make a lazy var in scala

Question

Scala does not permit to create laze vars, only lazy vals. It make sense.

But I\'ve bumped on use case, where I\'d like to have similar capability. I need a lazy var

Answer 1

I've summarized all provided advices for building custom container:

object LazyVar {

  class NotInitialized extends Exception

  case class Update[+T]( update : () => T )
  implicit def impliciţUpdate[T](update: () => T) : Update[T] = Update(update)

  final class LazyVar[T] (initial : Option[Update[T]] = None ){
    private[this] var cache : Option[T] = None
    private[this] var data : Option[Update[T]] = initial

    def put(update : Update[T]) : LazyVar[T] = this.synchronized {
      data = Some(update)
      this
    }
    def set(value : T) : LazyVar[T] = this.synchronized {
      data = None
      cache = Some(value)
      this
    }
    def get : T = this.synchronized { data match {
      case None => cache.getOrElse(throw new NotInitialized)
      case Some(Update(update)) => {
        val res = update()
        cache = Some(res)
        res
      }
    } }

    def := (update : Update[T]) : LazyVar[T] = put(update)
    def := (value : T) : LazyVar[T] = set(value)
    def apply() : T = get
  }
  object LazyVar {
    def apply[T]( initial : Option[Update[T]] = None ) = new LazyVar[T](initial)
    def apply[T]( value : T) = {
      val res = new LazyVar[T]()
      res.set(value)
      res
    }
  }
  implicit def geţLazy[T](lazyvar : LazyVar[T]) : T = lazyvar.get

  object Test {
    val getInt1 : () => Int = () => {
      print("GetInt1")
      1
    }
    val getInt2 : () => Int = () => {
      print("GetInt2")
      2
    }
    val li : LazyVar[Int] = LazyVar()
    li := getInt1
    li := getInt2
    val si : Int = li
  }
}