Home » Scala

Reasons to learn Scala and functional programming

By IncludeHelp Last updated : October 07, 2024

Scala is one of the most powerful alternatives of Java amongst Scala, Groovy and Kotlin. Scala is a JVM language and is most preferred my programmer who you need to switch from Java because of its similarities with Java.

The most important thing that makes it a preferred programming language is that it supports both functional programming and object-oriented programming. The functional programming allows it to take advantage of multi-core CPU architecture whereas the object-oriented programming allows it to you take care of interoperability and some code features of objects.

Scala overcomes the flaws of Java and provides some new functionalities that are required. Scala is strongly statically typed language that prevents the programmer from doing any mistake while writing the code that may lead to unexpected behavior of the program. But along with this scala also provide some leniency to the programmer on writing their code like the semicolon, datatype, etc.

Important factors that made Scala a preferable programming language to learn

Some important factors that made Scala a preferable programming language to learn...

1. Multi-paradigm language: supports multiple programming paradigms
   Scala supports multiple Programming Paradigms i.e. it supports object-oriented paradigm as well as functional programming. And inherits features from both for efficient Programming. And being a multi-paradigm language is one of the most useful features of Scala.
2. Interoperability with Java: Scala is a JVM language
   Amongst some core features that make Scala preferable, one is its interoperability with Java which means a Scala code can use Java libraries directly. This is possible because Scala is JVM language which means its compiler gives a byte Code that can run on JVM.
   Also, you can call Java code from Scala code and Scala code from Java code. You can write code in Java and some part of the code in Scala. This makes Scala a preferable language for replacing Java in Enterprise software development.
3. Easy to learn than Java
   Learning Scala is a bit easier for programmers because of its multi-paradigm nature which makes it a bit easier to learn than your functional programming languages like Haskell.
   Java developer can use their knowledge of Java to make programs in Scala while learning functional programming. This makes them more productive. It has similarities with Java that makes it more preferable to be learned. Also, the community of Scala and it's documentation is quite good.

These are the main features that make Scala programming language. other things like easier syntax, being Statically typed, Frameworks, community add some value to this.