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| -rw-r--r-- | scala.html.markdown | 55 |
1 files changed, 54 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/scala.html.markdown b/scala.html.markdown index 529347be..f481f04f 100644 --- a/scala.html.markdown +++ b/scala.html.markdown @@ -507,7 +507,60 @@ for { n <- s; nSquared = n * n if nSquared < 10} yield nSquared // 8. Implicits ///////////////////////////////////////////////// -// Coming soon! +/* WARNING WARNING: Implicits are a set of powerful features of Scala, and + * therefore it is easy to abuse them. Beginners to Scala should resist the + * temptation to use them until they understand not only how they work, but also + * best practices around them. We only include this section in the tutorial + * because they are so commonplace in Scala libraries that it is impossible to + * do anything meaningful without using a library that has implicits. This is + * meant for you to understand and work with implicts, not declare your own. + */ + +// Any value (vals, functions, objects, etc) can be declared to be implicit by +// using the, you guessed it, "implicit" keyword. Note we are using the Dog +// class from section 5 in these examples. +implicit val myImplicitInt = 100 +implicit def myImplicitFunction(breed: String) = new Dog("Golden " + breed) + +// By itself, implicit keyword doesn't change the behavior of the value, so +// above values can be used as usual. +myImplicitInt + 2 // => 102 +myImplicitFunction("Pitbull").breed // => "Golden Pitbull" + +// The difference is that these values are now elligible to be used when another +// piece of code "needs" an implicit value. One such situation is implicit +// function arguments: +def sendGreetings(toWhom: String)(implicit howMany: Int) = + s"Hello $toWhom, $howMany blessings to you and yours!" + +// If we supply a value for "howMany", the function behaves as usual +sendGreetings("John")(1000) // => "Hello John, 1000 blessings to you and yours!" + +// But if we omit the implicit parameter, an implicit value of the same type is +// used, in this case, "myImplicitInt": +sendGreetings("Jane") // => "Hello Jane, 100 blessings to you and yours!" + +// Implicit function parameters enable us to simulate type classes in other +// functional languages. It is so often used that it gets its own shorthand. The +// following two lines mean the same thing: +def foo[T](implicit c: C[T]) = ... +def foo[T : C] = ... + + +// Another situation in which the compiler looks for an implicit is if you have +// obj.method(...) +// but "obj" doesn't have "method" as a method. In this case, if there is an +// implicit conversion of type A => B, where A is the type of obj, and B has a +// method called "method", that conversion is applied. So having +// myImplicitFunction above in scope, we can say: +"Retriever".breed // => "Golden Retriever" +"Sheperd".bark // => "Woof, woof!" + +// Here the String is first converted to Dog using our function above, and then +// the appropriate method is called. This is an extremely powerful feature, but +// again, it is not to be used lightly. In fact, when you defined the implicit +// function above, your compiler should have given you a warning, that you +// shouldn't do this unless you really know what you're doing. ///////////////////////////////////////////////// |