In Scala, is there any performance difference between List() and Nil?

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Suppose I have a function that accepts a object and a list:

case class Point(x: Int, y: Int)
def f1(w: Point, l: List[String]) =  { /* do something /* }

I would typically use it like this:

val w = Point(1,1)
val lst = List("Hello", "world")
f1(w, lst) // non empty list

Many times I would need to call the function with empty list as second parameter:

f1(w, List()) // empty list
f1(w, Nil) // empty list

Is there any performance difference between the last two lines ?

I think using List() will invoke List.apply() method. Does Scala compiler optimize it to Nil?

asked 1 min ago

tuxdna

2,089

In Scala, is there any performance difference between List() and Nil?