I have the following class setup:
class MyClass {
class MyInnerClass(memberVar: String)
def getAInner: MyInnerClass = {
new MyInnerClass("hello")
}
}
Then I have the following code outside of the class:
def myFunction = {
val a = new MyClass
val b = a.getAInner.memberVar // value memberVar is not a member of a.MyInnerClass
}
Why is this?
You need to add the keyword val to make memberVar public otherwise it's a private value:
class MyClass {
class MyInnerClass(val memberVar: String)
def getAInner: MyInnerClass = {
new MyInnerClass("hello")
}
}
#Noah's answer is totally correct, but I would also throw out the option of using case class. See here for some of the sugar it provides. I use it almost reflexively. In your example, it would be:
object MyClass {
case class MyInnerClass(memberVar: String)
def getAInner: MyInnerClass = {
new MyInnerClass("hello")
}
}
def myFunction = {
val b = MyClass.getAInner.memberVar
}
I tend to do it this way because invariably, I want to take advantage of the sane defaults case class provides.
I also chose to use object for the outer type, because it doesn't have any parameters, although you may have just done that for simplicity's sake.
Related
I have a class
class MyClass {
def apply(myRDD: RDD[String]) {
val rdd2 = myRDD.map(myString => {
// do String manipulation
}
}
}
object MyClass {
}
Since I have a block of code performing one task (the area that says "do String manipulation"), I thought I should break it out into its own method. Since the method is not changing the state of the class, I thought I should make it a static method.
How do I do that?
I thought that you can just pop a method inside the companion object and it would be available as a static class, like this:
object MyClass {
def doStringManipulation(myString: String) = {
// do String manipulation
}
}
but when I try val rdd2 = myRDD.map(myString => { doStringManipulation(myString)}), scala doesn't recognize the method and it forces me to do MyClass.doStringManipulation(myString) in order to call it.
What am I doing wrong?
In Scala there are no static methods: all methods are defined over an object, be it an instance of a class or a singleton, as the one you defined in your question.
As you correctly pointed out, by having a class and an object named in the same way in the same compilation unit you make the object a companion of the class, which means that the two have access to each others' private fields and methods, but this does not mean they are available without specifying which object you are accessing.
What you want to do is either using the long form as mentioned (MyClass.doStringManipulation(myString)) or, if you think it makes sense, you can just import the method in the class' scope, as follows:
import MyClass.doStringManipulation
class MyClass {
def apply(myRDD: RDD[String]): Unit = {
val rdd2 = myRDD.map(doStringManipulation)
}
}
object MyClass {
private def doStringManipulation(myString: String): String = {
???
}
}
As a side note, for the MyClass.apply method, you used the a notation which is going to disappear in the future:
// this is a shorthand for a method that returns `Unit` but is going to disappear
def method(parameter: Type) {
// does things
}
// this means the same, but it's going to stay
// the `=` is enough, even without the explicit return type
// unless, that is, you want to force the method to discard the last value and return `Unit`
def method(parameter: Type): Unit = {
// does things
}
You should follow scala's advice.
val rdd2 = myRDD.map(MyClass.doStringManipulation)
Write this inside the class then it will work as expected.
import MyClass._
I have a Scala application, where pretty much every object extends a specific trait, which holds all the main functions and variables used by pretty much the entire system.
I want to add a --testing flag to my app's command line variables, which will shift the the results of some of the functions in the trait.
Putting it simply, I'd like the variable accepted in the main to have an affect that alters something in the trait before it is extended by the objects - without sending it explicitly to all objects.
Any ideas how that can be performed?
I doubt you really want to dynamically modify a trait, and I am not sure if it possible that all your classes inheriting that trait would be affected. I don't know enough about the compiler and byte code.
A way to accomplish something similar would be to have your trait take a parameter, and make your trait act conditionally on the parameter.
trait Foo {
val testing: Boolean
def fn1(): Unit = {
if (testing) {
println("testing")
} else {
println("production")
}
}
}
class Bar(val testing: Boolean) extends Foo {
def fn2(): Unit = {
fn1()
}
}
new Bar(true).fn2()
new Bar(false).fn2()
Your question is broad and this is just my 5 cents.
Update
trait Foo {
def fn1(): Unit = {
if (Foo.testing) {
println("testing")
} else {
println("production")
}
}
}
object Foo {
var testing: Boolean = false
}
class Bar extends Foo {
def fn2(): Unit = {
fn1()
}
}
object SOApp extends App {
new Bar().fn2()
Foo.testing = true
new Bar().fn2()
}
Consider passing the 'testing' flag to the trait's initializer block like this:
trait MyTrait {
var testMode: Boolean = _
def doSomething(): Unit = {
if (testMode)
println("In Test Mode")
else
println("In Standard Mode")
}
}
// IMPORTANT: Your best bet would be to create some Config object
// that is loaded and initialized in a main method.
// Define test-specific Config class:
case class Config(testMode: Boolean) {
def isTestMode: Boolean = this.testMode
}
// Instantiate in main method:
val config = new Config(true)
// Later, extend the trait:
class MyObj extends MyTrait { testMode = config.isTestMode() }
// Then just invoke
new MyObject().doSomething()
I have Scala class which methods use a lot of regex. Each class method use some regex patterns.
Looking from the perspective of code modularity I should store those patterns in method:
class Bar {
def foo() {
val patt1 = "[ab]+".r
val patt2 = "[cd]+".r
/*...*/
}
}
But this approach is quite inefficient. Patterns are recompiled on each method call.
I could move them directly to class:
class Bar {
val fooPatt1 = "[ab]+".r
val fooPatt2 = "[cd]+".r
/*...*/
}
but in case when I have 30 methods it looks ugly.
I ended up with some hybrid solution using val and anonymous function:
val z = {
val patt1 = "[ab]+".r
val patt2 = "[cd]+".r
() => { /* ... */ }
}
but I am not sure if using val to store function have some drawbacks compared to def. Maybe there is other clean solution to store methods constants without polluting the class?
Using a val is perfectly fine. There might be a (very) small performance hit, but in most (99.9%) of the applications that's not a problem.
You could also create a class for the method
// The extends is not needed, although you might want to hide the Foo type
class Foo extends (() => ...) {
val patt1 = "[ab]+".r
val patt2 = "[cd]+".r
def apply() = {
...
}
}
Then in the class:
class Bar {
val foo = new Foo
}
Another solution is using traits
trait Foo {
private lazy val patt1 = "[ab]+".r
private lazy val patt2 = "[cd]+".r
def foo() = ...
}
class Bar extends Foo with ...
Note that if you have different methods like that in a single class, it can be sign that the single responsibility principle is violated. Moving them to their own class (or trait) can be a solution for that problem as well.
I would put every method with the necessary regex in it's own Trait:
class Bar extends AMethod with BMethod
trait AMethod {
private val aPattern = """\d+""".r
def aMethod(s: String) = aPattern.findFirstIn(s)
}
trait BMethod {
private val bPattern = """\w+""".r
def bMethod(s: String) = bPattern.findFirstIn(s)
}
clean
separated
easy to test (object AMethodSpec extends Properties("AMethod") with AMethod ...)
I took into account Chris comment. Putting patterns to companion object is probably the most efficient approach but very unclean when we have more methods.
EECOLOR solution is less efficient but cleaner. Traits prevents recreating patterns on each method call. Unfortunately, scala do not use same compiled pattern accross multiple class instances:
(new X).patt1==(new X).patt1 // would be false.
I've combined those two approaches and instead traits I used objects.
object X {
object method1 {
val patt1 = "a".r
}
object method2 {
val patt1 = "a".r
}
}
class X {
def method1 = {
import X.method1._
patt1
}
def method2 = {
import X.method2._
patt1
}
}
(new X).method1 == (new X).method1 // true
(new X).method2 == (new X).method2 // true
Although this approach works, I think scala should provide some solution for that problem out of box. Patterns are the simplest example. We could have other immutable objects which initialization is much more expensive.
Extracting method internals somewhere outside is still unclear. It would be nice to do it like with lazy vals. Adding one modificator should ensure that value is instance only once across all instances and methods calls. It would be something like that:
def method1 {
static val x = new VeryExpensiveObject
}
Could someone explain me why:
abstract class Super(var title: String)
class Sub(title: String) extends Super(title) {
def test = println(title)
}
val s = new Sub("a")
s.test
s.title = "b"
s.test
prints:
a
a
instead of:
a
b
?
It's easy. You simply refers to constructor param, not the inherited variable. You may either rename constructor param, or refer to the var with this. prefix
class Sub(titleP: String) extends Super(titleP) {
def test = println(title)
}
I have the following class in my mind:
abstract class MyClass (data: MyData) {
def update(): MyClass = {
new MyClass(process())
}
def process(): MyData = {
...
}
}
However, abstract classes cannot be instantiated so the line new MyClass(process()) is an error. My question is - is there any way to tell the compiler that in case of each of the child classes of MyClass I want to create an object of exactly that child class? It seems an overkill to write this method awhole in all child classes. Playing with type parameters of the class or method I could not acheive that myself.
How about something like this? MyClass is parametrized with the concrete type. Of course, all concrete classes have to implement a method that actually returns a new instance of Self.
trait MyClass[+Self <: MyClass[Self]] {
def update(): Self = {
makeNew(process())
}
def process(): MyData = {
// ...
}
protected def makeNew(data: MyData): Self
}
class Concrete0 extends MyClass[Concrete0] {
protected def makeNew(data: MyData) = new Concrete0
}
class RefinedConcrete0 extends Concrete0 with MyClass[RefinedConcrete0] {
override protected def makeNew(data: MyData) = new RefinedConcrete0
}
Credit: IttayD’s second update to his answer to this question.
To completly avoid implementing almost identical method in all subclasses you would need to use reflection. I guess that would be your last resort if you have chosen Scala.
So here is how to minimize the repetitive code:
// additional parameter: a factory function
abstract class MyClass(data: MyData, makeNew: MyData => MyClass) {
def update(): MyClass = {
makeNew(process())
}
def process(): MyData = {
...
}
}
class Concrete(data: MyData) extends MyClass(data, new Concrete(_))
This way you repeat only the shortest fragment required to instantiate the subclass.