Is it valid to reduce on an empty set of sets?

user_409117 0
Viewed 21144

Shouldn't this work?

> val setOfSets = Set[Set[String]]()    
setOfSets: scala.collection.immutable.Set[Set[String]] = Set()

> setOfSets reduce (_ union _)
java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: empty.reduceLeft
  at scala.collection.TraversableOnce$class.reduceLeft(TraversableOnce.scala:152)
  [...]
reduce set scala collections
3 Answers

Starting Scala 2.9, most collections are now provided with the reduceOption function (as an equivalent to reduce) which supports the case of empty sequences by returning an Option of the result:

Set[Set[String]]().reduceOption(_ union _)
// Option[Set[String]] = None
Set[Set[String]]().reduceOption(_ union _).getOrElse(Set())
// Set[String] = Set()
Set(Set(1, 2, 3), Set(2, 3, 4), Set(5)).reduceOption(_ union _).getOrElse(Set())
// Set[Int] = Set(5, 1, 2, 3, 4)
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