Appendix A. Reserved Words

Table A-1 displays the reserved words in Scala. Reserved words are part of the Scala language definition, and cannot be used as identifiers. To keep the definitions concise, I have used “class” where “class, object, and trait” may be more accurate.

Table A-1. Scala’s reserved words
Name Description

_

The wildcard operator, representing an expected value.

:

Delimits a value, variable, or function from its type.

@

Defines an annotation for a class or its member. Annotations are a JVM feature but are seldomly used in Scala, with @annotation.tailrec being a popular exception.

#

A type projection, which delimits a type from its subtype.

<-

Delimits a generator from its identifier in a for-loop.

←

A single-character (\u2190) alternative to <-.

<:

The upper-bound operator, restricting types to those that are equal to or extend the given type.

<%

The view-bound operator, allowing any type that may be treated as the given type.

=

The assignment operator.

=>

Used in match expressions and partial functions to indicate a conditional expression, in function types to indicate a return type, and in function literals to define the function body.

⇒

A single-character (\u21D2) alternative to =>.

>:

The lower-bound operator, restricting types to those that are equal to or are extended by the given type.

abstract

Marks a class or trait as being abstract and uninstantiable.

case

Defines a matching pattern in match expressions and partial functions.

catch

Catches an exception. An alternate ...

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