Can we do everything with Scala that we can do with Java?

Java as an object-oriented, class-based programming language enables application developers to efficiently ‘write once, run everywhere’ (compiled Java code) for client-server web apps. Scala, on the other hand, gets full support for functional programming and is often considered competitive for building general software applications. While both are meticulously designed as multi-paradigm, general purpose programming languages, developers often speculate if Scala can practically do everything that Java does, or if Scala functions as greatly as Java?

Java is easy to learn but Scala is easy to code: This is the most important consideration that we must think for. Java is undoubtedly the simplest language of the industry. Any programmer having slightest idea on C or C++ can easily write Java code without much research; but what makes it terrific in some scenarios? That is the code length! Though Java Syntax is simple; but it demands more codes from the Java developer to write a block or task. This is the biggest drawback of Java and now, if we are going to compare it with Scala then the primary concern is this (besides other features of course). On the contrary, Scala is never so easy to start with; but, once you learn it, you can do whatever you need in less time and most importantly with very less lines of code. Scala is little difficult to learn especially its Syntax is not that much familiar as of Java; but they are highly optimized and compressed so that the Scala developer can get benefited from them. So, the initial investment of time for learning Scala is worth every penny when we consider its future aspects. Again, there is no doubt that Scala comes integrated with an extremely strong static type system, but they both embed different syntaxes (although you may see almost identical bytecodes (when compiled) generated by these two languages). However, let’s have a deeper insight into what makes them similar or dissimilar, if at all.

1. Transporting to Scala from Java has its benefits in several ways; most importantly the former’s embedded compiler magic. The feature basically allows web developers to keep their code simple and neat. As a programming language, Scala makes it really easy for developers to model their things in OO (Object Oriented), even if they are not relying on its functional programming structure. In Scala, everything is method and that eliminates unnecessary mess from an application making it not only clean but also well maintainable.

2. An edge that Scala developers often have over Java developers is its integrated high order functionality - which basically empowers Scala as a programming language, and provides users with powerful tools to extricate their issues in the language. Scala never demand more coding from the developer; in fact, it desperately encourages Scala developers to write less code for any task. On the contrary, Java has a not so good reputation in the industry as a language that demands more codes, more efforts and more time from experienced Java developers. The programming language Scala also provides its users with a strong type inference, anonymous function literals, variance annotation, and implicit definition and conversion.

3. Without two thoughts, users can gain as many functional programming benefits from Scala as from Java. However, Scala renders high immutability - which actually helps with trimming down the bugs and the complexities of concurrency. It is also considered as a powerful language to boost your productivity. Its inbuilt mechanism plays an important role in code optimization, code refactoring and performance boost for the application which is extremely helpful for everyone. There are collection methods that largely diminish boilerplate, powerful collections framework, and an annotation that can easily write meaningful equals.

4. Both Scala and Java use same package and feature the same compilation models. However, it is Scala’s type system that makes it more useful as a programming language than Java. Using Scala, developers can seamlessly abstract over type constructors, and even enable a range of class solutions that generally look not feasible in Java. The object-oriented language even helps lessen the incidences of duplication, undoubtedly one of the most useful features of Scala.

5. Scala acts more like a blueprint language, for it takes care of almost everything about an app development. It’s more like, you simply design your application, and the embedded magic compiler will take care of all other responsibilities and get the job done for you. At the same time, it is almost as powerful as Clojure. But, it is definitely more comfortable to read for users who have a background more into Java, C, and C++.

6. Although Java 8 incorporates a number of approaches that are analogous to the approaches incorporated by Scala, the latter sticks strong due to its ‘write less, do more’ approach. The fact that Scala is a functional programming language makes it any day more of a favorable choice for the developers to write all steps they need in order to accomplish their objectives. It also lends support to monads - often referred as programmable semicolons, enabling developers to construct pipelines that help process data in steps (in which each action is adorned by additional processing rules rendered by the monad).

7. And of course, the most important feature ‘pattern matching’ makes Scala a supreme choice amongst programmers. The language also offers interoperability with NoSQL, the REPL, components that solve a lot of limitations of Java’s object model, infix syntax -> English-looking DSLs, and operator overloading.

Our Final Verdict:

There are many reasons as to why you should consider switching to Scala if you are a Java developer. Scala provides a lot of advantages over Java, and has undoubtedly been gaining more popularity. But we cannot overlook the flaws that come with Scala at the same time, with the state of which; SBT and super slow compilation are the main issues.

However, if you ask us ‘can we do everything with Scala that we can do with Java’, our answer would be ‘yes, you can & probably a lot more.’

And if you only want to build a project that combines the best of both Java and Scala, you can do by developing a project in Eclipse - where some Scala methods use Java methods, and some Java methods use Scala methods. And yes, don’t forget to use Maven to take care of your project in Eclipse.

If you are looking forward to build applications using Java or Scala, it will be in your best interests to hire offshore software development services of Mindfire Solutions that has been in the business for the last 16 years. Apart from that, it has a formidable reputation in building user-friendly applications in both Java as well as Scala.