Scala is a general-purpose programming language created in 2001 to provide support for both object-oriented programming and functional programming. It was highly influenced by Java and designed to address some of its drawbacks, such as supporting operator overloading, optional parameters, named parameters, and raw strings, which make it easier to include characters such as html code that might otherwise have literal meaning within the language. Scala, which stands for scalable language, has a strong static type system, making it easier to avoid bugs in complex applications.
Scala source code can convert to bytecodes, so the ensuing executable code runs on the Java VIrtual Machine. It provides language interoperability with Java, meaning that libraries written in either language can be referenced in Scala or Java codebase. Scala is similar to other popular programming languages such as Java and C++, which makes it easy for developers to learn and begin using.
Features of Scala
- Type inference: Users aren’t required to mention data type and function return type explicitly – Scala can deduce the type of data. The return type of function is determined by the type of last expression present in the function.
- Singleton object: Scala uses the singleton object, meaning there are no static variables or methods.
- Immutability: Each declared variable is immutable by default in Scala, meaning the value can’t be modified. This helps to manage concurrency control.
- Lazy computation: Computation is “lazy” by default, so expressions are only evaluated when it’s required, which increases performance.
- String interpolation: Scala offers a mechanism to create strings from data known as string interpolation. It replaces defined variables or expressions in a given string with values. Scala provides three methods: s, f, and raw.