Differences between these three ways of defining a function in Scala

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Inside a class, val is evaluated on initialization while def is evaluated only when, and every time, the function is called. In the code below you will see that x is evaluated the first time the object is used, but not again when the x member is accessed. In contrast, y is not evaluated when the object is instantiated, but is evaluated every time the member is accessed. 

  class A(a: Int) {
    val x = { println("x is set to something"); a }
    def y = { println("y is set to something"); a }
  }

  // Prints: x is set to something
  val a = new A(1)

  // Prints: "1"
  println(a.x)

  // Prints: "1"                               
  println(a.x)

  // Prints: "y is set to something" and "1"                                  
  println(a.y)

  // Prints: "y is set to something" and "1"                                                                                   
  println(a.y)

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