Syntax Summary
The following descriptions of Scala tokens uses literal characters ‘c’ when referring to the ASCII fragment \u0000 – \u007F.
Informal descriptions are typeset as “some comment”.
Lexical Syntax
The lexical syntax of Scala is given by the following grammar in EBNF form:
whiteSpace ::= ‘\u0020’ | ‘\u0009’ | ‘\u000D’ | ‘\u000A’
upper ::= ‘A’ | ... | ‘Z’ | ‘$’ and any character in Unicode categories Lu, Lt or Nl,
and any character in Unicode categories Lo and Lm that doesn't have
contributory property Other_Lowercase
lower ::= ‘a’ | ... | ‘z’ | ‘_’ and any character in Unicode category Ll,
and any character in Unicode categories Lo or Lm that has contributory
property Other_Lowercase
letter ::= upper | lower
digit ::= ‘0’ | ... | ‘9’
paren ::= ‘(’ | ‘)’ | ‘[’ | ‘]’ | ‘{’ | ‘}’
delim ::= ‘`’ | ‘'’ | ‘"’ | ‘.’ | ‘;’ | ‘,’
opchar ::= ‘!’ | ‘#’ | ‘%’ | ‘&’ | ‘*’ | ‘+’ | ‘-’ | ‘/’ | ‘:’ |
‘<’ | ‘=’ | ‘>’ | ‘?’ | ‘@’ | ‘\’ | ‘^’ | ‘|’ | ‘~’
and any character in Unicode categories Sm or So
printableChar ::= all characters in [\u0020, \u007E] inclusive
UnicodeEscape ::= ‘\’ ‘u’ {‘u’} hexDigit hexDigit hexDigit hexDigit
hexDigit ::= ‘0’ | ... | ‘9’ | ‘A’ | ... | ‘F’ | ‘a’ | ... | ‘f’
charEscapeSeq ::= ‘\’ (‘b’ | ‘t’ | ‘n’ | ‘f’ | ‘r’ | ‘"’ | ‘'’ | ‘\’)
escapeSeq ::= UnicodeEscape | charEscapeSeq
op ::= opchar {opchar}
varid ::= lower idrest
boundvarid ::= varid
| ‘`’ varid ‘`’
alphaid ::= upper idrest
| varid
plainid ::= alphaid
| op
id ::= plainid
| ‘`’ { charNoBackQuoteOrNewline | escapeSeq } ‘`’
idrest ::= {letter | digit} [‘_’ op]
quoteId ::= ‘'’ alphaid
spliceId ::= ‘$’ alphaid ;
integerLiteral ::= (decimalNumeral | hexNumeral | binaryNumeral) [‘L’ | ‘l’]
decimalNumeral ::= ‘0’ | digit [{digit | ‘_’} digit]
hexNumeral ::= ‘0’ (‘x’ | ‘X’) hexDigit [{hexDigit | ‘_’} hexDigit]
binaryNumeral ::= ‘0’ (‘b’ | ‘B’) binaryDigit [{binaryDigit | ‘_’} binaryDigit]
floatingPointLiteral
::= [decimalNumeral] ‘.’ digit [{digit | ‘_’} digit] [exponentPart] [floatType]
| decimalNumeral exponentPart [floatType]
| decimalNumeral floatType
exponentPart ::= (‘E’ | ‘e’) [‘+’ | ‘-’] digit [{digit | ‘_’} digit]
floatType ::= ‘F’ | ‘f’ | ‘D’ | ‘d’
booleanLiteral ::= ‘true’ | ‘false’
characterLiteral ::= ‘'’ (charNoQuoteOrNewline | escapeSeq) ‘'’
stringLiteral ::= ‘"’ {stringElement} ‘"’
| ‘"""’ multiLineChars ‘"""’
stringElement ::= charNoDoubleQuoteOrNewline
| escapeSeq
multiLineChars ::= {[‘"’] [‘"’] charNoDoubleQuote} {‘"’}
interpolatedString
::= alphaid ‘"’ {[‘\’] interpolatedStringPart | ‘\\’ | ‘\"’} ‘"’
| alphaid ‘"""’ {[‘"’] [‘"’] char \ (‘"’ | ‘\$’) | escape} {‘"’} ‘"""’
interpolatedStringPart
::= printableChar \ (‘"’ | ‘$’ | ‘\’) | escape
escape ::= ‘\$\$’
| ‘\$"’
| ‘\$’ alphaid
| ‘\$’ BlockExpr
comment ::= ‘/*’ “any sequence of characters; nested comments are allowed” ‘*/’
| ‘//’ “any sequence of characters up to end of line”
nl ::= ´\mathit{“new line character”}´
semi ::= ‘;’ | nl {nl}
Optional Braces
colon ::= ':' -- with side conditions explained in 01-literal-syntax.md
<<< ts >>> ::= ‘{’ ts ‘}’
| indent ts outdent
:<<< ts >>> ::= [nl] ‘{’ ts ‘}’
| colon indent ts outdent
Context-free Syntax
´\color{red}{\text{TODO SCALA3: Once we're done porting the spec, make sure that the references to grammar productions in the rest of the spec match this.}}´
The context-free syntax of Scala is given by the following EBNF grammar:
RefineDcl ::= ‘val’ ValDcl
| ‘def’ DefDcl
| ‘type’ {nl} TypeDcl
Dcl ::= RefineDcl
| ‘var’ VarDcl
ValDcl ::= ids ‘:’ Type
VarDcl ::= ids ‘:’ Type
DefDcl ::= DefSig ‘:’ Type
DefSig ::= id [DefTypeParamClause] [TypelessClauses] [DefImplicitClause]
TypeDcl ::= id [TypeParamClause] {FunParamClause} TypeBounds
Def ::= ‘val’ PatDef
| ‘var’ PatDef
| ‘def’ DefDef
| ‘type’ {nl} TypeDcl
| TmplDef
PatDef ::= ids [‘:’ Type] ‘=’ Expr
| Pattern2 [‘:’ Type] ‘=’ Expr
DefDef ::= DefSig [‘:’ Type] ‘=’ Expr
| ‘this’ TypelessClauses [DefImplicitClause] ‘=’ ConstrExpr
TmplDef ::= ([‘case’] ‘class’ | ‘trait’) ClassDef
| [‘case’] ‘object’ ObjectDef
| ‘enum’ EnumDef
| ‘given’ GivenDef
ClassDef ::= id ClassConstr [Template]
ClassConstr ::= [ClsTypeParamClause] [ConstrMods] ClsParamClauses
ConstrMods ::= {Annotation} [AccessModifier]
ObjectDef ::= id [Template]
EnumDef ::= id ClassConstr InheritClauses EnumBody
GivenDef ::= [GivenSig] (AnnotType [‘=’ Expr] | StructuralInstance)
GivenSig ::= [id] [DefTypeParamClause] {UsingParamClause} ‘:’ -- one of `id`, `DefTypeParamClause`, `UsingParamClause` must be present
StructuralInstance ::= ConstrApp {‘with’ ConstrApp} [‘with’ WithTemplateBody]
Extension ::= ‘extension’ [DefTypeParamClause] {UsingParamClause}
‘(’ DefTermParam ‘)’ {UsingParamClause} ExtMethods
ExtMethods ::= ExtMethod | [nl] <<< ExtMethod {semi ExtMethod} >>>
ExtMethod ::= {Annotation [nl]} {Modifier} ‘def’ DefDef
| Export
Template ::= InheritClauses [TemplateBody]
InheritClauses ::= [‘extends’ ConstrApps] [‘derives’ QualId {‘,’ QualId}]
ConstrApps ::= ConstrApp ({‘,’ ConstrApp} | {‘with’ ConstrApp})
ConstrApp ::= SimpleType1 {Annotation} {ParArgumentExprs}
ConstrExpr ::= SelfInvocation
| <<< SelfInvocation {semi BlockStat} >>>
SelfInvocation ::= ‘this’ ArgumentExprs {ArgumentExprs}
WithTemplateBody ::= <<< [SelfType] TemplateStat {semi TemplateStat} >>>
TemplateBody ::= :<<< [SelfType] TemplateStat {semi TemplateStat} >>>
TemplateStat ::= Import
| Export
| {Annotation [nl]} {Modifier} Def
| {Annotation [nl]} {Modifier} Dcl
| Extension
| Expr1
| EndMarker
|
SelfType ::= id [‘:’ InfixType] ‘=>’
| ‘this’ ‘:’ InfixType ‘=>’
EnumBody ::= :<<< [SelfType] EnumStat {semi EnumStat} >>>
EnumStat ::= TemplateStat
| {Annotation [nl]} {Modifier} EnumCase
EnumCase ::= ‘case’ (id ClassConstr [‘extends’ ConstrApps]] | ids)
TopStats ::= TopStat {semi TopStat}
TopStat ::= Import
| Export
| {Annotation [nl]} {Modifier} Def
| Extension
| Packaging
| PackageObject
| EndMarker
|
Packaging ::= ‘package’ QualId :<<< TopStats >>>
PackageObject ::= ‘package’ ‘object’ ObjectDef
CompilationUnit ::= {‘package’ QualId semi} TopStats