Functional Programming in Scala Specialization

Functional programming is becoming increasingly widespread in industry. This trend is driven by the adoption of Scala as the main programming language for many applications. Scala fuses functional and object-oriented programming in a practical package. It interoperates seamlessly with both Java and Javascript. Scala is the implementation language of many important frameworks, including Apache Spark, Kafka, and Akka. It provides the core infrastructure for sites such as Twitter, Tumblr and also Coursera. In this course you will discover the elements of the functional programming style and learn how to apply them usefully in your daily programming tasks. You will also develop a solid foundation for reasoning about functional programs, by touching upon proofs of invariants and the tracing of execution symbolically. The course is hands on; most units introduce short programs that serve as illustrations of important concepts and invite you to play with them, modifying and improving them. The course is complemented by a series programming projects as homework assignments. Learning Outcomes. By the end of this course you will be able to: - understand the principles of functional programming, - write purely functional programs, using recursion, pattern matching, and higher-order functions, - combine functional programming with objects and classes, - design immutable data structures, - reason about properties of functions, - understand generic types for functional programs Recommended background: You should have at least one year programming experience. Proficiency with Java or C# is ideal, but experience with other languages such as C/C++, Python, Javascript or Ruby is also sufficient. You should have some familiarity using the command line.

100% online course

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Intermediate Level

Approx. 23 hours to complete

Suggested: 5 hours/week

English

Subtitles: English, Korean, Serbian, French

Skills you will gain

Functional ProgrammingData StructureObject-Oriented ProgrammingProblem Solving

100% online course

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Intermediate Level

Approx. 23 hours to complete

Suggested: 5 hours/week

English

Subtitles: English, Korean, Serbian, French

Syllabus - What you will learn from this course

1

Section

13 hours to complete

Getting Started + Functions & Evaluation

Get up and running with Scala on your computer. Complete an example assignment to familiarize yourself with our unique way of submitting assignments. In this week, we'll learn the difference between functional imperative programming. We step through the basics of Scala; covering expressions, evaluation, conditionals, functions, and recursion...

11 videos (Total 139 min), 8 readings, 4 quizzes

11 videos

Course Introduction2m

Tools Setup for Linux22m

Tools Setup for Mac OS X21m

Tools Setup for Windows18m

Lecture 1.1 - Programming Paradigms14m

Lecture 1.2 - Elements of Programming14m

Lecture 1.3 - Evaluation Strategies and Termination4m

Lecture 1.4 - Conditionals and Value Definitions8m

Lecture 1.5 - Example: square roots with Newton's method11m

Lecture 1.6 - Blocks and Lexical Scope8m

Lecture 1.7 - Tail Recursion12m

8 readings

Tools Setup (Please read)10m

Cheat Sheet10m

IntelliJ IDEA Tutorial10m

Eclipse Tutorial10m

SBT tutorial and Submission of Assignments (Please read)10m

Learning Resources10m

Scala Tutorial10m

Scala Style Guide10m

1 practice exercises

Learning check-in2m

2

Section

7 hours to complete

Higher Order Functions

This week, we'll learn about functions as first-class values, and higher order functions. We'll also learn about Scala's syntax and how it's formally defined. Finally, we'll learn about methods, classes, and data abstraction through the design of a data structure for rational numbers....

7 videos (Total 84 min), 2 quizzes

7 videos

Lecture 2.1 - Higher-Order Functions10m

Lecture 2.2 - Currying14m

Lecture 2.3 - Example: Finding Fixed Points10m

Lecture 2.4 - Scala Syntax Summary4m

Lecture 2.5 - Functions and Data11m

Lecture 2.6 - More Fun With Rationals15m

Lecture 2.7 - Evaluation and Operators16m

3

Section

7 hours to complete

Data and Abstraction

This week, we'll cover traits, and we'll learn how to organize classes into hierarchies. We'll cover the hierarchy of standard Scala types, and see how to organize classes and traits into packages. Finally, we'll touch upon the different sorts of polymorphism in Scala....

3 videos (Total 66 min), 2 quizzes

3 videos

Lecture 3.1 - Class Hierarchies24m

Lecture 3.2 - How Classes Are Organized20m

Lecture 3.3 - Polymorphism21m

4

Section

8 hours to complete

Types and Pattern Matching

This week we'll learn about the relationship between functions and objects in Scala; functions *are* objects! We'll zoom in on Scala's type system, covering subtyping and generics, and moving on to more advanced aspects of Scala's type system like variance. Finally, we'll cover Scala's most widely used data structure, Lists, and one of Scala's most powerful tools, pattern matching....

7 videos (Total 117 min), 2 quizzes

7 videos

Lecture 4.1 - Objects Everywhere19m

Lecture 4.2 - Functions as Objects8m

Lecture 4.3 - Subtyping and Generics15m

Lecture 4.4 - Variance (Optional)21m

Lecture 4.5 - Decomposition16m

Lecture 4.6 - Pattern Matching19m

Lecture 4.7 - Lists16m

5

Section

1 hour to complete

Lists

This week we dive into Lists, the most commonly-used data structure in Scala....

7 videos (Total 88 min)

7 videos

Lecture 5.1 - More Functions on Lists13m

Lecture 5.2 - Pairs and Tuples10m

Lecture 5.3 - Implicit Parameters11m

Lecture 5.4 - Higher-Order List Functions14m

Lecture 5.5 - Reduction of Lists15m

Lecture 5.6 - Reasoning About Concat13m

Lecture 5.7 - A Larger Equational Proof on Lists9m

6

Section

8 hours to complete

Collections

After a deep-dive into Lists, this week we'll explore other data structures; vectors, maps, ranges, arrays, and more. We'll dive into Scala's powerful and flexible for-comprehensions for querying data....

6 videos (Total 99 min), 2 quizzes

6 videos

Lecture 6.1 - Other Collections20m

Lecture 6.2 - Combinatorial Search and For-Expressions13m

Lecture 6.3 - Combinatorial Search Example16m

Lecture 6.4 - Maps22m

Lecture 6.5 - Putting the Pieces Together20m

Conclusion4m

Instructor

Martin Odersky

Professor

About École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Frequently Asked Questions

When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?
Once you enroll for a Certificate, you’ll have access to all videos, quizzes, and programming assignments (if applicable). Peer review assignments can only be submitted and reviewed once your session has begun. If you choose to explore the course without purchasing, you may not be able to access certain assignments.
What will I get if I pay for this course?
If you pay for this course, you will have access to all of the features and content you need to earn a Course Certificate. If you complete the course successfully, your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile. Note that the Course Certificate does not represent official academic credit from the partner institution offering the course.
What is the refund policy?
Is financial aid available?
Yes! Coursera provides financial aid to learners who would like to complete a course but cannot afford the course fee. To apply for aid, select "Learn more and apply" in the Financial Aid section below the "Enroll" button. You'll be prompted to complete a simple application; no other paperwork is required.

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Functional Programming in Scala Specialization