Scala Cookbook

Introduction

In Scala, all the numeric types are objects, including Byte, Char, Double, Float, Int, Long, and Short. These seven numeric types extend the AnyVal trait, as do the Unit and Boolean classes, which are considered to be “nonnumeric value types.”

As shown in Table 2-1, the seven built-in numeric types have the same data ranges as their Java primitive equivalents.

Table 2-1. Data ranges of Scala’s built-in numeric types

Data type	Range
Char	16-bit unsigned Unicode character
Byte	8-bit signed value
Short	16-bit signed value
Int	32-bit signed value
Long	64-bit signed value
Float	32-bit IEEE 754 single precision float
Double	64-bit IEEE 754 single precision float

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

If you ever need to know the exact values of the data ranges, you can find them in the Scala REPL:

scala> Short.MinValue
res0: Short = −32768

scala> Short.MaxValue
res1: Short = 32767

scala> Int.MinValue
res2: Int = −2147483648

scala> Float.MinValue
res3: Float = −3.4028235E38

In addition to these basic numeric types, it’s helpful to understand the BigInt and BigDecimal classes, as well as the methods in the scala.math package. These are all covered in this chapter.

Complex Numbers and Dates

If you need more powerful math classes than those that are included with the standard Scala distribution, check out the Spire project, which includes classes like Rational, Complex, Real, and more; and ScalaLab, which offers Matlab-like scientific computing in Scala.

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