Basics of Scala : Defining a Types in Scala : Day 2 Learnings

Scala has both numeric (e.g., Int and Double ) and nonnumeric types (e.g., String ) that can be used to define values and variables. These core types are the building blocks for all other types including objects and collections, and are themselves objects that have methods and operators that act on their data. 

Unlike Java and C there is no concept of a primitive type in Scala. While the Java Virtual Machine supports the primitive integer type int and the integer class Integer , Scala only supports its own integer class, Int .


Displays Scala’s numeric data types:

Name	Description	Size	Min	Max
Byte	Signed integer	1 byte	-127	128
Short	Signed integer	2 bytes	-32768	32767
Int	Signed integer	4 bytes	-2^31	2^31 - 1
Long	Signed integer	8 bytes	-2^63	2^63 - 1
Float	Signed floating point	4 bytes	n/a	n/a
Double	Signed floating point	8 bytes	n/a	n/a

In addition to those types, Boolean can have the values true or false.

Scala supports the ability to automatically convert numbers from one type to another in the order
Byte ➤ Short ➤ Int ➤ Long ➤ Float ➤ Double

Note: See the API documentation for java.lang.Float and java.lang.Double for a description of the calculated maximum and minimum values for these floating-point numbers.

Displays Scala’s numeric literals:

Literal	Type	Description
5	Int	Unadorned integer literals are Int by default
0x0f	Int	The “0x” prefix denotes hexadecimal notation
5l	Long	The “l” suffix denotes a Long type
5.0	Double	Unadorned decimal literals are Double by default
5f	Float	The “f” suffix denotes a Float type
5d	Double	The “d suffix denotes a Double type

Note: You can use either lowercase or uppercase letters in Scala’s literal types. The literal number 5L is the same as the literal number 5l .

I will cover each type in depth next articles.

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