Idiomatic Scala for applying functions in a chain if Option(s) are defined

Question

Is there a pre-existing / Scala-idiomatic / better way of accomplishing this?

def sum(x: Int, y: Int) = x + y

var x = 10
x = applyOrBypass(target=x, optValueToApply=Some(22), sum)
x = applyOrBypass(target=x, optValueToApply=None, sum)
println(x) // will be 32

My applyOrBypass could be defined like this:

def applyOrBypass[A, B](target: A, optValueToApply: Option[B], func: (A, B) => A) = {
  optValueToApply map { valueToApply =>
    func(target, valueToApply)
  } getOrElse {
    target
  }
}

Basically I want to apply operations depending on wether certain Option values are defined or not. If they are not, I should get the pre-existing value. Ideally I would like to chain these operations and not having to use a var.

My intuition tells me that folding or reducing would be involved, but I am not sure how it would work. Or maybe there is another approach with monadic-fors...

Any suggestions / hints appreciated!

Answer 1

Scala has a way to do this with for comprehensions (The syntax is similar to haskell's do notation if you are familiar with it):

(for( v <- optValueToApply ) 
  yield func(target, v)).getOrElse(target)

Of course, this is more useful if you have several variables that you want to check the existence of:

(for( v1 <- optV1
    ; v2 <- optV2
    ; v3 <- optV3
    ) yield func(target, v1, v2, v3)).getOrElse(target)

If you are trying to accumulate a value over a list of options, then I would recommend a fold, so your optional sum would look like this:

val vs = List(Some(1), None, None, Some(2), Some(3))

(target /: vs) ( (x, v) => x + v.getOrElse(0) )
  // => 6 + target

You can generalise this, under the condition that your operation func has some identity value, identity:

(target /: vs) ( (x, v) => func(x, v.getOrElse(identity)) )

Mathematically speaking this condition is that (func, identity) forms a Monoid. But that's by-the-by. The actual effect is that whenever a None is reached, applying func to it and x will always produce x, (None's are ignored, and Some values are unwrapped and applied as normal), which is what you want.

Answer 2

What I would do in a case like this is use partially applied functions and identity:

def applyOrBypass[A, B](optValueToApply: Option[B], func: B => A => A): A => A =
  optValueToApply.map(func).getOrElse(identity)

You would apply it like this:

def sum(x: Int)(y: Int) = x + y

var x = 10
x = applyOrBypass(optValueToApply=Some(22), sum)(x)
x = applyOrBypass(optValueToApply=None, sum)(x)
println(x)

Answer 3

Yes, you can use fold. If you have multiple optional operands, there are some useful abstractions in the Scalaz library I believe.

var x = 10
x = Some(22).fold(x)(sum(_, x))
x = None    .fold(x)(sum(_, x))