I divide the operators, for the purpose of teaching, into four categories:
- Keywords/reserved symbols
- Automatically imported methods
- Common methods
- Syntactic sugars/composition
It is fortunate, then, that most categories are represented in the question:
-> // Automatically imported method
||= // Syntactic sugar
++= // Syntactic sugar/composition or common method
<= // Common method
_._ // Typo, though it's probably based on Keyword/composition
:: // Common method
:+= // Common method
The exact meaning of most of these methods depend on the class that is defining them. For example, <=
on Int
means "less than or equal to". The first one, ->
, I'll give as example below. ::
is probably the method defined on List
(though it could be the object of the same name), and :+=
is probably the method defined on various Buffer
classes.
So, let's see them.
Keywords/reserved symbols
There are some symbols in Scala that are special. Two of them are considered proper keywords, while others are just "reserved". They are:
<-
=>
( )
[ ]
{ }
.
#
:
<: >: <%
<? <!
" """
'
@
`
,
;
_*
_
These are all part of the language, and, as such, can be found in any text that properly describe the language, such as Scala Specification(PDF) itself.
The last one, the underscore, deserve a special description, because it is so widely used, and has so many different meanings. Here's a sample:
import scala._
import scala.{ Predef => _, _ }
def f[M[_]]
def f(m: M[_])
_ + _
m _
m(_)
_ => 5
case _ =>
f(xs: _*)
case Seq(xs @ _*)
I probably forgot some other meaning, though.
Automatically imported methods
So, if you did not find the symbol you are looking for in the list above, then it must be a method, or part of one. But, often, you'll see some symbol and the documentation for the class will not have that method. When this happens, either you are looking at a composition of one or more methods with something else, or the method has been imported into scope, or is available through an imported implicit conversion.
These can still be found on ScalaDoc: you just have to know where to look for them. Or, failing that, look at the index (presently broken on 2.9.1, but available on nightly).
Every Scala code has three automatic imports:
import _root_.java.lang._
import _root_.scala._
import _root_.scala.Predef._
The first two only make classes and singleton objects available. The third one contains all implicit conversions and imported methods, since Predef
is an object itself.
Looking inside Predef
quickly show some symbols:
class <:<
class =:=
object <%<
object =:=
Any other symbol will be made available through an implicit conversion. Just look at the methods tagged with implicit
that receive, as parameter, an object of type that is receiving the method. For example:
"a" -> 1
In the above case, ->
is defined in the class ArrowAssoc
through the method any2ArrowAssoc
that takes an object of type A
, where A
is an unbounded type parameter to the same method.
Common methods
So, many symbols are simply methods on a class. For instance, if you do
List(1, 2) ++ List(3, 4)
You'll find the method ++
right on the ScalaDoc for List. However, there's one convention that you must be aware when searching for methods. Methods ending in colon (:
) bind to the right instead of the left. In other words, while the above method call is equivalent to:
List(1, 2).++(List(3, 4))
If I had, instead 1 :: List(2, 3)
, that would be equivalent to:
List(2, 3).::(1)
So you need to look at the type found on the right when looking for methods ending in colon. Consider, for instance:
1 +: List(2, 3) :+ 4
The first method (+:
) binds to the right, and is found on List
. The second method (:+
) is just a normal method, and binds to the left -- again, on List
.
Syntactic sugars/composition
So, here's a few syntactic sugars that may hide a method:
class Example(arr: Array[Int] = Array.fill(5)(0)) {
def apply(n: Int) = arr(n)
def update(n: Int, v: Int) = arr(n) = v
def a = arr(0); def a_=(v: Int) = arr(0) = v
def b = arr(1); def b_=(v: Int) = arr(1) = v
def c = arr(2); def c_=(v: Int) = arr(2) = v
def d = arr(3); def d_=(v: Int) = arr(3) = v
def e = arr(4); def e_=(v: Int) = arr(4) = v
def +(v: Int) = new Example(arr map (_ + v))
def unapply(n: Int) = if (arr.indices contains n) Some(arr(n)) else None
}
val Ex = new Example
println(Ex(0))
Ex(0) = 2
Ex.b = 3
val Ex(c) = 2
Ex += 1
The last one is interesting, because any symbolic method can be combined to form an assignment-like method that way.
And, of course, there's various combinations that can appear in code:
(_+_)