Scala Language Collections Reduce
Example
The reduce(), reduceLeft() and reduceRight methods are similar to folds. The function passed to reduce takes two values and yields a third. When operating on a list, the first two values are the first two values in the list. The result of the function and the next value in the list are then re-applied to the function, yielding a new result. This new result is applied with the next value of the list and so on until there are no more elements. The final result is returned.
val nums = List(1,2,3,4,5)
sum = nums.reduce({ (a, b) => a + b })
println(sum) //prints 15
val names = List("John","Koby", "Josh", "Matilda", "Zac", "Mary Poppins")
def findLongest(nameA:String, nameB:String):String = {
if (nameA.length > nameB.length) nameA else nameB
}
def findLastAlphabetically(nameA:String, nameB:String):String = {
if (nameA > nameB) nameA else nameB
}
val longestName:String = names.reduce(findLongest(_,_))
println(longestName) //prints Mary Poppins
//You can also omit the arguments if you want
val lastAlphabetically:String = names.reduce(findLastAlphabetically)
println(lastAlphabetically) //prints Zac
There are some differences in how the reduce functions work as compared to the fold functions. They are:
- The reduce functions have no initial accumulator value.
- Reduce functions cannot be called on empty lists.
- Reduce functions can only return the type or supertype of the list.
