Scala default parameters and null

Question

I have a method like this:

def aMethod(param: String = \"asdf\") = {
    ...
}

If the method is called as follows, then param is given the

Answer 1

def aMethod(param: String = null) = { 
  val p = 
    if(param == null)
      "asdf"
     else
       param

  println(p) 
}

But the question must be asked: why allow null? Would Option be possible in your case? For this you could do:

def aMethod(param: Option[String]) = { 
  val p = param.getOrElse("asdf")    
  println(p)
}

This makes it clear that your method expects the possibility of a "null" argument.