Scala is a multi-paradigm programming language that was created to describe common programming patterns in a concise, expressive, and type-safe manner. Martin Odersky designed Scala, and the first version was released in 2003.
The Scala Programming Language
The properties of object-oriented and functional languages are seamlessly combined in Scala. This guide presents the fundamentals of Scala in an easy-to-understand manner. The article was written for novices to help them grasp the fundamentals of Scala in simple ways.
Scala is a quick and efficient compiler-based programming language. It has the advantage of being able to run on the JVM (Java virtual machine). This allows the Java and Scala stacks to work together in a seamless manner. As seen by the number of contributors (450) on the GitHub Scala repository, the Scala language is being developed and is being utilised to construct various scalable concurrent applications.
History of Scala
The language was first made available internally in 2003, and then it was made public on January 20, 2004. In June of 2004, the Scala programming language was formally published on the Java and.Net platforms. In the year 2006, Scala 2.0 was released. Typesafe was founded in 2011 to provide commercial support, training, and services for Scala. As a result of these developments, .Net support was officially discontinued in 2012. The European Research Council has awarded the Scala team a five-year research grant worth over €2.3 million.
Introducing Scala to the World
Scala is a general-purpose programming language that incorporates the concepts of both functional and object-oriented programming languages. Furthermore, it solves the issues that other languages have and integrates with the JVM’s current code. As a result, Scala integrates seamlessly with existing Java code and libraries, requiring no additional configuration.
You don’t have to start from scratch when writing Scala code because it works with your existing Java code stack! When you use the Scala compiler scalac to compile your Scala code, your compiled classes are turned to byte code, which is easily understood and executed by the JVM. Scala programming is extremely beneficial due to its language interchange with Java.
Scala can be thought of as an enhanced version of Java because it uses all of the Java libraries. Scala and Java are today’s must-have developer skillsets. While Scala is quite similar to Java, it also has several features that set it apart from Java and other programming languages in a number of ways, resulting in its increased popularity.
Scala is easy to learn, has a straightforward syntax, is statically typed, does not require rewriting, and is short and error-free. When compared to Java, which is thick in boilerplate code, Scala requires fewer lines of code. This means that even a single issue in Java is difficult to discover, whereas a bug in Scala is easily detected and eradicated.
The tremendous scalability of Scala makes it ideal for backend operations. It can operate in a multi-architecture environment and perform concurrent and synchronised processing. In comparison to many other programming languages, this makes it a big data favourite. There are a lot of lines of code in Java. Both Java and Scala lend themselves to using Hadoop when working with big data. However, if you’re using Spark, the only language you’ll be able to use is Scala.
When Twitter was first launched in the United States in 2006, the developers chose Ruby on Rails as their tool of choice for developing the service, which subsequently proved to be a mistake when they had to manage the massive quantity of Big-Data that was pouring into Twitter. Then they switched to Java as their backend and utilised Scala as their new programming language to manage big data utilising the Hadoop and Spark frameworks, which performed admirably.
Why Do We Need Scala?
- Scala is capable of interacting with data that is stored in a distributed fashion. It makes use of all available resources and enables data processing in parallel.
- You can work with immutable data and higher-order functions in Scala.
- Scala is a better version of Java that was developed with the purpose of reducing unnecessary code. It supports a wide range of libraries and APIs, allowing programmers to work faster.
- Scala provides various type Constructs, allowing programmers to easily interact with wrappers and container types.
Features of Scala Programming Language
Scala has several characteristics that set it apart from other programming languages, which is why developers are lining up to learn it. The following are some of the features and benefits:
Ecosystem
Many tools and frameworks in concurrency support the Scala programming language for diverse implementations. For example, Apache Spark for large data, Apache Kafka for high-throughput messaging, and the Play framework for web app development.
Extensible Language
It is a language that can be used in a variety of ways. Scala has a variety of language constructs that can be introduced as libraries to the language. Most crucially, Scala works with the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) (Java runtime environment).
Allows DSL to be created
Scala offers several built-in capabilities, such as ‘implicit’ and ‘overloaded operators,’ that allow you to construct your own domain-specific language (DSL) without having expert-level language knowledge.
Object-Oriented
Scala, like Python, Ruby, Java, Smalltalk, and others, is an object-oriented programming language. It’s a completely object-oriented language, which means that each value is an object. As a result, Scala supports first-class objects and anonymous functions. Classes and characteristics are used to describe the behaviour of objects and types.
Functional Programming
It means that in Scala, every function is a value, and every value is an object. Hence every function is also an object. Scala has an easy-to-use syntax for writing higher-order functions (i.e., you can pass a function as an argument to another function).
Processing that is both concurrent and synchronised
Scala allows you to build immutable code that can be used for synchronised and concurrent processing.
Marketable
Yes, Scala is a marketable language. Learning Scala will undoubtedly increase your marketability. Many big companies are switching to Scala these days.
Expressive
Scala is an extremely expressive language by nature. As a result, Scala contains a huge amount of useful code. This is encouraging a growing number of Java professionals who want to produce beautiful and clear code to learn Scala.
Multi-Paradigm Language
Object-oriented programming (OOP) and functional programming are two programming paradigms that Scala supports (FP). It allows you to experiment with both languages. This mix of characteristics will assist you in writing small and straightforward Scala programmes.
Typed Statically
In Scala, the method for checking and enforcing type constraints is inferred at compile time.
Interoperability
Scala and Java both feature a shared runtime environment that allows users to migrate between the two for execution. While Scala may be used in existing Java projects, it can also utilise all of the Java SDK classes. As a result, there’s no need to abandon existing Java libraries because Scala allows Java code to be mixed. A user can also customise Java classes using the Scala libraries.
No Semicolon
A semicolon is not used after every statement in Scala. The newline character is used instead as a separator.
Use in Big Data
Because of its scalability on the JVM, Scala is the most popular language among big data developers. Alibaba and Netflix are two examples of Spark with Scala use cases.
Frameworks for Scala
Scala is a sophisticated programming language that has gained much traction among programmers. It allows programmers to create cutting-edge apps that are less expensive to maintain and scale. Scala frameworks will assist you in deciding which technologies to use to complete your project’s tasks.
The following is a list of many Scala frameworks:
Play
Play is a web application framework that was first released in 2007. This high-speed framework will enable Scala developers to create extremely scalable web apps. Play-based applications have all of the advantages of reactive systems, such as high responsiveness, resilience, and elasticity. Some prominent websites, such as Samsung’s IoT Artik platform, LinkedIn, and others, are presently using it.
Finch
Finch is an HTTP primitives modular framework based on the principle of composability. Its goal is to give developers access to basic and reliable HTTP primitives. Finch is a versatile system that is both fast and functional.
Akka
Akka is a distributed processing toolset and runtime that is free and open-source. It was designed to create message-driven applications that are distributed and resilient. Because the Akka ecosystem is so large, it includes a variety of tools for diverse uses, such as Akka Actors, Akka HTTP, and so on.
Akka HTTP
Akka HTTP is a cutting-edge framework for creating integration layers. Rather than application cores, it provides tools for creating integration layers. This Akka HTTP utility is mostly used in high-load situations.
Lift
Lift is a scalable and highly secure framework that addresses a variety of security issues like code injection and cross-site scripting. David Pollak designed it after becoming frustrated with various aspects of Ruby on Rails.
Slick
Slick is a Scala framework for querying and accessing databases. It’s made to connect to databases and other data sources. Slick facilitates the development of Scala-based next-generation distributed applications.
Learning Scala Programming
Because Scala programming is synchronised with Java, you can learn Scala in the shortest time feasible if you already know Java syntax. Scala is a tool that the Full Stack Java Developer can use to expand their arsenal.
The following are the requirements:
- Java expertise at the beginner level.
- If you’re not downloading Scala, you’ll need some basic software expertise to install an upgraded version of JDK or Eclipse.
- You can learn Scala programming even if you don’t know Java and are familiar with other programming languages like C, C++, or Python.
Advantages of Scala Programming Language
So, here are some of the advantages of Scala over other programming languages, as well as why you should learn Scala:
- It is simple to learn. Scala is related to other languages such as Java, C, and C++, making it nearly straightforward to learn, especially for Java developers.
- It combines the best aspects of several languages. Scala incorporates some of the best aspects of other languages, making it simple to learn and use.
- Scala outperforms Ruby, Python, and node.js. in terms of performance.
- Java is tightly integrated. Because the Scala compiler can operate on the JVM and use Java’s frameworks, libraries, and tools, it is compatible with the MEAN stack.
- Web and desktop app development. Scala’s ability to compile to JavaScript and JVM bytecode simplifies online and desktop app development.
- Companies that work with large data use it. Because of its scalability, parallelism, and ability to adapt to backend operations, several large firms have transferred most of their code to Scala from other languages. Apple, Twitter, Walmart, Netflix, LinkedIn, Meetup.com, Google, Amazon, IBM, and Autodesk are among the companies that use Scala.
Applications of Scala
Scala has diverse uses, such as:
Frontend and Backend
Scala is a programming language that is used to create web applications and pages. Scala.js is a Scala implementation that converts Scala code into JavaScript. It allows us to construct front-end web apps in Java utilising Javascript libraries and frameworks since it offers full bilateral compatibility between Scala and Javascript code.
Create Android Apps
Scala is a programming language that may be used to create Android apps. A basic set of tools, such as the Android SDK and Homebrew, are required to develop Android applications in Scala. Scala is simple to utilise in existing and new Android applications, and apps developed in Scala are small, starting at 30kb.
Desktop Applications
When it comes to developing desktop applications, you need to make sure you have the correct framework in place. There are various alternatives available, and Scala is one among them.
Scala is Used with Hadoop
Some Hadoop ecosystem components use Scala, such as Apache Kafka and Apache Spark. Obviously, someone who develops Scala apps that employ Hadoop and ecosystem projects will find it beneficial.
Apart from these, Scala is used in the following as well:
- Apps for texting
- Apache Spark domain-specific language for big data analysis
- Applications that stream data
- Data processing that is both concurrent and distributed
- Using the Spark framework to stream data in real-time
- Batch data processing and parallel data processing
- Use with Map/Reduce programs.
- Lambda function on AWS
- Use with machine learning to create sophisticated algorithms on a huge scale.
Basic Syntax of Scala
Let’s begin by writing Hello, World! in Scala.
Syntax: print("Hello, World!")
Output: Hello, World!
As you can see, it was quite straightforward, requiring only a print command and the input as an argument.
Now, let’s delve into a few Scala syntax details:
- Because Scala is case-sensitive, the identifiers DataCamp and dataCamp would have distinct meanings.
- All class names in Scala should start with an upper case letter. If a class name is made up of several words, the initial letter of each word should be in upper case. For instance, consider the class MyScalaDataCampTutorial.
- In Scala, method names operate significantly differently than class names, mostly to distinguish method names from class names. The names of the methods should begin with a lower case letter (Source). If the method’s name is made up of multiple words, the first letter of each inner word should be in upper case. Define firstDatacampScalaTutorial, for example ()
- In Scala, the programme file name must be the same as the object name. You must save the file by using the object name and appending.scala to the end of the name. As an example, let’s pretend the object’s name is ScalaTutorial. After that, save the file as ScalaTutorial.scala.
- Note that if the filename and object name do not match, your application will fail to compile.
- Finally, just like most programming languages, Scala programme processing begins with the main() method, which is an essential component of every Scala programme.
Final Thoughts
Scala salary structures are improving as the number of job prospects in data science, development, and big data grows. So make Scala your pick, whether you’re a beginner programmer or a seasoned developer trying to master a fast language that combines the finest aspects of most languages.
Scala allows you to take advantage of the benefits of working in a variety of contexts while also ensuring that your developer skill sets include the greatest programming languages. In a fast-paced learning environment, Scala expertise not only contributes to your CV but also helps you enhance your wage chances. Learn and master the fundamental ideas of Scala, such as variables, strings, and loops, so that you can take full use of its strong, simple, and powerful performance features.
