Learn the syntax, data types, and operations essential for programming in Scala

Become a Scala Developer

In this module, we will learn Scala from the ground up. This module aims to teach us how to write basic programs, assuming we have no prior knowledge of the language. We will start with a brief introduction to Scala to understand its functionality and applications. We will then move discuss the key features and functions of the language (data types, functions, classes, etc.) in detail. In the end, we will have all the basic knowledge of how to program in Scala.

Learn Scala from Scratch

Type inference is Scala's ability to infer types when not specified by the user. To better understand how this works, let's look at the example we used in the first lesson of this chapter where we had to declare variables for the author, title, and number of pages in a book.

val bookTitle: String = "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"
val bookAuthor: String = "J. R. R. Tolkien"
val bookNoOfPages: Int = 423

// Driving Code
println(bookTitle)
println(bookAuthor)
println(bookNoOfPages)

Docker

In the code above, we are using the following syntax:

However, Scala's type inference feature allows us to declare a variable without explicitly mentioning the data type. This is why Scala's variable declaration enforces the data type to be mentioned after the variable name; for easy removal.  This results in the following syntax: 

In the following lesson, you will be introduced to type inference and learn about Scala's ability to infer data types.

Type Inference