Core Scala 2.13 Masterclass

This is a great course that familiarises developers with The Scala Programming language.

This fresh course equips developers with all the tools necessary to function as a successful and productive team member on all Scala projects.

Prerequisites

Students should be familiar with another programming language such as Java, C#, C++, Rust, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, etc. Coming from a types language will be beneficial.

Course Contents

Introduction

• Introduction to the Scala language
• Understand key features of the language
• Explore lexical syntax
• Understand basic declarations and definitions (var, val and def)
• Understand basic types
• Understand Scala's Rich Wrappers
• Understand method declarations
• Understand aspects such as multiple parameter clauses, default values, repeated parameters
• Understand function application ("calling" functions)
• List basic syntax: assignments and if-expression

Classes, Objects and Traits

• Understand scala's hierarchy (Any and AnyVal)
• Understand the bottom types Nothing and Null
• Be able to define classes
• Appreciate the access modifiers and further qualification
• Understand the concept of properties in Scala
• Method overloading
• Define constructors (primary and auxiliary)
• Understand class inheritance (nominal sub-typing)
• Be able to apply the Liskov Substitution Principle
• Concepts such as abstract members and overriding (methods and vals)
• Define Objects in Scala
• Understand the concepts of Companion Objects and their typical use
• Discuss recommended invocation styles (e.g, infix)
• Appreciate case classes
• Define value classes
• Organise classes/objects in packages
• Discuss different styles of importing packages and classes/objects
• Appreciate the package object
• Introduce lazy values and early definitions
• Understand Traits
• Understand the Stackable Trait Pattern

Functions

• Functions as objects and values
• Use methods on functions (compose, ...)
• Work with Higher order functions
• Work with Recursion and tail recursive functions
• Use Lambda expressions
• Understand clojures
• Use and understand the rules for parameters expansion (placeholder syntax)
• Understand the difference between methods and functions
• Using methods as functions (and eta-expansion)
• Appreciate currying (methods and functions)
• Use partially applied functions

Collections

• Understand the type hierarchy (Traversable, Iterable etc)
• Perform access/update/prepend/etc operations on Seq, Set and Map
• Discuss performance implications of implementations
• Access list using head/tail operations
• Introduce lazy streams
• Appreciate Ranges
• Ordering using 'Ordered' and 'Ordering'
• Using higher-order functions ('map' ,'reduce', 'fold' etc)
• Introduce for-comprehensions

Types

• Introduce type parametrisation type constructors
• Define polymorphic methods
• Understand the syntax of the type parameter clause
• Use bounds (upper, lower and context)
• Introduce variance (covariance, contravariance)
• Discuss impact of (im)mutable types and variance
• Appreciate Type declarations and definitions
• Understand path dependent types

Implicits

• Introduce implicit conversion and parameters
• Use implicit conversions to convert expected types
• Use implicit conversions to convert the received
• Be able to pimp a library (using implicit classes)
• Discuss the scoping rules of implicits
• Define and use implicit parameters
• Discuss use cases for implicit parameters
• Introduce type classes
• Explore how Scala and other libraries use implicits

Pattern Matching

• Introduce the power of pattern matching
• Understand all the various patterns
• Understand the role of case classes
• Build extractors
• Understand sealed traits
• Introduce Algebraic Data Types
• Discuss various ways to build enumerated values in Scala
• Understand pattern matching in value definitions, for comprehensions and function literals
• Introduce the concept of Partial Functions

Monadic Data Types

• Introduction to Monads
• Use the Option monad
• Appreciate monad composition (through flatMap)
• Understand the role of for-comprehensions
• Deal with exceptions in Scala (catching)
• Use and understand Try
• Use and understand Either
• Introduce Futures and Promises

This course is unique in:

• being not just example-driven, but bringing a deeper understanding of the Scala language
• explaining concepts that are often challenging in a clear manner (illustrating many approaches to different issues with the help of useful diagrams)
• focusing on preparation for real-world projects (Testing, Integration with Java and some of its popular frameworks)
• providing real-life examples and demonstrations for a heightened appreciation of how to apply classroom concepts to the real-world situations

This course has recently been updated to incorporate Scala 2.12 reinforcing its status as a cutting-edge course that appeals to the developers working with the latest technologies.