URIO

URIO[R, A] is a type alias for ZIO[R, Nothing, A], which represents an effect that requires an R, and cannot fail, but can succeed with an A.

note

In Scala, the type alias is a way to give a name to another type, to avoid having to repeat the original type again and again. It doesn't affect the type-checking process. It just helps us to have an expressive API design.

Let's see how the URIO type alias is defined:

type URIO[-R, +A] = ZIO[R, Nothing, A]

So URIO is equal to a ZIO that requires R and cannot fail (because in Scala the Nothing type has no inhabitant, so we can't create an instance of type Nothing). It succeeds with A.

Principle of Least Power

The ZIO data type is the most powerful effect in the ZIO library. It helps us to model various types of workflows. On the other hand, the type aliases are a way of specializing the ZIO type for less powerful workflows.

Often, we don't need such a piece of powerful machinery. So as a rule of thumb, whenever we require a less powerful effect, it's better to use the appropriate specialized type alias.

So there is no need to convert type aliases to the ZIO data type, and whenever the ZIO data type is required, we can use the most precise type alias to fit our workflow requirement.