Scala Language Higher Order Function Arguments lazy evaluation
Example
Scala supports lazy evaluation for function arguments using notation: def func(arg: => String). Such function argument might take regular String object or a higher order function with String return type. In second case, function argument would be evaluated on value access.
Please see the example:
def calculateData: String = {
print("Calculating expensive data! ")
"some expensive data"
}
def dumbMediator(preconditions: Boolean, data: String): Option[String] = {
print("Applying mediator")
preconditions match {
case true => Some(data)
case false => None
}
}
def smartMediator(preconditions: Boolean, data: => String): Option[String] = {
print("Applying mediator")
preconditions match {
case true => Some(data)
case false => None
}
}
smartMediator(preconditions = false, calculateData)
dumbMediator(preconditions = false, calculateData)
smartMediator call would return None value and print message "Applying mediator".
dumbMediator call would return None value and print message "Calculating expensive data! Applying mediator".
Lazy evaluation might be extremely useful when you want to optimize an overhead of expensive arguments calculation.
