7. [Exercise] Functions in Scala

Activity

• For this activity, go ahead and import from the resource the file LearningScala3.scala

• LearningScala3.scala mainly talks about the building blocks of Functional Programming for Scala Code

• The follow defines how to define a function in Scala

• Scala do not need to explicitly declare a return statement to return the value

• Scala will return the last value found in the function scope

    // Functions
  
    // Format is def <function name>(parameter name: type...) : return type = { expression }
    // Don't forget the = before the expression!
    def squareIt(x: Int) : Int = {
        x * x
    }                                               
    //> squareIt: (x: Int)Int
  
    def cubeIt(x: Int): Int = {x * x * x}           
    //> cubeIt: (x: Int)Int
  
    println(squareIt(2))                            
    //> 4
  
    println(cubeIt(2))                              
    //> 8

• Scala can take in other functions as parameter for its current Function parameter

• Need to declare => as the other function to transform to this current method return value

    // Functions can take other functions as parameters
  
    def transformInt(x: Int, f: Int => Int) : Int = {
        f(x)
    }                                               
    //> transformInt: (x: Int, f: Int => Int)Int
  
    val result = transformInt(2, cubeIt)            
    //> result  : Int = 8
  
    println (result)                                
    //> 8

• You can declare Lambda functions in Scala without even explicitly giving them a name

    // "Lambda functions", "anonymous functions", "function literals"
    // You can declare functions inline without even giving them a name
    // This happens a lot in Spark.
    transformInt(3, x => x * x * x)                 //> res0: Int = 27
  
    transformInt(10, x => x / 2)                    //> res1: Int = 5
  
    transformInt(2, x => {val y = x * 2; y * y})    //> res2: Int = 16

Exercise

    // EXERCISE
    // Strings have a built-in .toUpperCase method. For example, "foo".toUpperCase gives you back FOO.
    // Write a function that converts a string to upper-case, and use that function of a few test strings.
    // Then, do the same thing using a function literal instead of a separate, named function.

    def transform(str: String) : String = {str.toUpperCase}
    //> transform: (str: String)String

    transform("testing1")                           
    //> res3: String = TESTING1
    transform("testing2")                           
    //> res4: String = TESTING2
    transform("testing3")                           
    //> res5: String = TESTING3

    def transformString(str: String, functionTesting: String => String) : String = {
        functionTesting(str)
    }                                               
    //> transformString: (str: String, functionTesting: String => String)String

    transformString("testing4", transform)   
    //> res6: String = TESTING4

    transformString("testingliteral", x => x.toUpperCase)
    //> res7: String = TESTINGLITERAL