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What is Scala?

Scala is a programming language that mixes two styles of coding into one, so small programs stay short while big ones stay organized. Its name means scalable, like a toy set that works for a tiny house or a whole city.

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  1. What is Scala?

What is Scala?

Scala (short for "Scalable Language") is a modern programming language created by Martin Odersky and first released in 2004, designed to run on the Java Virtual Machine while unifying object-oriented and functional programming in one language.

Scala powers large-scale, data-intensive systems at companies like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Netflix, and is the language behind Apache Spark, the industry-standard engine for big data processing. Because it runs on the JVM, Scala code interoperates directly with existing Java libraries.

Note: Scala developers are among the highest-paid in the industry, largely because of Scala's central role in big data infrastructure like Apache Spark -- learning Scala is a strong path into data engineering.

Example: What is Scala?

markup
object Main extends App {
  println("Hello, World!")
}
Related Topics
{# common_mistakes/chapter_summary/browser_support: on Hindi pages the view already swaps in the hi_ translation fields (or blanks these out if untranslated), so this renders correctly for both languages without a lang_code check here. #}
Common Mistakes
  1. Thinking Scala is a scripting language only, when it is a compiled language that runs on the JVM.
  2. Assuming Scala cannot use Java code, when it can call Java libraries directly on the JVM.
  3. Expecting Scala code to look like Java line by line, and adding semicolons and void, when Scala uses Unit and usually needs no semicolons.
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