Question

I’m using the metrics-scala library, and can’t understand why the two calls below behave completely differently

// method 1
writeTimer.time(() => {
  // expensive operation
})

// method 2
writeTimer.time {
  // expensive operation
}

In the method 1 case, the expensive operation is never called, whereas in method 2, it is.

writeTimer is an instance of com.yammer.metrics.Timer, where the time method is declared as:

/**
 * Runs f, recording its duration, and returns the result of f.
 */
def time[A](f: => A): A

I just resolved a bug in my code where I had to use method 2 to get it to work.

Answer 1

It looks to me like in the first case, you are timing the operation of declaring a function that computes the expensive operation, and in the second case you are actually timing the expensive operation itself.