Getting Started

The instructions below cover both Scala 2 and Scala 3.

Resources For Newcomers

Install Scala on your computer

Installing Scala means installing various command-line tools such as the Scala compiler and build tools. We recommend using the Scala installer tool “Coursier” that automatically installs all the requirements, but you can still manually install each tool.

Using the Scala Installer (recommended way)

The Scala installer is a tool named Coursier, whose main command is named cs. It ensures that a JVM and standard Scala tools are installed on your system. Install it on your system with the following instructions.

brew install coursier && coursier setup

curl -fL https://github.com/VirtusLab/coursier-m1/releases/latest/download/cs-aarch64-apple-darwin.gz | gzip -d > cs && chmod +x cs && (xattr -d com.apple.quarantine cs || true) && ./cs setup

curl -fL https://github.com/coursier/coursier/releases/latest/download/cs-x86_64-apple-darwin.gz | gzip -d > cs && chmod +x cs && (xattr -d com.apple.quarantine cs || true) && ./cs setup

curl -fL https://github.com/coursier/coursier/releases/latest/download/cs-x86_64-pc-linux.gz | gzip -d > cs && chmod +x cs && ./cs setup

curl -fL https://github.com/VirtusLab/coursier-m1/releases/latest/download/cs-aarch64-pc-linux.gz | gzip -d > cs && chmod +x cs && ./cs setup

   You may need to restart your terminal, log out, or reboot in order for the changes to take effect.

$ scala -version
Scala code runner version 3.5.1 -- Copyright 2002-2022, LAMP/EPFL

Along with managing JVMs, cs setup also installs useful command-line tools:

For more information about cs, read coursier-cli documentation.

cs setup installs the Scala 3 compiler and runner by default (the scalac and scala commands, respectively). Whether you intend to use Scala 2 or 3, this is usually not an issue because most projects use a build tool that will use the correct version of Scala irrespective of the one installed “globally”. Nevertheless, you can always launch a specific version of Scala using

$ cs launch scala:2.13.15
$ cs launch scalac:2.13.15

If you prefer Scala 2 to be run by default, you can force that version to be installed with:

$ cs install scala:2.13.15 scalac:2.13.15

…or manually

You only need two tools to compile, run, test, and package a Scala project: Java 8 or 11, and sbt. To install them manually:

1. if you don’t have Java 8 or 11 installed, download Java from Oracle Java 8, Oracle Java 11, or AdoptOpenJDK 8/11. Refer to JDK Compatibility for Scala/Java compatibility detail.
2. Install sbt

Create a “Hello World” project with sbt

Once you have installed sbt, you are ready to create a Scala project, which is explained in the following sections.

To create a project, you can either use the command line or an IDE. If you are familiar with the command line, we recommend that approach.

Using the command line

sbt is a build tool for Scala. sbt compiles, runs, and tests your Scala code. (It can also publish libraries and do many other tasks.)

To create a new Scala project with sbt:

1. cd to an empty folder.
2. Run the command sbt new scala/scala3.g8 to create a Scala 3 project, or sbt new scala/hello-world.g8 to create a Scala 2 project. This pulls a project template from GitHub. It will also create a target folder, which you can ignore.
3. When prompted, name the application hello-world. This will create a project called “hello-world”.
4. Let’s take a look at what just got generated:

- hello-world
    - project (sbt uses this for its own files)
        - build.properties
    - build.sbt (sbt's build definition file)
    - src
        - main
            - scala (all of your Scala code goes here)
                - Main.scala (Entry point of program) <-- this is all we need for now

More documentation about sbt can be found in the Scala Book (see here for the Scala 2 version) and in the official sbt documentation

With an IDE

You can skip the rest of this page and go directly to Building a Scala Project with IntelliJ and sbt

Open hello-world project

Let’s use an IDE to open the project. The most popular ones are IntelliJ and VSCode. They both offer rich IDE features, but you can still use many other editors.

Using IntelliJ

1. Download and install IntelliJ Community Edition
2. Install the Scala plugin by following the instructions on how to install IntelliJ plugins
3. Open the build.sbt file then choose Open as a project

Using VSCode with metals

1. Download VSCode
2. Install the Metals extension from the Marketplace
3. Next, open the directory containing a build.sbt file (this should be the directory hello-world if you followed the previous instructions). When prompted to do so, select Import build.

Play with the source code

View these two files in your IDE:

• build.sbt
• src/main/scala/Main.scala

When you run your project in the next step, the configuration in build.sbt will be used to run the code in src/main/scala/Main.scala.

Run Hello World

If you’re comfortable using your IDE, you can run the code in Main.scala from your IDE.

Otherwise, you can run the application from a terminal with these steps:

1. cd into hello-world.
2. Run sbt. This opens up the sbt console.
3. Type ~run. The ~ is optional and causes sbt to re-run on every file save, allowing for a fast edit/run/debug cycle. sbt will also generate a target directory which you can ignore.

When you’re finished experimenting with this project, press [Enter] to interrupt the run command. Then type exit or press [Ctrl+D] to exit sbt and return to your command line prompt.

Next Steps

Once you’ve finished the above tutorials, consider checking out:

• The Scala Book (see the Scala 2 version here), which provides a set of short lessons introducing Scala’s main features.
• The Tour of Scala for bite-sized introductions to Scala’s features.
• Learning Resources, which includes online interactive tutorials and courses.
• Our list of some popular Scala books.
• The migration guide helps you to migrate your existing Scala 2 code base to Scala 3.

Getting Help

There are a multitude of mailing lists and real-time chat rooms in case you want to quickly connect with other Scala users. Check out our community page for a list of these resources, and for where to reach out for help.