What is an option in Scala?

Overview

In Scala, a container of single or no elements for a specified type is referred to as an option.

An Option[T] can either be a None object, which denotes a missing value, or a Some[T] object that denotes that the option has some value.

For instance, if a value matching a given key has been located, the get() method of Scala’s Map returns the result of Some(value). It returns None if the key is not declared in the Map. Refer to the following code for the implementation of a map.

Example

object Main{
  
    def main(args: Array[String]){
  
        val grades = Map("John" -> 8, "Sam" -> 6)
  
        val grade_john = grades.get("John")
        val grade_gaby = grades.get("Gaby")
  
        println("John's grade - " + grade_john)
        println("Gaby's grade - " + grade_gaby)
    }
}

Explanation

Line 5: We define a map with two entries.
Line 7: We use the get() method to retrieve the value for John.
Line 8: We use the get() method to retrieve the value for Gaby.
Lines 10-11: We print the retrieved values.

Now that we know the basic behavior of an option, we can use it to take the optional values in different ways.

Pattern matching

Instead of printing None, we can have a case statement that matches the option and return the proper message/values.

Example

object Main{
    def match_pattrn(option: Option[Int]) = option match {
        case Some(s) => (s)
        case None => ("Student Entry not found")
    }
  
    def main(args: Array[String]){
  
        val grades = Map("John" -> 8, "Sam" -> 6)
  
        val grade_john = grades.get("John")
        val grade_gaby = grades.get("Gaby")
  
        println("John's grade: " + match_pattrn(grade_john))
        println("Gaby's grade: " + match_pattrn(grade_gaby))
    }
}

Explanation

Lines 3–6: We define the match_pattrn() method that accepts and returns the argument as it is if it’s not None. Otherwise, it returns a string.
Line 10: We define a map with two entries.
Line 12: We use the get() method to retrieve the value for John.
Line 13: We use the get method to retrieve the value for Gaby.
Lines 15–16: We invoke the match_pattrn() function with the retrieved values.

The `getOrElse()` method

The getOrElse() method is used to return a value if it’s present or a default value if it’s not present.

Syntax

def getOrElse[B >: A](default: => B): B

Example

object Main{
  
    def main(args: Array[String]){
  
        val grades = Map("John" -> 8, "Sam" -> 6)
  
        val grade_john = grades.get("John")
        val grade_gaby = grades.get("Gaby")
  
        println("John's grade: " + grade_john.getOrElse(-1))
        println("Gaby's grade: " + grade_gaby.getOrElse(-1))
    }
}

Explanation

Line 5: We define a map with two entries.
Line 7: We use the get() method to retrieve the values for John.
Line 8: We use the get() method to get the value for Gaby.
Lines 10–11: We invoke the getOrElse() method on the retrieved values. The method returns -1 if the retrieved value is None.