scala reassignment to val in Option Class - scala

Question

My code looks like:
case class SRecord(trialId: String, private var _max:Int) {
def max=_max
def max_=(value:Int):Unit=_max=value
}
Then later on I apply a function onto it:
def groupSummaryRecords(it:Iterator[Option[SRecord]], optionSummary:Option[SRecord]):Option[SRecord] = {
var max=0;
var sRecord1 : Option[SRecord] = None
var i=0
while(it.hasNext) {
var sRecord:Option[SRecord] = it.next();
if(i==0) {
sRecord1 = sRecord;
}
..
}
sRecord1.max=max; // getting 'reassignment to val' compilation error
..
}
Why am i getting this compilation error, and how to fix it ?
If I instead change sRecord and sRecord1 instances to be of type SRecord instead of Option[SRecord] as well as the method signature, it all works fine however.
But in some cases I may have a null SRecord hence the use of None/Some. I am new to Scala, using Option/Some all over feels like a real pain if you ask me, i am just thinking of removing all this Option nonsense and testing for 'null' in good ol' Java, at least my code would work ??!

Answer 1

With the line sRecord1.max=max you are trying to call the max method on an Option[SRecord], not an SRecord. You want to access the contained SRecord (if any) and call the method on that, which can be done using foreach:
sRecord1.foreach(_.max=max)
which is desugared to:
sRecord1.foreach( srec => srec.max=max )
(the actual name "srec" is made up, the compiler will assign some internal name, but you get the idea). If sRecord1 is None, this won't do anything, but if it is Some(srec), the method execution will be passed in to operate on the contained instance.