Differences between map() and flatMap() functions in Scala

In Scala, both map() and flatMap() are higher-order functions used to operate on collections. However, they have distinct differences in their behavior and output:

map() Function:

• The map() function applies a given transformation function to each element of the collection and returns a new collection of the same type.
• It preserves the structure of the collection and returns a new collection with the same number of elements.
• The output of map() is a collection of the same type as the input collection.

flatMap() Function:

• The flatMap() function also applies a transformation function to each element of the collection but flattens the result.
• It can be used to deal with nested collections or to transform each element into multiple elements in a single collection.
• The output of flatMap() is a single collection created by concatenating the elements.

Overall, the key difference between map() and flatMap() lies in the structure of the output collection, with map() preserving the original structure and flatMap() flattening nested collections.