CODEWITHSUNDEEP
scalaobjectsingleton
Turin
Turin

Reputation: 2250

What are the subtle differences between val and singleton objects?

A question in essence similar to subtle differences between val and def. I wonder what's the semantic difference between having a member singleton object:

class Text {
    ...
    object Whitespace { def unapply(s :String) = 
        if (s.forall(_.isWhitespace)) Some(s) else None
    }
}

and

class Text {
    ...
    val Whitespace = new { def unapply(s :String) = 
        if (s.forall(_.isWhitespace)) Some(s) else None
    }
}

I know how both translate to bytecode, but what can I do with one in the code that I can't with the other?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 253

Answers (1)

som-snytt
som-snytt

Reputation: 39577

You need to work harder to override a member object.

apm@mara:~/tmp$ skala
Welcome to Scala version 2.11.0-20130622-103744-990c2b024a (OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, Java 1.7.0_21).
Type in expressions to have them evaluated.
Type :help for more information.

scala> class Foo1 { val foo = () => 1 }
defined class Foo1

scala> class Bar1 extends Foo1 { override val foo = () => 2 }
defined class Bar1

scala> class Foo2 { object foo { def apply() = 3 } }
defined class Foo2

scala> class Bar2 extends Foo2 { override object foo { def apply() = 4 }}
<console>:8: error: overriding object foo in class Foo2;
 object foo cannot override final member
       class Bar2 extends Foo2 { override object foo { def apply() = 4 }}
                                                 ^

scala> :q
apm@mara:~/tmp$ skala -Yoverride-objects
Welcome to Scala version 2.11.0-20130622-103744-990c2b024a (OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, Java 1.7.0_21).
Type in expressions to have them evaluated.
Type :help for more information.

scala> class Foo2 { object foo { def apply() = 3 } }
defined class Foo2

scala> class Bar2 extends Foo2 { override object foo { def apply() = 4 }}
defined class Bar2

scala> new Bar2
res0: Bar2 = Bar2@508c825

scala> .foo()
res1: Int = 4

scala> :q

Upvotes: 3

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