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Difference between Scala and Haskell

By IncludeHelp Last updated : October 07, 2024

Scala Vs Haskell - Overview

Scala and Haskell both are modern programming languages which are developed recently. But both are different types of programming languages. Also, both are created to fulfill different purposes.

Here, we will see the points of difference between the programming languages. But first, learn some basics of the programming languages.

Scala programming language

Scala is a general-purpose programming language built over java. Scala stands for Scalable Language, it was developed by Martin Odersky in 2003. It supports both object-oriented as well as a functional programming paradigm. Scala run's on JVM which makes it easy for scala to interact with java code. And major of its feature is also built over java's features making them more powerful.

The current version of Scala is 2.13.3(on 31 August 2020).

Sample Scala program

Here, we will write a simple program that returns the product of two numbers in Scala.

object Main {
 def multiply(value1: Integer , value2 : Integer ): Integer = {
   return (value1 * value2)
 }
 
 def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
   val value1 = 214
   val value2 = 9867
   println("The product is " + multiply(value1, value2))
 }
}

Output

The product is 2111538

Haskell programming language

Haskell is also a general-purpose programming language. It supports a pure functional programming paradigm along with features like type inference and lazy evaluation. It is created by Philip Wadler and Stephen Blott in the year 1987.

Features that made Haskell popular are statically typed, purely Functional, Type interface, Concurrent programming, Lazy evaluation.

Sample Haskell program

Here, we will write a simple program that returns the product of two numbers in Haskell.

multiply :: Integer -> Integer -> Integer
multiply value1 value2 = value1 * value2

main = do
 putStrLn "The product is "
 print(multiply 214 9867)

Output

The product is 
2111538

Key differences between Scala and Haskell

Here are some key differences between Scala and Haskell programming languages:

1. Coming to the type of programming luggage, Scala follows both functional as well as an object-oriented programming paradigm whereas Haskell is a purely functional programming language.
2. Scala programming language has complex writing syntax and features are a little bit tricky to use and understand, whereas in the case of Haskell syntaxes and features are easy to use.
3. Scala uses JVM for compiling it's code and has strict name annotations features by default. On the other side, Haskell runs on the GHC compiler that supports many advanced features.
4. Scala runs on JVM that enables it to re-use java libraries or third-party tools available. Whereas Haskell cannot use multiple libraries but can run on cross-platform operating systems,
5. Scala supports incomplete type interface and Haskell supports complete type interface.
6. Scala implements strict eager evaluation and optional lazy evaluation. Whereas, the Haskell implements optional eager evaluation and non-strict lazy evaluation.
7. Scala treats everything as an object and Haskell treats everything as an expression.
8. Scala can be easily used with Java, and other programming languages like c++ or C# whereas Haskell does not provide this feature but has greater productivity and high performance.

Differences between Scala and Haskell based on the features

Feature	Scala	Haskell
Compilation:	Runs on JVM, compilation similar to Java and C++.	Runs on GHC compiler based on Glasgow Haskell Compilation Model.
Purpose:	Used when the code required a lazy evaluation of the code.	Used as functional programming language and object-oriented language.
Syntax:	Syntax is complex and features are also compilated.	Easy syntax but strong typing and simple features.
Features:	Immutability, type inference, and concurrency control.	Parametric polymorphism, lazy evaluation.
Community:	Scala is backed by a smaller community as compared to Haskell but has the advantage of being a Java-based language.	Haskell has a comparatively greater community backing the programming language.