The Option type (null safety)

This lesson covers the Option type, which safely represents "there may or may not be a value here".

Scala uses Option — Some(value) when there is a value and None when there is not — to prevent the runtime errors that come from handling null directly.

In the sample code, prices.get("melon") searches the map and returns Option[Int], and match handles the found and not-found cases safely.

A common early stumble is trying to use the contents of an Option directly and hitting an error. You have to check for Some or None before taking the value out — which is how Scala turns null-related runtime errors into compile-time ones.

In professional work, Option appears in almost every operation where the data might not exist, making it one of Scala's central safety features.

📖 Reference code

object Main extends App {
  val prices = Map("apple" -> 100, "orange" -> 80)
  prices.get("melon") match {
    case Some(price) => println(s"melon: ${price}")
    case None => println("melon was not found")
  }
}

✍️ Your code

Type your code, then press "Run"

🧪 This site can't compile or run Scala directly, so it checks on the spot whether what you typed matches the reference code (scoring happens entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere).