Scala giving me “illegal start of definition”

Question

I\'m trying to get started with Scala and cannot get out of the starting gate.

A file consisting of the line

package x

gives me

Answer 1

Since Scala 2.11.0-M7 you can use :paste -raw (fix for issue SI-5299). This option allows defining packages in the REPL:

scala> :paste -raw
// Entering paste mode (ctrl-D to finish)

package Foo

class Bar

// Exiting paste mode, now interpreting.


scala> import Foo._
import Foo._

scala> new Bar
res1: Foo.Bar = Foo.Bar@3ee2cf81

Answer 2

I don't get this error. How are you compiling this? And, by the way, what web site? As for REPL, it doesn't accept packages. Packages are only for compiled code.

Answer 3

It looks like you're trying to declare the package membership in a Scala script (run using the scala command) or in the REPL.

Only files defining just classes and objects which are compiled with scalac may be defined as belonging to a package.

When you run code in a script or a REPL session, behind the scenes it is actually compiled inside a method of an object, in which scope a package declaration wouldn't be legal.

Answer 4

I had the same issue when I was executing scala program eg. "Game.scala" from terminal.

Compiling part was ok, error was shown when running the code, see below

☐ Wrong:

user@pc:~$scala Game.scala
/home/$USER/.../src/ul/org/bloxorz/Game.scala:1: error: illegal start of definition
package ul.org.bloxorz

Scala code should be invoked from terminal pretty much the same as Java code (you should give it a fully qualified class name and not the file name like I did in first example)

☑ Correct:

user@pc:~$scala ul.org.bloxorz.Game

Answer 5

I had the same problem. I've resolved it by importing import packageName._ instead of declaring a worksheet in the package.