Scala Expert

Expert guidance for Scala development, functional programming, Akka actors, and reactive systems.

Core Concepts

Scala Fundamentals

Immutability
Pattern matching
Case classes
Traits and mixins
Implicit conversions
For comprehensions

Functional Programming

Higher-order functions
Monads (Option, Either, Try)
Functors and Applicatives
Type classes
Pure functions
Referential transparency

Reactive Systems

Akka actors
Akka Streams
Akka HTTP
Play Framework
Cats Effect
ZIO

Scala Basics

// Case classes
case class User(id: String, name: String, email: String, age: Int)

// Pattern matching
def processUser(user: User): String = user match {
  case User(_, name, _, age) if age < 18 => s"$name is a minor"
  case User(_, name, _, age) if age >= 65 => s"$name is a senior"
  case User(_, name, _, _) => s"$name is an adult"
}

// Options instead of null
def findUser(id: String): Option[User] = {
  database.get(id)
}

val userName = findUser("123") match {
  case Some(user) => user.name
  case None => "Unknown"
}

// Or using map
val name = findUser("123").map(_.name).getOrElse("Unknown")

// For comprehensions
def getUserWithPosts(userId: String): Option[(User, List[Post])] = {
  for {
    user <- findUser(userId)
    posts <- findPosts(userId)
  } yield (user, posts)
}

// Traits and mixins
trait Serializable {
  def toJson: String
}

trait Loggable {
  def log(message: String): Unit = println(s"[LOG] $message")
}

case class Person(name: String, age: Int) extends Serializable with Loggable {
  def toJson: String = s"""{"name":"$name","age":$age}"""
}

// Implicit classes (extension methods)
implicit class StringOps(s: String) {
  def isValidEmail: Boolean = s.contains("@") && s.contains(".")
}

"test@example.com".isValidEmail // true

Functional Programming

import cats._
import cats.implicits._

// Functor
val numbers = List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
val doubled = numbers.map(_ * 2)

// Applicative
val result = (Option(1), Option(2), Option(3)).mapN { (a, b, c) =>
  a + b + c
}

// Monad (flatMap)
def fetchUser(id: String): Future[Option[User]] = ???
def fetchPosts(userId: String): Future[List[Post]] = ???

val userWithPosts: Future[Option[(User, List[Post])]] = {
  fetchUser("123").flatMap {
    case Some(user) =>
      fetchPosts(user.id).map(posts => Some((user, posts)))
    case None =>
      Future.successful(None)
  }
}

// Or with for-comprehension
val result: Future[Option[(User, List[Post])]] = for {
  userOpt <- fetchUser("123")
  posts <- fetchPosts(userOpt.map(_.id).getOrElse(""))
} yield userOpt.map(user => (user, posts))

// Either for error handling
sealed trait Error
case class NotFound(id: String) extends Error
case class ValidationError(message: String) extends Error

def validateUser(user: User): Either[Error, User] = {
  if (user.email.isValidEmail) Right(user)
  else Left(ValidationError("Invalid email"))
}

def saveUser(user: User): Either[Error, User] = {
  for {
    validated <- validateUser(user)
    saved <- database.save(validated)
  } yield saved
}

// Type classes
trait Show[A] {
  def show(a: A): String
}

object Show {
  def apply[A](implicit sh: Show[A]): Show[A] = sh

  implicit val stringShow: Show[String] = new Show[String] {
    def show(s: String): String = s
  }

  implicit val intShow: Show[Int] = new Show[Int] {
    def show(i: Int): String = i.toString
  }

  implicit def listShow[A: Show]: Show[List[A]] = new Show[List[A]] {
    def show(list: List[A]): String = {
      list.map(Show[A].show).mkString("[", ", ", "]")
    }
  }
}

def print[A: Show](a: A): Unit = {
  println(Show[A].show(a))
}

Akka Actors

import akka.actor.typed._
import akka.actor.typed.scaladsl._

// Actor definition
object UserActor {
  sealed trait Command
  final case class GetUser(id: String, replyTo: ActorRef[Response]) extends Command
  final case class CreateUser(user: User, replyTo: ActorRef[Response]) extends Command

  sealed trait Response
  final case class UserFound(user: User) extends Response
  final case class UserNotFound(id: String) extends Response
  final case class UserCreated(user: User) extends Response

  def apply(): Behavior[Command] = {
    Behaviors.setup { context =>
      var users = Map.empty[String, User]

      Behaviors.receiveMessage {
        case GetUser(id, replyTo) =>
          users.get(id) match {
            case Some(user) =>
              replyTo ! UserFound(user)
            case None =>
              replyTo ! UserNotFound(id)
          }
          Behaviors.same

        case CreateUser(user, replyTo) =>
          users = users + (user.id -> user)
          replyTo ! UserCreated(user)
          Behaviors.same
      }
    }
  }
}

// Using the actor
val system: ActorSystem[UserActor.Command] =
  ActorSystem(UserActor(), "user-system")

import akka.actor.typed.scaladsl.AskPattern._
import akka.util.Timeout
import scala.concurrent.duration._

implicit val timeout: Timeout = 3.seconds

val response: Future[UserActor.Response] =
  system.ask(ref => UserActor.GetUser("123", ref))

Akka Streams

import akka.stream._
import akka.stream.scaladsl._
import akka.actor.ActorSystem

implicit val system = ActorSystem("streams")
implicit val materializer = ActorMaterializer()

// Simple stream
val source = Source(1 to 10)
val flow = Flow[Int].map(_ * 2)
val sink = Sink.foreach[Int](println)

source.via(flow).runWith(sink)

// Backpressure handling
val throttled = Source(1 to 100)
  .throttle(10, 1.second)
  .map { n =>
    println(s"Processing $n")
    n * 2
  }
  .runWith(Sink.ignore)

// Error handling
val resilient = Source(1 to 10)
  .map { n =>
    if (n == 5) throw new Exception("Error at 5")
    n * 2
  }
  .recover {
    case e: Exception => -1
  }
  .runWith(Sink.seq)

// Parallelism
val parallel = Source(1 to 100)
  .mapAsync(parallelism = 4) { n =>
    Future {
      // Async operation
      Thread.sleep(100)
      n * 2
    }
  }
  .runWith(Sink.seq)

Akka HTTP

import akka.http.scaladsl.Http
import akka.http.scaladsl.server.Directives._
import akka.http.scaladsl.marshallers.sprayjson.SprayJsonSupport._
import spray.json.DefaultJsonProtocol._

// JSON protocol
case class User(id: String, name: String, email: String)

object JsonProtocol {
  implicit val userFormat = jsonFormat3(User)
}

import JsonProtocol._

// Routes
val routes =
  pathPrefix("api") {
    pathPrefix("users") {
      get {
        path(Segment) { userId =>
          // GET /api/users/:userId
          complete(findUser(userId))
        } ~
        pathEnd {
          // GET /api/users
          complete(getAllUsers())
        }
      } ~
      post {
        pathEnd {
          // POST /api/users
          entity(as[User]) { user =>
            complete(createUser(user))
          }
        }
      }
    }
  }

// Start server
val bindingFuture = Http().newServerAt("localhost", 8080).bind(routes)

Cats Effect / ZIO

import cats.effect._
import cats.effect.implicits._

// Pure functional effects with Cats Effect
def fetchUser(id: String): IO[User] = IO {
  // Effectful computation
  database.get(id)
}

def saveUser(user: User): IO[Unit] = IO {
  database.save(user)
}

val program: IO[Unit] = for {
  user <- fetchUser("123")
  updated = user.copy(name = "Updated")
  _ <- saveUser(updated)
} yield ()

// Error handling
val safeProgram: IO[Either[Throwable, Unit]] = program.attempt

// Parallel execution
val parallel: IO[List[User]] = {
  List("1", "2", "3")
    .parTraverse(id => fetchUser(id))
}

// ZIO
import zio._

def fetchUserZIO(id: String): Task[User] = ZIO.attempt {
  database.get(id)
}

val zioProgram: Task[Unit] = for {
  user <- fetchUserZIO("123")
  _ <- Console.printLine(s"Found user: ${user.name}")
} yield ()

Best Practices

Functional Programming

Prefer immutability
Use pure functions
Avoid side effects
Use Option/Either over null/exceptions
Leverage type classes
Use for-comprehensions
Apply functional composition

Scala Style

Follow naming conventions
Use case classes for data
Prefer vals over vars
Use pattern matching
Avoid null
Use implicits carefully
Write idiomatic code

Performance

Use lazy evaluation
Stream large datasets
Avoid unnecessary allocations
Use tail recursion
Profile before optimizing
Consider parallelism

Anti-Patterns

❌ Using null ❌ Mutable state everywhere ❌ God objects ❌ Excessive implicits ❌ Not handling errors ❌ Blocking operations ❌ Not using type safety

Resources

Scala Documentation: https://docs.scala-lang.org/
Akka Documentation: https://doc.akka.io/
Cats: https://typelevel.org/cats/
ZIO: https://zio.dev/
Functional Programming in Scala (Red Book)

scala-expert

Scala Expert

Core Concepts

Scala Fundamentals

Functional Programming

Reactive Systems

Scala Basics

Functional Programming

Akka Actors

Akka Streams

Akka HTTP

Cats Effect / ZIO

Best Practices

Functional Programming

Scala Style

Performance

Anti-Patterns

Resources