Getting an error trying to map through a list in Scala - scala

Question

I'm trying to print out all the factors of every number in a list.
Here is my code:
def main(args: Array[String])
{
val list_of_numbers = List(1,4,6)
def get_factors(list_of_numbers:List[Int]) : Int =
{
return list_of_numbers.foreach{(1 to _).filter {divisor => _ % divisor == 0}}
}
println(get_factors(list_of_numbers));
}
I want the end result to contain a single list that will hold all the numbers which are factors of any of the numbers in the list. So the final result should be (1,2,3,4,6). Right now, I get the following error:
error: missing parameter type for expanded function ((x$1) => 1.to(x$1))
return list_of_numbers.foreach{(1 to _).filter {divisor => _ % divisor == 0}}
How can I fix this?

Answer 1

You can only use _ shorthand once in a function (except for some special cases), and even then not always.
Try spelling it out instead:
list_of_numbers.foreach { n =>
(1 to n).filter { divisor => n % divisor == 0 }
}
This will compile.
There are other problems with your code though.
foreach returns a Unit, but you are requiring an Int for example.
Perhaps, you wanted a .map rather than .foreach, but that would still be a List, not an Int.

Answer 2

A few things are wrong here.
First, foreach takes a function A => Unit as an argument, meaning that it's really just for causing side effects.
Second your use of _, you can use _ when the function uses each argument once.
Lastly your expected output seems to be getting rid of duplicates (1 is a factor for all 3 inputs, but it only appears once).
list_of_numbers flatMap { i => (1 to i) filter {i % _ == 0 }} distinct
will do what you are looking for.
flatMap takes a function from A => List[B] and produces a simple List[B] as output, list.distinct gets rid of the duplicates.

Answer 3

Actually, there are several problems with your code.
First, foreach is a method which yields Unit (like void in Java). You want to yield something so you should use a for comprehension.
Second, in your divisor-test function, you've specified both the unnamed parameter ("_") and the named parameter (divisor).
The third problem is that you expect the result to be Int (in the code) but List[Int] in your description.
The following code will do what you want (although it will repeat factors, so you might want to pass it through distinct before using the result):
def main(args: Array[String]) {
val list_of_numbers = List(1, 4, 6)
def get_factors(list_of_numbers: List[Int]) = for (n <- list_of_numbers; r = 1 to n; f <- r.filter(n%_ == 0)) yield f
println(get_factors(list_of_numbers))
}
Note that you need two generators ("<-") in the for comprehension in order that you end up with simply a List. If you instead implemented the filter part in the yield expression, you would get a List[List[Int]].