Home/ Questions/Q 8886313
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-14T21:31:45+00:00

I want to have a function that takes a variable number of functions, but

  • 0

I want to have a function that takes a variable number of functions, but I want them to not be evaluated until I actually used them. I could use the () => type syntax, but I would prefer to use the => type syntax, because it seems to be custom made for delaying evaluation.

When I try something like this:

  def functions(fns: => String*) = "OK"

I get the error: 

error: ')' expected but identifier found.
  def functions(fns: => String*) = "OK"

Interestingly, it works fine when I change it to 

def functions(fns: () => String*) = "OK"

What do I have to do to get my first function to work?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Since I submitted the issue:

    https://issues.scala-lang.org/browse/SI-5787

    It may yet happen.

    Depending on your semantics, consider using Stream[String], which evaluates lazily.

      def foo(i: Int): String = { println(s"Numbering $i"); s"Number $i" }
  val invocations = foo(2) #:: foo(4) #:: foo(5) #:: foo(8) #:: Stream.empty

    Edit: Then I thought, didn’t someone just ask that? A couple of more answers here using implicits. I think my answer there should be up-voted just for “This used to happens first”.

    • 0