Steps

1. How to define a List with Tuple3 elements

Let's start by defining a List containing Tuple3 elements which would represent the name of a donut, the quantity to be purchased and its price.

If you are unfamiliar with the Scala Tuple syntax, feel free to review the tutorial on Tuples.

println("Step 1: How to define a List with Tuple3 elements")
val listOrders = List(("Glazed Donut", 5, 2.50), ("Vanilla Donut", 10, 3.50))

2. How to define a function to loop through each Tuple3 elements of the List and calculate total cost

Assume that your donut store sells donuts worldwide and as such you need to convert the total cost of buying donuts to the local currency being used.

To this end, let's define a placeOrder() function which would take a list of donut orders as defined in Step 1. But the function also has an exchangeRate parameter to convert the total cost to the local currency.

println("\nStep 2: How to define a function to loop through each Tuple3 of the List and calculate total cost")
def placeOrder(orders: List[(String, Int, Double)])(exchangeRate: Double): Double = {
  var totalCost: Double = 0.0
  orders.foreach {order =>
    val costOfItem = order._2 * order._3 * exchangeRate
    println(s"Cost of ${order._2} ${order._1} = £$costOfItem")
    totalCost += costOfItem
  }
  totalCost
}

NOTE:

• We could have inlined the totalCost calculation and avoid the use of var, but we are showing each step of the calculation.
• We are also using parameter groups similar to what you've learned from the tutorial on Curried Function With Parameter Groups.

3. How to call function with curried group parameter for List of Tuple3 elements

The syntax for calling the placeOrder() function with currying parameters should be familiar to you already if you've followed the previous tutorials.

println("\nStep 3: How to call function with curried group parameter for List of Tuple3 elements")
println(s"Total cost of order = £${placeOrder(listOrders)(0.5)}")

You should see the following output when you run your Scala application in IntelliJ:

Step 3: How to call function with curried group parameter for List of Tuple3 elements
Cost of 5 Glazed Donut = £6.25
Cost of 10 Vanilla Donut = £17.5
Total cost of order = £23.75

NOTE:

• For simplicity, we're using 0.5 as the exchange rate.

4. How to define a call-by-name function

You should have already seen the syntax for call-by-name function as per the previous tutorial on Higher Order Function.

As a result, let's redefine a placeOrder function which will accept a call-by-name parameter for the exchange rate.

println("\nStep 4: How to define a call-by-name function")
def placeOrderWithByNameParameter(orders: List[(String, Int, Double)])(exchangeRate: => Double): Double = {
  var totalCost: Double = 0.0
  orders.foreach {order =>
    val costOfItem = order._2 * order._3 * exchangeRate
    println(s"Cost of ${order._2} ${order._1} = £$costOfItem")
    totalCost += costOfItem
  }
  totalCost
}

NOTE:

• The call-by-name function parameter exchangeRate: => Double will evaluate any exchangeRate function each time it is called.
• This is in contrast to the function defined in Step 1 above which had a call-by-value function parameter for exchange rate. This meant that any exchange rate passed through would be evaluated only once.

5. How to define a simple USD to GBP function

With the call-by-name exchange rate parameter from Step 4 in mind, let's create a function which will randomly generate a USD to GBP currency conversion.

println("\nStep 5: How to define a simple USD to GBP function")
val randomExchangeRate = new Random(10)
def usdToGbp: Double = {
  val rate = randomExchangeRate.nextDouble()
  println(s"Fetching USD to GBP exchange rate = $rate")
  rate
}

6. How to call function with call-by-name parameter

We can then pass the USD to GBP function to the placeOrderWithByNameParameter() function as shown below.

println("\nStep 6: How to call function with call-by-name parameter")
println(s"Total cost of order = £${placeOrderWithByNameParameter(listOrders)(usdToGbp)}")

You should see the following output when you run your Scala application in IntelliJ:

Step 6: How to call function with call-by-name parameter
Fetching USD to GBP exchange rate = 0.7304302967434272
Cost of 5 Glazed Donut = £9.13037870929284
Fetching USD to GBP exchange rate = 0.2578027905957804
Cost of 10 Vanilla Donut = £9.023097670852312
Total cost of order = £18.15347638014515

NOTE:

• For each order in the list, a new exchange rate is being created and that's because the call-by-name function usdToGbp function is being evaluated each time.