This should be possible by using the standard Java JSR 223 Scripting Engine
see https://issues.scala-lang.org/browse/SI-874
(also mentions using scala.tools.nsc.Interpreter but not sure this is still available)
import javax.script.*;
ScriptEngine e = new ScriptEngineManager().getEngineByName("scala");
e.getContext().setAttribute("label", new Integer(4), ScriptContext.ENGINE_SCOPE);
try {
engine.eval("println(2+label)");
} catch (ScriptException ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
Methods are often declared with obvious parameter names, e.g.
def myMethod(s: String, image: BufferedImage, mesh: Mesh) { ... }
Parameter names correspond to parameter types.
1) "s" is often used for String
2) "i" for Int
3) lowercased class name for one word named classes (Mesh -> mesh)
4) lowercased last word from class name for long class names (BufferedImage -> image)
(Of course, it would not be convenient for ALL methods and arguments. Of course, somebody would prefer other rules…)
Scala macros are intended to generate some expressions in code. I would like to write some specific macros to convert to correct Scala expressions something like this:
// "arguments interpolation" style
// like string interpolation
def myMethod s[String, BufferedImage, Mesh]
{ /* code using vars "s", "image", "mesh" */ }
// or even better:
mydef myMethod[String, BufferedImage, Mesh]
{ /* code using vars "s", "image", "mesh" */ }
Is it possible?
Currently it is not possible and probably it will never be. Macros can not introduce their own syntax - they must be represented through valid Scala code (which can be executed at compile time) and, too, they must generate valid Scala code (better say a valid Scala AST).
Both of your shown examples are not valid Scala code, thus Macros can not handle them. Nevertheless, the current nightly build of Macro Paradise includes untyped macros. They allow to write Scala code which is typechecked after they are expanded, this means it is possible to write:
forM({i = 0; i < 10; i += 1}) {
println(i)
}
Notice, that the curly braces inside of the first parameter list are needed because, although the code is not typechecked when one writes it, it must represent a valid Scala AST.
The implementation of this macro looks like this:
def forM(header: _)(body: _) = macro __forM
def __forM(c: Context)(header: c.Tree)(body: c.Tree): c.Tree = {
import c.universe._
header match {
case Block(
List(
Assign(Ident(TermName(name)), Literal(Constant(start))),
Apply(Select(Ident(TermName(name2)), TermName(comparison)), List(Literal(Constant(end))))
),
Apply(Select(Ident(TermName(name3)), TermName(incrementation)), List(Literal(Constant(inc))))
) =>
// here one can generate the behavior of the loop
// but omit full implementation for clarity now ...
}
}
Instead of an already typechecked expression, the macro expects only a tree, that is typechecked after the expansion. The method call itself expects two parameter lists, whose parameter types can be delayed after the expansion phase if one uses an underscore.
Currently there is a little bit of documentation available but because it is extremely beta a lot of things will probably change in future.
With type macros it is possible to write something like this:
object O extends M {
// traverse the body of O to find what you want
}
type M(x: _) = macro __M
def __M(c: Context)(x: c.Tree): c.Tree = {
// omit full implementation for clarity ...
}
This is nice in order to delay the typechecking of the whole body because it allows to to cool things...
Macros that can change Scalas syntax are not planned at the moment and are probably not a good idea. I can't say if they will happen one day only future can tell us this.
Aside from the "why" (no really, why do you want to do that?), the answer is no, because as far as I know macros cannot (in their current state) generate methods or types, only expressions.
I am a beginning practitioner in Scala and I saw a few different syntax for calling a method. Some are nice, as ignoring parenthesis for a parameterless method, or ignoring the dot as in
1 to 10
but some really puzzle me. for instance:
breakable { ... }
this is simply a method call right? Can I also do that for more than one parameter or a parameter which is not a parameterless function?
Thanks
There are two standard ways of calling methods:
obj.method(params) // dot notation
obj method (params) // operator notation
The above can be modified in the following ways:
If params is a single parameter, you can replace () with {}.
If params is a single parameter and you are using operator notation, you can drop the parenthesis.
If method doesn't take parameters, you can drop (params) (that is, drop the empty ()).
If method ends with :, then it actually binds to the right in operator notation. That is, (params) method_: obj is equivalent to obj.method_:(params).
Either way, spaces are optional as long as identifiers can be told apart. So one can add spaces to the dot notation, like obj . method ( params ) or write .method(params) on the next line -- as often happens with call chaining --, as well as remove spaces from the operator notation, as in a+b.
There's also some stuff with tuple inference, but I try to avoid it, so I'm not sure of the exact rules.
None of these will explain the example you are confused about, however. Before I explain it, however, I'd like to show some syntactic sugars that can also be used to call methods:
obj(params) // equivalent to obj.apply(params)
obj.x = y // equivalent to obj.x_=(y), if obj.x also exists
obj(x) = y // equivalent to obj.update(x, y)
obj op= y // equivalent to obj = obj op y, if op is symbolic
~obj // equivalent to obj.unary_~; also for !, + and -, but no other symbol
Ok, now to the example you gave. One can import members of stable values. Java can do it for static methods with its static import, but Scala has a more general mechanism: importing from packages, objects or common instances is no different: it brings both type members and value members. Methods fall in the latter category.
So, imagine you have val a = 2, and you do import a._. That will bring into scope all of Int methods, so you can call them directly. You can't do +(2), because that would be interpreted as a call to unary_+, but you could call *(4), for example:
scala> val a = 2
a: Int = 2
scala> import a._
import a._
scala> *(4)
res16: Int = 8
Now, here's the rule. You can call
method(params)
If:
method was imported into scope.
You keep the parenthesis (even if there's only one parameter)
Note that there's a precedence issue as well. If you write obj method(params), Scala will presume method belongs to obj, even if it was imported into scope.
If we desugar this we will have:
breakable({ ... })
this matches signature
breakable: (op: ⇒ Unit): Unit
and uses so named call-by-name arguments (you may think of this as pass a block of code as argument)
More over scala allows you to write this:
scala> def foo (op1: => Unit)(op2: => Unit) = {op1;op2;}
foo: (op1: => Unit)(op2: => Unit)Unit
scala> foo { println(1) } { println(2) }
1
2
Above is the example of curried function