Scala Standard Library2.12.0 < Back
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# Packages

-  package root

  This is the documentation for the Scala standard library.

  This is the documentation for the Scala standard library.

  #### Package structure

  The scala package contains core types like `Int`, `Float`, `Array` or `Option` which are accessible in all Scala compilation units without explicit qualification or imports.

  Notable packages include:

  - `scala.collection` and its sub-packages contain Scala's collections framework
    - `scala.collection.immutable` - Immutable, sequential data-structures such as `Vector`, `List`, `Range`, `HashMap` or `HashSet`
    - `scala.collection.mutable` - Mutable, sequential data-structures such as `ArrayBuffer`, `StringBuilder`, `HashMap` or `HashSet`
    - `scala.collection.concurrent` - Mutable, concurrent data-structures such as `TrieMap`
    - `scala.collection.parallel.immutable` - Immutable, parallel data-structures such as `ParVector`, `ParRange`, `ParHashMap` or `ParHashSet`
    - `scala.collection.parallel.mutable` - Mutable, parallel data-structures such as `ParArray`, `ParHashMap`, `ParTrieMap` or `ParHashSet`
  - `scala.concurrent` - Primitives for concurrent programming such as `Futures` and `Promises`
  - `scala.io` - Input and output operations
  - `scala.math` - Basic math functions and additional numeric types like `BigInt` and `BigDecimal`
  - `scala.sys` - Interaction with other processes and the operating system
  - `scala.util.matching` - Regular expressions

  Other packages exist. See the complete list on the right.

  Additional parts of the standard library are shipped as separate libraries. These include:

  - `scala.reflect` - Scala's reflection API (scala-reflect.jar)
  - `scala.xml` - XML parsing, manipulation, and serialization (scala-xml.jar)
  - `scala.swing` - A convenient wrapper around Java's GUI framework called Swing (scala-swing.jar)
  - `scala.util.parsing` - Parser combinators, including an example implementation of a JSON parser (scala-parser-combinators.jar)

  #### Automatic imports

  Identifiers in the scala package and the `scala.Predef` object are always in scope by default.

  Some of these identifiers are type aliases provided as shortcuts to commonly used classes. For example, `List` is an alias for `scala.collection.immutable.List`.

  Other aliases refer to classes provided by the underlying platform. For example, on the JVM, `String` is an alias for `java.lang.String`.

  Definition Classes
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-  package scala

  Core Scala types.

  Core Scala types. They are always available without an explicit import.

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-  package collection

  Contains the base traits and objects needed to use and extend Scala's collection library.

  Contains the base traits and objects needed to use and extend Scala's collection library.

  #### Guide

  A detailed guide for using the collections library is available at http://docs.scala-lang.org/overviews/collections/introduction.html. Developers looking to extend the collections library can find a description of its architecture at http://docs.scala-lang.org/overviews/core/architecture-of-scala-collections.html.

  #### Using Collections

  It is convenient to treat all collections as either a scala.collection.Traversable or scala.collection.Iterable, as these traits define the vast majority of operations on a collection.

  Collections can, of course, be treated as specifically as needed, and the library is designed to ensure that the methods that transform collections will return a collection of the same type:

      scala> val array = Array(1,2,3,4,5,6)
      array: Array[Int] = Array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

      scala> array map { _.toString }
      res0: Array[String] = Array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

      scala> val list = List(1,2,3,4,5,6)
      list: List[Int] = List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

      scala> list map { _.toString }
      res1: List[String] = List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

  #### Creating Collections

  The most common way to create a collection is to use its companion object as a factory. The three most commonly used collections are scala.collection.Seq, scala.collection.immutable.Set, and scala.collection.immutable.Map. They can be used directly as shown below since their companion objects are all available as type aliases in either the scala package or in `scala.Predef`. New collections are created like this:

      scala> val seq = Seq(1,2,3,4,1)
      seq: Seq[Int] = List(1, 2, 3, 4, 1)

      scala> val set = Set(1,2,3,4,1)
      set: scala.collection.immutable.Set[Int] = Set(1, 2, 3, 4)

      scala> val map = Map(1 -> "one", 2 -> "two", 3 -> "three", 2 -> "too")
      map: scala.collection.immutable.Map[Int,String] = Map(1 -> one, 2 -> too, 3 -> three)

  It is also typical to prefer the scala.collection.immutable collections over those in scala.collection.mutable; the types aliased in the `scala.Predef` object are the immutable versions.

  Also note that the collections library was carefully designed to include several implementations of each of the three basic collection types. These implementations have specific performance characteristics which are described in the guide.

  The concrete parallel collections also have specific performance characteristics which are described in the parallel collections guide

  ##### Converting to and from Java Collections

  The scala.collection.JavaConverters object provides a collection of decorators that allow converting between Scala and Java collections using `asScala` and `asJava` methods.

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-  package concurrent

  This package object contains primitives for concurrent and parallel programming.

  This package object contains primitives for concurrent and parallel programming.

  #### Guide

  A more detailed guide to Futures and Promises, including discussion and examples can be found at http://docs.scala-lang.org/overviews/core/futures.html.

  #### Common Imports

  When working with Futures, you will often find that importing the whole concurrent package is convenient, furthermore you are likely to need an implicit ExecutionContext in scope for many operations involving Futures and Promises:

      import scala.concurrent._
      import ExecutionContext.Implicits.global

  #### Specifying Durations

  Operations often require a duration to be specified. A duration DSL is available to make defining these easier:

      import scala.concurrent.duration._
      val d: Duration = 10.seconds

  #### Using Futures For Non-blocking Computation

  Basic use of futures is easy with the factory method on Future, which executes a provided function asynchronously, handing you back a future result of that function without blocking the current thread. In order to create the Future you will need either an implicit or explicit ExecutionContext to be provided:

      import scala.concurrent._
      import ExecutionContext.Implicits.global  // implicit execution context

      val firstZebra: Future[Int] = Future {
        val source = scala.io.Source.fromFile("/etc/dictionaries-common/words")
        source.toSeq.indexOfSlice("zebra")
      }

  #### Avoid Blocking

  Although blocking is possible in order to await results (with a mandatory timeout duration):

      import scala.concurrent.duration._
      Await.result(firstZebra, 10.seconds)

  and although this is sometimes necessary to do, in particular for testing purposes, blocking in general is discouraged when working with Futures and concurrency in order to avoid potential deadlocks and improve performance. Instead, use callbacks or combinators to remain in the future domain:

      val animalRange: Future[Int] = for {
        aardvark <- firstAardvark
        zebra <- firstZebra
      } yield zebra - aardvark

      animalRange.onSuccess {
        case x if x > 500000 => println("It's a long way from Aardvark to Zebra")
      }

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-  package io
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-  package math

  The package object `scala.math` contains methods for performing basic numeric operations such as elementary exponential, logarithmic, root and trigonometric functions.

  The package object `scala.math` contains methods for performing basic numeric operations such as elementary exponential, logarithmic, root and trigonometric functions.

  All methods forward to java.lang.Math unless otherwise noted.

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  See also

    java.lang.Math

-  package ref
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-  package reflect
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-  package runtime
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-  package sys

  The package object `scala.sys` contains methods for reading and altering core aspects of the virtual machine as well as the world outside of it.

  The package object `scala.sys` contains methods for reading and altering core aspects of the virtual machine as well as the world outside of it.

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  Version

    2.9

  Since

    2.9

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-  package util
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p

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#### package compat

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