Scala is a tremendously powerful language that has inherited the best things from each of the most successful languages known. Java is no exception and shares many things with it. The difference we see is that for each of the Java concepts, Scala augments, refines, and improves them. Learning all the features of Scala equips us with more and better tools when writing our programs. Although functional programming has not been a feature of Java, the experienced programmer may notice the lack of support for this paradigm on multiple occasions. We, therefore, recommend trying to incorporate these features, even though it may be difficult for the Java programmer to be so used to the imperative paradigm of this language.Scala is born from the combination of Scalable and Language, so you can already understand how strong this point is in this language. Scalability, in short, refers to a language that facilitates the growth of development teams as much as possible. How? By creating your own frameworks and structures.Scala, like other languages, supports the object-oriented paradigm for many. The paradigm must have the following characteristics:
• Encapsulation. • Inheritance. • Polymorphism. • All predefined types are objects. • Operations are performed by sending messages to objects. • User-defined types objects.
Functional programming is a paradigm in which evaluation is like a mathematical function and avoids changing states and values.
One of the goals of Scala is to have a language that can grow and scale with demand. Scala is suitable for use as a scripting language or for building business applications. Component abstraction, concise syntax, and support for object-oriented and functional paradigms make the language scalable. Being a JVM language, Scala integrates well with Java and the Java ecosystem, including tools, libraries, and IDEs.
Unlike a method defined with def, lazy val is executed only once and then not. This can be useful when execution time becomes too high to complete a task, and you are unsure if it will be used later. One example of a pure function is based on the parameter received to produce a result.
Non-pure functions allow external/internal context modification while it is necessary to do something that changes state, such as writing a file or updating a table within a database. That is why non-pure functions exist. For example,
Immutability refers to the data in an object that cannot be changed once created. In functional programming, we don't change the objects in our functions. We pass them to other functions. It is not always possible to use immutable states, but designing programs based on this premise is highly recommended.
These examples contrast Scala's advantages over an object-oriented language like Java. A few statistics on Scala
Since last year, the Cats library has become significantly more popular with Scala developers, growing from 13% to 35%. It has become the second most popular frame, after Akka.
With a share of 82%, the web backend is the predominant platform for Scala development.
Virtually all Scala developers unit test projects (94%), which is 20 percentage points higher than developers overall.
To conclude Scala is a more flexible and maintainable language than other options due to its functional nature and object orientation. Furthermore, it is possible to include Java libraries in your applications. Developers operate with their tools but write code that is short, fast, scalable, correct, and maybe—and just maybe—more fun.
