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Add Eval documentation #1816

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108 changes: 108 additions & 0 deletions docs/src/main/tut/datatypes/eval.md
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---
layout: docs
title: "Eval"
section: "data"
source: "core/src/main/scala/cats/Eval.scala"
scaladoc: "#cats.Eval"
---
# Eval

Eval is a data type for controlling synchronous evaluation.
Its implementation is designed to provide stack-safety at all times using a technique called trampolining.

There are two different factors that play into evaluation: memoization and laziness.

Memoized evaluation evaluates an expression only once and then remembers (memoizes) that value.
Lazy evaluation refers to when the expression is evaluated.
We talk about eager evaluation if the expression is immediately evaluated when defined and about lazy evaluation if the expression is evaluated when it's first used.

For example, in Scala, a `lazy val` is both lazy and memoized, a method definition `def` is lazy, but not memoized, since the body will be evaluated on every call.
A normal `val` evaluates eagerly and also memoizes the result.

`Eval` is able to express all of these evaluation strategies and allows us to chain computations using its `Monad` instance.

#### Eval.now

First of the strategies is eager evaluation, we can construct an `Eval` eagerly using `Eval.now`:


```tut:book
import cats.Eval
import cats.implicits._


val eager = Eval.now {
println("Running expensive calculation...")
1 + 2 * 3
}
```


We can run the computation using the given evaluation strategy anytime by using the `value` method.

```tut:book
eager.value

```

#### Eval.later

If we want lazy evaluation, we can use `Eval.later`:
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@kailuowang kailuowang Aug 11, 2017

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Might be worthy mentioning here that there are two advantages of Later over lazy val

  1. Later allows the thunk being GC'd after evaluation and
  2. Later's synchronization lock locks itself while lazy vals lock their enclosing class. Discussed in detail here


```tut:book
val lazyEval = Eval.later {
println("Running expensive calculation...")
1 + 2 * 3
}

lazyEval.value

lazyEval.value
```

Notice that "Running expensive calculation" is printed only once, since the value was memoized internally.

#### Eval.always

If we want lazy evaluation, but without memoization akin to `Function0`, we can use `Eval.always`

```tut:book
val always = Eval.always {
println("Running expensive calculation...")
1 + 2 * 3
}

always.value

always.value
```

Here we can see, that the expression is evaluated every time we call `.value`.


### Chaining lazy computations

One of the most useful applications of `Eval` is its ability to chain together computations in a stack-safe way.
You can see one such usage when looking at the `foldRight` method found in [`Foldable`](foldable.html).
Another great example are mutual tail-recursive calls:

```tut:book
object MutualRecursion {
def even(n: Int): Eval[Boolean] =
Eval.always(n == 0).flatMap {
case true => Eval.now(true)
case false => odd(n - 1)
}

def odd(n: Int): Eval[Boolean] =
Eval.always(n == 0).flatMap {
case true => Eval.now(false)
case false => even(n - 1)
}
}


MutualRecursion.odd(199999).value
```

Because `Eval` guarantees stack-safety, we can chain a lot of computations together using `flatMap` without fear of blowing up the stack.