CODEWITHSUNDEEP
scala
Dmitry F
Dmitry F

Reputation: 1670

Use of a bitwise AND operator in filter

Assuming I have a simple list of numbers, something like: 

val numbers = List.range(1,10)

And I want to filter it, using & operator - the shortest solution that seems to be working is: 

numbers.filter( x => ( x & 1 ) == 0 )

However I'm not sure why do I need () here, or x, but it seems to give me a following error otherwise (which seems that & is an issue, but I'm not sure how to look it up in docs): 

//
// overloaded method value & with alternatives:
//     (x: Long)Long <and>
//     (x: Int)Int <and>
//     (x: Char)Int <and>
//     (x: Short)Int <and>
//     (x: Byte)Int
// cannot be applied to (Boolean)
// numbers.filter( _ & 1 == 0 ) 
//
numbers.filter( _ & 1 == 0 )

Also another confusing part, is that % operator works just fine. 

// --- all good
numbers.filter( _ % 2 == 0 ) 

// --- error
//
// type mismatch;
//     found   : Int
//     required: Boolean
// numbers.filter( _ & 1 ) 
// 
numbers.filter( _ & 1 )

So why would "x % 2 == 0" work, and "x & 1 == 0" fail, because they produce similar results (I think). If I understand an error properly - the result of "x & 1" is an integer. And I assume it's something to do with & operator, but can't figure out where would I look it up.

Scala: 2.10

Thanks in advance for your help and any suggestions.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 446

Answers (1)

Nyavro
Nyavro

Reputation: 8866

Operators % and & have different priorities. So _ & 1 == 0 tries to compare one to zero and then perform & on boolean result.

See Scala Reference - 6.12.3 Infix Operations:

increasing order of precedence:

(all letters)
|
^
&
= !
< >
:
+ -
* / %
(all other special characters)

Upvotes: 6

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