Left

Returns true if this is a Left, false otherwise.

Left("tulip").isLeft // true
Right("venus fly-trap").isLeft // false

Returns true if this is a Right, false otherwise.

Left("tulip").isRight // false
Right("venus fly-trap").isRight // true

Upcasts this Left[A, B] to Either[A, B1]

Left(1)                   // Either[Int, Nothing]
Left(1).withRight[String] // Either[Int, String]

Returns true if this is a Right and its value is equal to elem (as determined by ==), returns false otherwise.

// Returns true because value of Right is "something" which equals "something".
Right("something") contains "something"

// Returns false because value of Right is "something" which does not equal "anything".
Right("something") contains "anything"

// Returns false because it's not a Right value.
Left("something") contains "something"

Returns false if Left or returns the result of the application of the given predicate to the Right value.

Right(12).exists(_ > 10)   // true
Right(7).exists(_ > 10)    // false
Left(12).exists(_ => true) // false

Returns Right with the existing value of Right if this is a Right and the given predicate p holds for the right value, or Left(zero) if this is a Right and the given predicate p does not hold for the right value, or Left with the existing value of Left if this is a Left.

Right(12).filterOrElse(_ > 10, -1)   // Right(12)
Right(7).filterOrElse(_ > 10, -1)    // Left(-1)
Left(7).filterOrElse(_ => false, -1) // Left(7)

Returns true if Left or returns the result of the application of the given predicate to the Right value.

Right(12).forall(_ > 10)    // true
Right(7).forall(_ > 10)     // false
Left(12).forall(_ => false) // true

Executes the given side-effecting function if this is a Right.

Right(12).foreach(println) // prints "12"
Left(12).foreach(println)  // doesn't print

Returns the value from this Right or the given argument if this is a Left.

Right(12).getOrElse(17) // 12
Left(12).getOrElse(17)  // 17

Joins an Either through Left.

This method requires that the left side of this Either is itself an Either type. That is, this must be some type like:

Either[Either[C, B], B]

(which respects the type parameter bounds, shown below.)

If this instance is a Left[Either[C, B]] then the contained Either[C, B] will be returned, otherwise this value will be returned unmodified.

Left[Either[Int, String], String](Right("flower")).joinLeft // Result: Right("flower")
Left[Either[Int, String], String](Left(12)).joinLeft // Result: Left(12)
Right[Either[Int, String], String]("daisy").joinLeft // Result: Right("daisy")

This method, and joinRight, are analogous to Option#flatten.

Joins an Either through Right.

This method requires that the right side of this Either is itself an Either type. That is, this must be some type like:

Either[A, Either[A, C]]

(which respects the type parameter bounds, shown below.)

If this instance is a Right[Either[A, C]] then the contained Either[A, C] will be returned, otherwise this value will be returned unmodified.

Projects this Either as a Left.

This allows for-comprehensions over the left side of Either instances, reversing Either's usual right-bias.

For example

for (s <- Left("flower").left) yield s.length // Left(6)

Continuing the analogy with scala.Option, a LeftProjection declares that Left should be analogous to Some in some code.

// using Option
def interactWithDB(x: Query): Option[Result] =
  try Some(getResultFromDatabase(x))
  catch {
    case _: SQLException => None
  }

// this will only be executed if interactWithDB returns a Some
val report = for (result <- interactWithDB(someQuery)) yield generateReport(result)
report match {
  case Some(r) => send(r)
  case None    => log("report not generated, not sure why...")
}

// using Either
def interactWithDB(x: Query): Either[Exception, Result] =
  try Right(getResultFromDatabase(x))
  catch {
    case e: SQLException => Left(e)
  }

 // run a report only if interactWithDB returns a Right
 val report = for (result <- interactWithDB(someQuery)) yield generateReport(result)
 report match {
   case Right(r) => send(r)
   case Left(e)  => log(s"report not generated, reason was $e")
 }
 // only report errors
 for (e <- interactWithDB(someQuery).left) log(s"query failed, reason was $e")

The given function is applied if this is a Right.

Right(12).map(x => "flower") // Result: Right("flower")
Left(12).map(x => "flower")  // Result: Left(12)

Returns this Right or the given argument if this is a Left.

Right(1) orElse Left(2) // Right(1)
Left(1) orElse Left(2)  // Left(2)
Left(1) orElse Left(2) orElse Right(3) // Right(3)

Returns a Some containing the Right value if it exists or a None if this is a Left.

Right(12).toOption // Some(12)
Left(12).toOption  // None

Returns a Seq containing the Right value if it exists or an empty Seq if this is a Left.

Right(12).toSeq // Seq(12)
Left(12).toSeq  // Seq()

Projects this Either as a Right.

Because Either is right-biased, this method is not normally needed.