Case Classes with optional fields in Scala

Question

For example, I have this case class:

case class Student (firstName : String, lastName : String) 

If I use this case class, is it possible that supplying data to the fields inside the case class are optional? For example, I'll do this:

val student = new Student(firstName = "Foo") 

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you just want to miss the second parameter without a default information, I suggest you to use an Option.

case class Student(firstName: String, lastName: Option[String] = None) 

Now you might create instances this way:

Student("Foo") Student("Foo", None)            // equal to the one above Student("Foo", Some("Bar"))     // neccesary to add a lastName 

To make it usable as you wanted it, I will add an implicit:

object Student {   implicit def string2Option(s: String) = Some(s) } 

Now you are able to call it those ways:

import Student._  Student("Foo") Student("Foo", None) Student("Foo", Some("Bar")) Student("Foo", "Bar")