Scala packaging and import examples

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: April 13, 2023

This article is a collection of Scala packaging and import examples. I created most of these examples when I was writing the 1st Edition of the Scala Cookbook. I share them here without much discussion, but for more examples and discussion, please check out the Cookbook.

Packages imported by default

By default, three packages are implicitly imported for you:

java.lang._
scala._
scala.Predef._

Basic Scala import usage

Here are some import examples:

// import one class
import java.io.File

// import every class in a package
import java.io._

// import multiple classes from a package (version 1)
import java.io.{File, IOException, FileNotFoundException}

// import multiple classes from a package (version 2)
import java.io.File
import java.io.FileNotFoundException
import java.io.IOException

Creating a class alias during import (renaming a class)

You can give a class a new name (or alias) when you import it:

import java.util.{List => UtilList}
import java.awt.{List => AwtList}

// later ...
val list = new AwtList

Hiding classes during import

You can hide one or more classes while importing others. The following example hides the Random class, while importing everything else from the java.util package:

import java.util.{Random => _, _}

This is confirmed in the REPL:

scala> import java.util.{Random => _, _}
import java.util.{Random=>_, _}

// can't access Random
scala> val r = new Random
<console>:10: error: not found: type Random
       val r = new Random
                   ^

// can access other members
scala> new ArrayList
res0: java.util.ArrayList[Nothing] = []

The equivalent of Java’s static import

You can import members in a way similar to the Java static import approach:

import java.lang.Math._

// demonstrated in the repl
scala> import java.lang.Math._
import java.lang.Math._

scala> val a = sin(0)
a: Double = 0.0

scala> val a = cos(PI)
a: Double = -1.0

Basic packaging

You can create Scala packages with the usual Java practice of declaring a package name at the top of the file:

package foo.bar.baz

class Foo {
  override def toString = "I'm foo.bar.baz.Foo"
}

Curly brace style packaging

You can also use a “curly braces” style:

// a single package
package orderentry {
  class Foo { override def toString = "I am orderentry.Foo" }
}

// one package nested inside the other
package customers {
  class Foo { override def toString = "I am customers.Foo" }

  package database {
    // this Foo is different than customers.Foo or orderentry.Foo
    class Foo { override def toString = "I am customers.database.Foo" }
  }
}

object PackageTests extends App {
  println(new orderentry.Foo)
  println(new customers.Foo)
  println(new customers.database.Foo)
}

Nesting packages

You can easily nest packages:

package foo {
  package bar {
    package baz {
      class Foo {
        override def toString = "I'm foo.bar.baz.Foo"
      }
    }
  }
}

You can define multiple levels of depth at one time:

package com.alvinalexander.foo {
 class Foo { override def toString = "I am com.alvinalexander.foo.Foo" }  
}

Summary

As I mentioned, these are some of the examples you’ll find in the Scala Cookbook. Please see the Cookbook for more examples and details. You can find it at these links:

scala

alias