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Another Scala nested Option + flatMap example

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: January 20 2018

After yesterday’s Scala nested Option + flatMap/for example, here’s another example of plowing through nested Options with flatMap. First, start with some nested options:

val o1 = Option(1)
val oo1 = Option(o1)
val ooo1 = Option(oo1)

Here are those same three lines, with the data type for each instance shown in the comments:

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Scala: Examples of for-expressions being converted to map and flatMap

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: March 7 2018

Without any explanation, here are a couple of source code examples from my book, Learning Functional Programming in Scala. The only thing I’ll say about this code is that I created it in the process of writing that book, and the examples show how the Scala compiler translates for-expressions into map and flatMap calls behind the scenes.

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Scala: Handling nested Options with flatMap and for

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: March 13 2018

Summary: In this article I show a couple of ways to extract information from optional fields in your Scala domain models. This example is a little contrived, but if you have a situation where one Option instance contains one or more other Options, this article may be helpful.

There are times when you’re creating your domain model when it makes sense to use optional fields in your case classes. For instance, when you model an Address, the “second street address” isn’t needed for all people, so making it an optional field makes sense:

This website is a little one-man operation. If you found this information helpful, I’d appreciate it if you would share it.

Scala 2.12: Either is biased, implements map and flatMap

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: August 5 2017

While reading the excellent Scala/FP book, Advanced Scala with Cats, I was just reminded that Scala’s Either class was redesigned in Scala 2.12. Prior to 2.12, Either was not biased, and didn’t implement map and flatMap methods. As the image from the book shows, Either is redesigned in 2.12 to include those methods, so it can now be used in Scala for-expressions as shown.

(I write about biasing in my book, Learning Functional Programming in Scala.)

< back to my photo gallery

This is a page from my book, Functional Programming, Simplified

How to Enable the Use of Multiple Generators in a ‘for’ Expression

One cool thing about for expressions is that you can use multiple generators inside of them. This lets you do some nice analytics when you have some interesting data relationships.

For instance, suppose you have some data like this:

This is a page from my book, Functional Programming, Simplified

How to Enable Filtering in a `for` Expression

Next, let’s see if we can use a filtering clause inside of a for expression with the Sequence code we have so far.

Trying to use a filtering expression

When I paste the current Sequence class and this code into the Scala REPL:

val ints = Sequence(1,2,3,4,5)

val res = for {
    i <- ints
    if i > 2
} yield i*2

I see the following error message:

This is a page from my book, Functional Programming, Simplified

How to Write a Scala Class That Can Be Used in a ‘for’ Expression

“You must unlearn what you have learned.”

Yoda, Star Wars

Introduction

As a reminder, the reason for the next several lessons on for expressions is so that you can get to a point where you can understand the following code:

Notes on Scala for expressions, map, flatMap, and Option

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: August 9 2017

Without any explanation, these are some of my working notes from my upcoming book on Scala and Functional Programming about a) for expressions, b) map, c) flatMap, d) Option, and e) nested flatMap and map calls.

These are equivalent (map and for)

this:

val y = x.map(_ * 2)

and this:

This website is a little one-man operation. If you found this information helpful, I’d appreciate it if you would share it.

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