###suspicious identifier: ? You can use ? as identifier: val l=List(1,2,3) val? =List(1,2,3) Here it doesn't save you anything, because you can't stick it to the equal sign: val ?=List(1,2,3) // illegal But later on, it often saves one character, since you don't need a delimiter: print(?size) // l.size needs a dot def a(? :Int*)=(?,?tail).zipped.map(_-_) However, it is often tricky to use: print(?size) 3 print(?size-5) <console>:12: error: Int does not take parameters print(?size-5) ^