Learning Scala: Practical Functional Programming for the Jvm

by Jason Swartz

Why learn Scala? You don't need to be a data scientist or distributed computing expert to appreciate this object-oriented functional programming language. This practical book provides a comprehensive yet approachable introduction to the language, complete with syntax diagrams, examples, and exercises. You'll start with Scala's core types and syntax before diving into higher-order functions and immutable data structures.

Author Jason Swartz demonstrates why Scala's concise and expressive syntax make it an ideal language for Ruby or Python developers who want to improve their craft, while its type safety and performance ensures that it's stable and fast enough for any application.Learn about the core data types, literals, values, and variablesDiscover how to think and write in expressions, the foundation for Scala's syntaxWrite higher-order functions that accept or return other functionsBecome familiar with immutable data structures and easily transform them with type-safe and declarative operationsCreate custom infix operators to simplify existing operations or even to start your own domain-specific languageBuild classes that compose one or more traits for full reusability, or create new functionality by mixing them in at instantiation

Genres: Programming, Technology, Nonfiction, Technical, Software, Computer Science, Computers

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Pär Dahlberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a Java developer and I've been programming a bit of Scala in my spare time before reading this book. I read it on the bus, at lunch etc. so no access to trying out examples which probably is needed if you have no experience from Java or C#. It's pretty good, but a bit thin on more advanced concepts like type parameters with bounds, type variance etc. Perhaps these things are really simple and don't require more than a short description, but for someone without the knowledge it would be very good to have example of the use for those advanced concepts. When is it a good time to use them? When to avoid?

I would recommend this for anyone interested in Scala who is already experienced with Java, C or C#.

[Florian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it to be prepared for a new job that contains some Scala projects. Enjoyed reading it and learnt a few things. Had started reading a few other Scala book years ago but this one is different as it starts from the beginning with REPL and functions and doesn't show how to use it as a better Java. Comes with lots of examples, you can spend a lot of time with them.

[Alvaro Tejada Galindo · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first book on Scala...pretty nice book...enough to get you started...but I think it's a little bit basic...I was expecting more Scala depth-in stuff...and specially I would have appreciate more examples...but as an general introduction...it's good enough...

[Sreejith Gopalakrishnan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recommended for Scala beginners.

[Delhi Irc]

Location: GG6 IRC
Accession No: DL028791

[Frank Palardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for starting scala.