Call by Name， Call by Value

1. Description

Typically, parameters to functions are by-value parameters; that is, the value of the parameter is determined before it is passed to the function. But what if we need to write a function that accepts a parameter as an expression that we don’t want evaluated until it’s called within our function? For this circumstance, Scala offers call-by-name parameters.

A call-by-name mechanism passes a code block to the call and each time the call accesses the parameter, the code block is executed and the value is calculated.

code example

package com.brown


/**
  * Created by BrownWong on 2016/9/29.
  */

object Hello {

  def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
    callByValue(func())  // func()先调用，其返回值作为实参传递给callByValue()函数，然后callByValue()函数调用
    println("---------------------")
    callByName(func())  // callByName()函数先调用,若函数体内部需要引用参数,才发生求值(func()被调用)
  }

  def func() = {
    println("Calling func()")
    1
  }

  def callByValue(x: Int) = {
    println("X1 = " + x)
    println("X2 = " + x)
  }

  def callByName(x: => Int) = {
    println("X1 = " + x)
    println("X2 = " + x)
  }

}

output

Calling func()
X1 = 1
X2 = 1
---------------------
Calling func()
X1 = 1
Calling func()
X2 = 1

By-name parameters behave like functions; the expression is evaluated every time it is used. So, by-name parameters are in a sense lazy.

2. An example

Here is a simple implementation of a while-like loop construct, called continue:

code

package com.brown


/**
  * Created by BrownWong on 2016/9/29.
  */

object Hello {

  def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
    var count = 0
    continue(count < 5) {
      println(s"at $count")
      count += 1
    }
  }

  @annotation.tailrec
  def continue(conditional: => Boolean)(body: => Unit) {
    if (conditional) {
      body
      continue(conditional)(body)
    }
  }

}

output:

at 0
at 1
at 2
at 3
at 4

Ref

《Programming Scala》
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13337338/call-by-name-vs-call-by-value-in-scala-clarification-needed