Why is my Scala function returning type Unit and not whatever is the last line?

Question

I am trying to figure out the issue, and tried different styles that I have read on Scala, but none of them work. My code is:

....

val str = "(and x y)";

def stringParse ( exp: String, pos: Int, expreshHolder: ArrayBuffer[String], follow: Int )  

    var b = pos; //position of where in the expression String I am currently in
    val temp = expreshHolder; //holder of expressions without parens
    var arrayCounter = follow; //just counts to make sure an empty spot in the array is there to put in the strings

    if(exp(b) == '(') {
        b = b + 1;

        while(exp(b) == ' '){b = b + 1} //point of this is to just skip any spaces between paren and start of expression type

        if(exp(b) == 'a') {
               temp(arrayCounter) = exp(b).toString; 
               b = b+1; 
               temp(arrayCounter)+exp(b).toString; b = b+1; 
               temp(arrayCounter) + exp(b).toString; arrayCounter+=1}
               temp;

         }

}

val hold: ArrayBuffer[String] = stringParse(str, 0, new ArrayBuffer[String], 0);
for(test <- hold) println(test);

My error is:

Driver.scala:35: error: type mismatch;
found   : Unit
 required: scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer[String]
ho = stringParse(str, 0, ho, 0);
                ^one error found

When I add an equals sign after the arguments in the method declaration, like so:

def stringParse ( exp: String, pos: Int, expreshHolder: ArrayBuffer[String], follow: Int )  ={....}

It changes it to "Any". I am confused on how this works. Any ideas? Much appreciated.

Answer 1

Here's a more general answer on how one may approach such problems:

It happens sometimes that you write a function and in your head assume it returns type X, but somewhere down the road the compiler disagrees. This almost always happens when the function has just been written, so while the compiler doesn't give you the actual source (it points to the line where your function is called instead) you normally know that your function's return type is the problem.

If you do not see the type problem straight away, there is the simple trick to explicitly type your function. For example, if you thought your function should have returned Int, but somehow the compiler says it found a Unit, it helps to add : Int to your function. This way, you help the compiler to help you, as it will spot the exact place, where a path in your function returns a non-Int value, which is the actual problem you were looking for in the first place.