Clarification of Scala function - scala

I am trying to execute this function
def sumofdouble[T <:Number] (as:T*): Double = as.foldLeft(0d)(_ + _.doubleValue)
If I try using this function like this,
sumofdouble(1,2)
I am getting this error
<console>:13: error: inferred type arguments [Int] do not conform to method sumofdouble's type parameter bounds [T <: Number]
sumofdouble(1,2)
Isn't Integer a subtype of Number? Please explain if I am missing something.

Looks like you are using java.lang.Number. Unfortunatelly, numeric types in scala do not inherit from this class (for reference look at Int definition - like other scala's numerics it inherits directly from AnyVal - http://www.scala-lang.org/api/2.12.0/scala/Int.html) - it is simply not in their hierarchy. What you want to use is the implicit Numeric type class to convert your numbers.
def foo[T](as: T*)(implicit n: Numeric[T]) = as.foldLeft(0d)(_ + n.toDouble(_))
See this question for further information - Scala equivalent of Java's Number.

Related

Shapeless Witness and how it can give the actual singleton type

I'm trying to understand singleton types in shapeless and faced misunderstanding about singleton types compile-time type. Here is an example:
val x: Witness.`120`.T = 120.narrow
It works fine, but this constructions looks very unusual. What is Witness.120? In IDE it points to some macro function selectDynamic:
def selectDynamic(tpeSelector: String): Any = macro SingletonTypeMacros.witnessTypeImpl
which has compile-time type Any and judging by the construction Witness.120.T a type member T. This looks like magic... Can anyone give some explanation on what actually is going on when one writes something like:
val x: Witness.`120`.T = //...
Witness creates a so-called literal-based singleton type. Literal type means it's a type that can only accept one value.
So if you create a function like this:
def f(x: Witness.`120`.T) = x
it would accept only integer 120, but not 121.
Since Scala 2.13 literal types are integrated into the language, so you can write it simply as:
def f(x: 120) = x
Function narrow narrows type of value 120 from general Int to literal 120.

Subtyping leads to Any: Bug in compiler or issue with my code?

Let me get straight into the problem that I faced while hanging around with type bounds.
Let's consider the following...
I created a function 'foo' like this
def foo[A,B](x:A,y:B):(A,B)=(x,y)
I invoked foo in scala worksheet, like
foo("Mars",2400)
I obtained a result like
res0: (String, Int) = (Mars,2400)
Notice the inferred types of Mars and 2400
Now I wanted to enforce that the function 'foo' accepts Integers or floats or Doubles (any type that is a subtype of AnyVal).
To enforce I wrote a code like
def fooNew[A<:B,B](x:A,y:B):(A,B)=(x,y)
The inferred types from the previous code was (String,Int) and when I invoked fooNew like
fooNew("Saturn",2400)
I was surprised to see that the compiler did let my code pass and did not raise the error instead it did give an output like
res0: (String, Any) = (Saturn,2400)
Now, the desired way of enforcing did not work here. Had I done something like this
def fooNew[A<:B,B<:AnyVal](x:A,y:B):(A,B)=(x,y)
The compiler would have surely raised an error for me and it did!
Error:(2, 2) inferred type arguments [String,Any] do not conform to method fooNew's type parameter bounds [A <: B,B <: AnyVal]
fooNew("Saturn",2400);}
I want to ask, why didn't the compiler the type as Int instead it inferred the type Any and let my code pass the type checks? Do I always need to enforce the second type to be a subtype of AnyVal instead of letting the compiler infer it for me? or is it a bug in the compiler. Seek pardon if you found my question misleading or not upto your expectations.
Currently I am using scala-library 2.11.8
Thankyou
def fooNew[A<:B,B](x:A,y:B):(A,B)=(x,y)
In the above you are declaring type parameter A to be a subtype of type parameter B. When you pass A as String and B as Int, the compiler goes up the class hierarchy to find a suitable type for B such that Int is a B and also String is a subtype of B. The only type in the heirarchy which satisfies these two conditions is the Any type. So, String is a subtype of Any and Int is of type Any
You can think of using your original declaration with inferred types as "find A and B such that x has type A, y has type B, and A is a subtype of B". Since A = String and B = Any satisfy these conditions, the compiler correctly infers them (there are also other solutions, e.g. A = B = Any, but this one is the most specific).
But you can change the declaration to tell the compiler "find A and B such that x has type A and y has type B, and then check that A is a subtype of B". This is done as follows:
def fooNew[A,B](x:A,y:B)(implicit evidence: A <:< B): (A,B)=(x,y)
This works because the compiler will only use the first parameter list to infer A and B. Search for "generalized type constraints" to find more information about <:< and =:=.

Variance with js.Array

I have a javascript method that accepts js.Arrays that can contain objects of multiple types. E.g js.Dates or Integers or Strings
How I can model that without having to cast any of these types.
def domain(p: js.Array[js.Any])
does not work with
domain(js.Array(new js.Date(2015,1,1))
as js.Array is invariant.
def domain[T <: js.Any](p: js.Array[T])
does not work with
domain(js.Array("Test")) or domain(js.Array(0,2))
as String and Int do not inherit from js.Any.
I have seen that there is an implicit conversion from Int to js.Any but that does not seem to kick in
inferred type arguments [Int] do not conform to method domain's type
parameter bounds [T <: scala.scalajs.js.Any]
I am a bit puzzled anyway. Intellij does not show me an error while fastOptJS from sbt throws a compilation error.
Found the solution. Upper View Bounds:
def domain[T <% js.Any](p: js.Array[T])

scala type 'extraction'

This might not be the most correct terminology but what I mean by boxed type is Box[T] for type T. So Option[Int] is a boxed Int.
How might one go about extracting these types? My naive attempt:
//extractor
type X[Box[E]] = E //doesn't compile. E not found
//boxed
type boxed = Option[Int]
//unboxed
type parameter = X[boxed] //this is the syntax I would like to achieve
implicitly[parameter =:= Int] //this should compile
Is there any way to do this? Apart from the Apocalisp blog I have hard time finding instructions on type-level meta-programming in Scala.
I can only imagine two situations. Either you use type parameters, then if you use such a higher-kinded-type, e.g. as argument to a method, you will have its type parameter duplicated in the method generics:
trait Box[E]
def doSomething[X](b: Box[X]) { ... } // parameter re-stated as `X`
or you have type members, then you can refer to them per instance:
trait Box { type E }
def doSomething(b: Box) { type X = b.E }
...or generally
def doSomething(x: Box#E) { ... }
So I think you need to rewrite your question in terms of what you actually want to achieve.

How do I implement a generic mathematical function in Scala

I'm just getting started with Scala and something which I think should be easy is hard to figure out. I am trying to implement the following function:
def square(x:Int):Int = { x * x }
This works just fine, but if I want to try to make this function work for any kind of number I would like to be able to do the following:
def square[T <: Number](x : T):T = { x * x }
This complains and says: error: value * is not a member of type parameter T
Do I need to implement a trait for this?
That was one of my first questions in Stack Overflow or about Scala. The problem is that Scala maintains compatibility with Java, and that means its basic numeric types are equivalent to Java's primitives.
The problem arises in that Java primitives are not classes, and, therefore, do not have a class hierarchy which would allow a "numeric" supertype.
To put it more plainly, Java, and, therefore, Scala, does not see any common grounds between a Double's + and a an Int's +.
The way Scala finally got around this restriction was by using Numeric, and its subclasses Fractional and Integral, in the so-called typeclass pattern. Basically, you use it like this:
def square[T](x: T)(implicit num: Numeric[T]): T = {
import num._
x * x
}
Or, if you do not need any of the numeric operations but the methods you call do, you can use the context bound syntax for type declaration:
def numberAndSquare[T : Numeric](x: T) = x -> square(x)
For more information, see the answers in my own question.
You can define square as:
def square[T: Numeric](x: T): T = implicitly[Numeric[T]].times(x,x)
This approach has the advantage that it will work for any type T that has an implicit conversion to Numeric[T] (i.e. Int, Float, Double, Char, BigInt, ..., or any type for which you supply an implicit conversion).
Edit:
Unfortunately, you'll run into trouble if you try something like List(1,2,3).map(square) (specifically, you'll get a compile error like "could not find implicit value for evidence parameter of type Numeric[T]". To avoid this issue, you can overload square to return a function:
object MyMath {
def square[T: Numeric](x: T) = implicitly[Numeric[T]].times(x,x)
def square[T: Numeric]: T => T = square(_)
}
Hopefully someone with a better understanding of the type inferencer will explain why that is.
Alternatively, one can call List(1,2,3).map(square(_)), as Derek Williams pointed out in the scala-user mailing list thread.