Scala has a value modifier called “lazy” and I have a bit of a problem with it. Let’s start with the name, lazy is used to indicate that the value is not defined when declared but when the value is read. Really it isn’t lazy at all it is actually a memoisation wrapper around the value.

Now that’s a pretty handy thing and there are definitely some use cases for this. In particular where the calculation of the value is truly invariant and expensive. Some people suggest that it can be used to cache the results of service or database lookups but that is clearly madness unless the query really does return an invariant.

However I think that there is a very subtle problem with the misapplication of lazy and that is that it introduces state into an otherwise pure function, namely whether the value has been calculated or not and what the value is when calculated. This state to me actually reduces the utility of a pure function in terms or reuse as the consumer has to be very aware in time of when the function is going to be invoked and what its value is going to be over time.

It’s rare that lazy over-application goes wrong because I mostly see it in short-lived instances. However that very lifespan seems to suggest that there is no real value in lazy evaluation over eager declaration. After all if the function never gets called then it doesn’t cost anything and true constants should be in the companion object. In long-lived objects though I think there is serious potential for lazy to go wrong and therefore it should be applied sparingly where a positive impact can be proved.