A Tour of Scala: Anonymous Function Syntax

Scala provides a relatively lightweight syntax for defining anonymous functions. The following expression creates a successor function for integers:

(x: Int) => x + 1

This is a shorthand for the following anonymous class definition:

new Function1[Int, Int] {
  def apply(x: Int): Int = x + 1
}

It is also possible to define functions with multiple parameters:

(x: Int, y: Int) => "(" + x + ", " + y + ")"

or with no parameter:

() => { System.getProperty("user.dir") }

There is also a very lightweight way to write function types. Here are the types of the three functions defined above:

Int => Int
(Int, Int) => String
() => String

This syntax is a shorthand for the following types:

Function1[Int, Int]
Function2[Int, Int, String]
Function0[String]