Scala Tutorial

Scala is a high-level general-purpose programming language released in 2004 by Martin Odersky. Scala basically stands as a Scalable language. It is a preferred language to work with Apache Spark than python or R. It is a concise, elegant, and type-safe language that can be compiled in Java Byte code so that the scala application can be run on Java virtual machine (JVM). Scala can be integrated with object-oriented and functional programming languages. It is pure object-oriented language as every value in the program is an object and it is a functional language as every value is a function.

Reasons to Learn Scala Programming

Scala has emerged as the most preferred language than java as large code in java can be converted to small code (2-3 lines) code in scala. Below are some of the reasons to learn scala:

1. Easy to Learn

Scala is easy to learn as it supports OOP functionality. Python or Java developers can easily learn Scala as they already have good knowledge of OOP. Scala is easily integrated with other languages. Also, scala has clean syntax, large libraries, and good documentation which helps the developer in scala coding.

2. Scala in Spark

Apache Spark is a big data tool that has a high demand in the market. Learning scala helps professionals to make the transition as a spark developer. As spark is developed using scala all new libraries added in spark first get released in Scala language. Hence learning scala helps in business analytics.

3. Scala Community

Scala has one of the most developing languages and frameworks and as the scala framework grows daily there is growth in professionals using scala. Hence the scala community is also growing day by day because professionals in java or other languages are continuously making the transition in scala. Due to this more IDEs have started supporting scala in IntelliJ and Eclipse.

4. Better Job and Career Growth

One of the reasons to learn scala is to get better opportunities in new technology. Scala makes you ahead in the competition and opens new doors in the market as many of the companies like Quora, Twitter, and Netflix, Twitter, etc. are migrating to scala. As most of the top companies in finance and investment banks are eyeing scala for the most beneficial alternative to java.

Applications of Scala

Scala has many applications here are some trending technology that was built using Scala:

1. Apache Spark

MapReduce was getting old and slow Hadoop stack needed new technology which is faster and performs large-scale data processing and it is done using apache spark.

Spark become an alternative for MapReduce. Apache spark is built using scala language. Apache spark has memory caching, data flow optimization and improve Hadoop performance by 100 times and also spark streaming is there which supports real-time data processing.

2. Scalding

Scalding is developed using scala APIs. Scalding is developed Twitter, scalding provides all the features of Scala and its functional operations for data processing.

4. Apache Kafka

Kafka is a distributed streaming platform used for building real-time streaming applications. It is basically a publish-subscribe messaging system. It is written in Scala which is also one of the top applications of scala.

5. Apache Samza

It is an asynchronous computational framework for stream processing developed by the Apache software developed using scala. Samza is an application that helps to process data in real time from sources like Kafka.

6. Web Development

Scala uses the Play Framework to develop a web application that supports web development. Play framework is easy to use and integrated with JVM so that java developers can also use this. It is entirely based on functional programming.

Example (One short example)

Simple scala code example of Hello world:

object HelloWorld {
def main(args: Array[String]) {
println("Hello World");
}
}

Output :

Pre-requisites

If the programmer has knowledge in Java or any other language like C, C++ or python then it helps learners to understand and make sense of scala concepts while programming.

Scala is mainly based on java and uses JVM to execute code, so if the learner has some knowledge on Java syntax OOP knowledge is more than welcome to learn Scala language.

Target Audience

Scala tutorial has been prepared to help professionals or students to understand scala. Scala can be learned by a variety of professionals like spark developers, java developers, python developers, ETL developer,s and business analytics as this tutorial helps them to learn Scala in easy and simple steps.