A question on nested functions

[Stephen Davies]

I am a Java developer, learning Scala and I have just begun to look into nested functions. Whilst I understand the concept, I am still confused as to how they actually work in the code. Take my following example:

object Test extends Application
{
	def getMyName(n:String) = {
		def lg() = println(n.length)
	}
		getMyName("John Doe")
}

When I run this, I get no output whatsoever. Shouldn't the String I pass to the top method call be processed by both functions, and hence print out? Am I missing the bigger picture here?

[Mohamed Sanaulla]

You have declared the private function- lg(). But you need to invoke it to get executed.

...
def getMyName(n:String) = {  
  def lg() = println(n.length)
  lg()
}
...

[Stephen Davies]

mohamed sanaullah wrote:You have declared the private function- lg(). But you need to invoke it to get executed.

...
def getMyName(n:String) = {  
  def lg() = println(n.length)
  lg()
}
...

It works now, many thanks. I can grasp the need to provide a call to lg, though when you say it is a private function I am confused. I'ts a local function object to the outer function, and despite being inaccessible to outside code (as in java) does this make it private as in the meaning of the access modifier? , I was under the impression that non declared access is public by default in Scala. unless otherwise declared. Hence, getMyName is public and that lg() is a local variable to it (within the inner scope only) and is simply implicitly inaccessible to code outside the getMyName function but not "private" as I have not declared it expressly so.

My question is more semantics than anything else, but I would like to clarify the situation.

[Mohamed Sanaulla]

Sorry for wrong usage of terms By private I meant- Local to that function- Scope limited to that function. Something like local variables.