scala =>符号含义总结

It has several meanings in Scala, all related to its mathematical meaning as implication.

• In a value, it introduces afunction literal（通译为匿名函数，有时候也叫函数显式声明，函数字面量）, or lambda（参考lambda表达式的文章，其实也是匿名函数）.
  e.g. the bit inside the curly braces in： 

List(1,2,3).map {(x: Int) => x * 2 }

• In a type, with symbols on both sides of the arrow (e.g. A => T, (A,B) => T, (A,B,C) => T, etc.) it's sugar（syntactic sugar语法糖） for Function<n>[A[,B,...],T], that is, a function that takes parameters of type A[,B...], and returns a value of type T.（语法糖通过更简洁的语法达到目的，直接把所需要的参数、类型、函数最简化，然后把解析的工作交给编译器来完成，这步称为去糖化。例如，(A,B)=>T，包含了函数，参数以及类型，实际上是一个匿名函数，func(A,B,T)或者func(A T,B T)）。

=> is syntactic sugar for creating instances of functions. Recall that every function in scala is an instance of a class.

For example, the type Int => String, is equivalent to the type Function1[Int,String] i.e. a function that takes an argument of type Int and returns a String. 

scala> val f: Function1[Int,String] = myInt => "my int: "+myInt.toString

  f: (Int) => String = <function1>

  scala> f(0)

  res0: String = my int: 0

  scala> val f2: Int => String = myInt => "my int v2: "+myInt.toString

  f2: (Int) => String = <function1>

  scala> f2(1)

  res1: String = my int v2: 1

scala> val f2: Function2[Int,Int,String] = (myInt1,myInt2) => "This is my function to transfer " + myInt1 + " and " + myInt2 + " as a string component."

f2: (Int, Int) => String = <function2>

scala> f2(1,2)

　　res6: String = This is my function to transfer 1 and 2 as a string component.

　　scala> val f22:(Int,Int)=>String = (myInt1,myInt2) => "This is my function to transfer " + myInt1 + " and " + myInt2 + " as a string component."

　　f22: (Int, Int) => String = <function2>

　　scala> f22(2,4)

　　res7: String = This is my function to transfer 2 and 4 as a string component.

Here myInt is binded to the argument value passed to f and f2.

() => T is the type of a function that takes no arguments and returns a T. It is equivalent to Function0[T]. () is called a zero parameter list I believe.

scala> val f: () => Unit = () => { println("x")}
f: () => Unit = <function0>

scala> f()
x

scala> val f2: Function0[Unit] = () => println("x2")
f: () => Unit = <function0>

scala> f2()
x2

As the most simplified answer, you can substitute whatever is on the left-hand side of => with the word "LEFT" and whatever is on the right-hand side with the word "RIGHT".

Then, the meaning of "LEFT => RIGHT" becomes:

Take LEFT then do RIGHT.

This means that if you have a "()=>" that you can take nothing (that is, no parameters) and then do whatever is on the right-hand side.

This is the most common meaning.

• • Empty parens on the left hand side (e.g. () => T) indicate that the function takes no parameters (also sometimes called a "thunk");

       

定时器的示例程序还可以做一些改进。首先，timeFlies 函数只被用过一次，也就是当做回调函数传给 oncePerSecond 的时候，对于这种函数，在用到的时候即时构造更合理，因为可以省去定义和命名的麻烦，在 Scala 中，这样的函数称为匿名函数（anonymousfunctions），也就是没有名字的函数。使用匿名函数代替 timeFlies 函数后的程序代码如下：

 object TimerAnonymous {

def oncePerSecond(callback: () => Unit) {

<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>while (true) { callback(); Thread sleep 1000 }

 }

 

def main(args: Array[String]) {

<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>oncePerSecond(() =>

<span style="white-space:pre"> </span>println("time flies like an arrow..."))

 }

}

代码中的右箭头‘=>’表明程序中存在一个匿名函数，箭头左边是匿名函数的参数列表，右边是函数体。在本例中，参数列表为空(箭头左边是一对空括号)，而函数体和改造前定义的 timeFlies 函数保持一致。

函数求值有两种策略，一种是传值调用，一种是传名调用，其中编译器的"传名调用"实现，往往是将参数放到一个临时函数之中，再将这个临时函数传入函数体。这个临时函数就叫做 Thunk 函数，也称为柯里化。

function f(m){

  return m * 2;   

}

f(x + 5);

// 等同于

var thunk = function () {

  return x + 5;

};

function f(thunk){

  return thunk() * 2;

}

• • Empty parens on the right hand side denote that it returns () — the sole value of type Unit, whose name can also be written ()—confused yet? :)
    A function that returns Unit is also known as a procedure, normally a method that's called only for itsside effect.

Scala对于不返回值的函数有特殊的表示法。如果函数体包含在花括号当中但没有前面的=号，那么返回值类型就是Unit。这样的函数被称做过程（procedure）。过程不返回值，我们调用它仅仅是为了它的副作用。例如：

scala> def box(s: String) {
    | var border = "-" * s.length + "--\n"
    | println(border + "|" + s + "|\n" + border)
    | }
box: (s: String)Unit

scala> box("Hello")
-------
|Hello|
-------

关于side effect的翻译

点击了一个按钮，用户所期待的行为不叫“side effects”，用户没有期待的行为才叫“side effects”。

函数一般认为是没有状态的，每次用相同的输入调用时应当给出相同的输出，且不会影响程序的其它部分。如果函数对程序的状态有影响，这种影响就叫作“side effects”。

总之，“side effects”指的就是那些本不应有或者用户意料之外的作用，翻译成“副作用”我觉得挺恰当的。它可以看成医学上“副作用”一词的合理引申。

举个简单的例子好了：

int counter = 0;

// with side effectint incCounter() {
    counter += 1;
    return counter;}

// without side effectint incNumber(int m) {
    return m + 1;}

incCounter 修改了它 scope 以外的东西，它跑过一遍之后会修改外部环境，我们讲这叫 side effect。intNumber 跑完之后本来什么样还是什么样，这就叫没有 side effects。翻成「副作用」没有问题。

• In the type declaration for a method or function parameter, with no symbol on the left hand side (e.g. def f(param: => T)) it's a "by-name parameter"（传名参数，或者翻译为叫名参数）, meaning that is evaluated every time it's used within the body of the function, and not before. Ordinary"by-value" parameters （传值参数）are evaluated before entry into the function/method.

By-Value参数，我们都比较熟悉，参数在进入函数前就进行计算，最后传入的最终的计算结果。

By-Name参数，表示参数在进入函数后，每次在函数体内调用的时候才会计算。

def myByName1(param: () => Boolean): Unit = {

    println("start")

    println(param)      //println(param.apply())也可以

    println("end")

  }

//要实现传名函数，要定义的类型开始于“=>”，而不是“() =>”。

//myByName1{7>9}不会有效，因为缺少“() =>”

myByName1{() =>

    println("enter")

    7 > 9

}

• In a case clause（case子句）, they separate the pattern (and optional guard) from the result expression, e.g. case x => y.

switch

val friend =

  firstArg match {

  case "salt" => "pepper"

  case "chips" => "salsa"

  case "eggs" => "bacon"

  case  _ => "huh?"

  }

exception

try {

  val file = new FileReader("input.txt")

} catch {

  case ex: FileNotFoundException => ex.printStackTrace()

  case ex: IOException =>   //ex.printStackTrace()可以省略

} finally {

  file.close()

}

这个try-catch表达式的行为与其它语言中的异常处理一致。程序体被执行，如果抛出异常，每个catch子句依次被尝试。本例中，如果异常是FileNotFoundException，那么第一个子句将被执行。如果是IOException类型，第二个子句将被执行。如果都不是，那么try-catch将终结并把异常上升出去。

注意

你将很快发现与Java的一个差别是Scala里不需要你捕获检查异常：checked exception，或把它们声明在throws子句中。如果你愿意，可以用ATthrows标注声明一个throws子句，但这不是必需的。

参考文档：

http://www.aboutyun.com/thread-11934-1-1.html

http://www.zhihu.com/question/30779564

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_sugar

http://www.zhihu.com/question/20125256

http://blog.csdn.net/qinzhaokun/article/details/50504423

http://www.ruanyifeng.com/blog/2015/05/thunk.html

http://clayz.iteye.com/blog/1623035

http://www.aiuxian.com/article/p-2792563.html