Tutorial :Perform bridge assignment in scala

Question:

I want to do this:

var (a, b) = (0, 0)  a = (b = 100)

but Scala is complaining that

error: type mismatch;   found   : Unit   required: Int

What I want is to assign a and b to the same value. Why Scala make it Unit where it should be Int?

Solution:1

Why ask why? Assignment expressions have type Unit and that's how it is. No chained assignments. Period.

Solution:2

Your statement is an assignment, which returns Unit. See this related question for reasons why. You can do this, if you want:

  scala> var (a,b) = (0,0)  a: Int = 0  b: Int = 0    scala> a = {b = 100; b}  a: Int = 100

Solution:3

scala> var a,b,c,d,e,f,g = 0  a: Int = 0  b: Int = 0  c: Int = 0  d: Int = 0  e: Int = 0  f: Int = 0  g: Int = 0    scala> var f,i,j,k,m,n,o = new Object{}  f: java.lang.Object = $anon$1@11ce012  i: java.lang.Object = $anon$2@baf4ae  j: java.lang.Object = $anon$3@15e68d  k: java.lang.Object = $anon$4@1d3633c  m: java.lang.Object = $anon$5@118317f  n: java.lang.Object = $anon$6@15998cb  o: java.lang.Object = $anon$7@13e6f83    scala>

Solution:4

You can define a special assignment operator (it must end with a colon as it must be right associative) for your own types, or write a generic wrapper (including implit conversions) for general types. I wouldn't recommend to actually use this, but here it goes:

  case class M[T](var t:T) {      def =: (m: M[T]):M[T] = {m.t = t ; this}    }      implicit def anyToM[T](v:T) = M(v)    implicit def mToAny[T](m:M[T]) = m.t      def main(args: Array[String]) {      var a = M(0)      var b = M(0)      var c = M(0)      a =: b =: c =: 100      println(a + b + c) //--> 300    }

I think it is always a bad idea to summon heavy magick in order to save a few keystrokes. In Germany we would call this "to shoot sparrows with a cannon"...

Solution:5

case class assign[T](v: T) {                               def to(vals: (T => Unit)*) { vals.foreach{ vv => vv(v) } }  }    var (a,b) = (0,0)    assign(39) to (a = _, b = _)    assert(a == 39)  assert(b == 39)

Or you can rename it to emulate a rather simple version of a with statement.

with(20) do (a = _, b = _, print)

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