What are all the uses of an underscore in Scala?

Question

I\'ve taken a look at the list of surveys taken on scala-lang.org and noticed a curious question: \"Can you name all the uses of “_”?\". Can you? If yes, please do so here.

Answer 1

The ones I can think of are

Existential types

def foo(l: List[Option[_]]) = ...

Higher kinded type parameters

case class A[K[_],T](a: K[T])

Ignored variables

val _ = 5

Ignored parameters

List(1, 2, 3) foreach { _ => println("Hi") }

Ignored names of self types

trait MySeq { _: Seq[_] => }

Wildcard patterns

Some(5) match { case Some(_) => println("Yes") }

Wildcard patterns in interpolations

"abc" match { case s"a$_c" => }

Sequence wildcard in patterns

C(1, 2, 3) match { case C(vs @ _*) => vs.foreach(f(_)) }

Wildcard imports

import java.util._

Hiding imports

import java.util.{ArrayList => _, _}

Joining letters to operators

def bang_!(x: Int) = 5

Assignment operators

def foo_=(x: Int) { ... }

Placeholder syntax

List(1, 2, 3) map (_ + 2)

Method values

List(1, 2, 3) foreach println _

Converting call-by-name parameters to functions

def toFunction(callByName: => Int): () => Int = callByName _

Default initializer

var x: String = _   // unloved syntax may be eliminated

There may be others I have forgotten!

---

Example showing why foo(_) and foo _ are different:

This example comes from 0__:

trait PlaceholderExample {
  def process[A](f: A => Unit)

  val set: Set[_ => Unit]

  set.foreach(process _) // Error 
  set.foreach(process(_)) // No Error
}

In the first case, process _ represents a method; Scala takes the polymorphic method and attempts to make it monomorphic by filling in the type parameter, but realizes that there is no type that can be filled in for A that will give the type (_ => Unit) => ? (Existential _ is not a type).

In the second case, process(_) is a lambda; when writing a lambda with no explicit argument type, Scala infers the type from the argument that foreach expects, and _ => Unit is a type (whereas just plain _ isn't), so it can be substituted and inferred.

This may well be the trickiest gotcha in Scala I have ever encountered.

Note that this example compiles in 2.13. Ignore it like it was assigned to underscore.