Simple Scala pattern for “using/try-with-resources” (Automatic Resource Management)

Question

C# has using with the IDisposable interface. Java 7+ has identical functionality with try and the AutoCloseable interface

Answer 1

An improvement I can recommend to the approach you suggested, which is:

  def autoClose[A <: AutoCloseable, B](resource: A)(code: A ⇒ B): B = {
    try
      code(resource)
    finally
      resource.close()
  }

Is to use:

  def autoClose[A <: AutoCloseable, B](resource: A)(code: A ⇒ B): Try[B] = {
    val tryResult = Try {code(resource)}
    resource.close()
    tryResult
  }

IMHO having the tryResult which is an Try[B], will allow you an easier control flow later.