Best method to peek into a Scala Actor's Mailbox

Question

Using Scala 2.8 RC1 or newer, what is the best (easiest and/or most direct) method to \"peek\" at the waiting messages in an actor\'s mailbox (from within the same actor\'s

Answer 1

You don't need to peek ahead. Just keep track of the fact that an exit has been requested and use a reactWithin(0) to determine when the queue is empty after an exit has been requested.

import scala.actors._

sealed case class Message
case object Exit extends Message
case class Unimportant(n:Int) extends Message
case class Important(n:Int) extends Message

class SafeExitingActor extends Actor {
  def act : Nothing = react {
      case Exit => {
           println("exit requested, clearing the queue")
           exitRequested
      }
      case message => {
           processMessage(message, false)
           act
      }
  }

  // reactWithin(0) gives a TIMEOUT as soon as the mailbox is empty
  def exitRequested : Nothing = reactWithin(0) {
     case Exit => {
         println("extra exit requested, ignoring")
         exitRequested // already know about the exit, keep processing
     }
     case TIMEOUT => {
         println("timeout, queue is empty, shutting down")
         exit // TIMEOUT so nothing more to process, we can shut down
     }
     case message => {
         processMessage(message, true)
         exitRequested
     }
  }

  // process is a separate method to avoid duplicating in act and exitRequested
  def processMessage(message : Any, importantOnly : Boolean) = {
     message match {
       case Unimportant(n) if !importantOnly => println("Unimportant " + n)
       case Unimportant(n) => () // do nothing
       case Important(n) => println("Important! " + n)
     }
     Thread sleep 100 // sleep a little to ensure mailbox backlog
  }
}

object TestProcessing {
  def main(args : Array[String]) {
    val actor = new SafeExitingActor()
    actor.start()
    for (i <- 1 to 10) {
        actor ! Unimportant(i)
        actor ! Important(i)
    }
    actor ! Exit
    for (i <- 11 to 20) {
        actor ! Unimportant(i)
        actor ! Important(i)
    }
    actor ! Exit
    actor ! Important(100)
  }
}

That should output

Unimportant 1
Important! 1
Unimportant 2
Important! 2
Unimportant 3
Important! 3
Unimportant 4
Important! 4
Unimportant 5
Important! 5
Unimportant 6
Important! 6
Unimportant 7
Important! 7
Unimportant 8
Important! 8
Unimportant 9
Important! 9
Unimportant 10
Important! 10
exit requested, clearing the queue
Important! 11
Important! 12
Important! 13
Important! 14
Important! 15
Important! 16
Important! 17
Important! 18
Important! 19
Important! 20
extra exit requested, ignoring
Important! 100
timeout, queue is empty, shutting down