While reading Scala source code i came across the following in scala/package.scala
I don't quite get why we need trait and val at the same time. The trait keyword will alias the class, then why do we need the val ?
type StringBuilder = scala.collection.mutable.StringBuilder
val StringBuilder = scala.collection.mutable.StringBuilder
// Numeric types which were moved into scala.math.*
type BigDecimal = scala.math.BigDecimal
val BigDecimal = scala.math.BigDecimal
type BigInt = scala.math.BigInt
val BigInt = scala.math.BigInt
type Equiv[T] = scala.math.Equiv[T]
val Equiv = scala.math.Equiv
Am including a Generic Type example as well to get more understanding about the multiple declarations there was well.
It's because type only defines a type alias; it doesn't alias the type's companion object.
The companion object usually contains handy methods, especially an apply method for creating objects of the type. If you don't do the val, you won't have access to those methods, at least not under the name of the alias.
Related
I would like use shapeless lenses to access value of the case class field by a String definition.
I know this code works.
case class Test(id: String, calc: Long)
val instance = Test("123232", 3434L)
val lens = lens[Test] >> 'id
val valueOfFieldId = lens.get(instance)
But what I am trying to do is:
val fieldName = "id"
val lens = lens[Test] >> fieldName.witness
//I typed .witness because it was expecting a witness (if I am not wrong)
val valueOfFieldId = lens.get(instance)
But with this code, I am getting this error.
Could not find implicit value for parameter mkLens: shapeless.MkFieldLens[A$A148.this.Test,A$A148.this.str.type]
def get$$instance$$lll = lll;/* ###worksheet### generated $$end$$ */ lazy val lens = lens[Test] >> str.witness
Is it possible to get the value of case class field with a String definition?
Thanks.
You are supposed to use Symbol ('id) here rather than String ("id").
Creating Symbol from String
Symbol(fieldName)
is runtime operation and Shapeless operates in compile time.
Why can't you use symbols?
Given the following test case, there are 3 scenarios in it. I would ask what's the rules here that govern when we must and when we don't have to specify the type parameter
#Test
def testTypeParamter(): Unit = {
class Cat[A]
//1. Don't need to specify the type parameter for Cat
def getCat() = new Cat
println(getCat())
import scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer
//2. Don't need to specify the type parameter for ArrayBuffer
val bf = new ArrayBuffer()
println(bf)
//3. Do need to specify the type parameter for ArrayBuffer to make bf2 += 1 work
val bf2 = new ArrayBuffer[Int]()
bf2 += 1
println(getCat())
}
Compared with #2 and #3, what can we do if we create an empty ArrayBuffer without type parameter
Let's check in REPL,
1.1 scenario without a type param
scala> class Bag[A]
defined class Bag
scala> def createBag = new Bag
createBag: Bag[Nothing]
1.2 ArrayBuffer[T] without type param
scala> val buffer = new ArrayBuffer()
buffer: scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer[Nothing] = ArrayBuffer()
In both case you see the default type parameter as scala.Nothing. scala.Nothing is abstract and can not be instantiated which means you can't operate on your generics instance like
buffer+=new String("apple") etc because Nothing is at the bottom of scala class hierarchy.
2. providing type parameter
This is obviously the purpose of having generic type that you want Generics for certain type.
scala> var buffer = new ArrayBuffer[Long]()
buffer: scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer[Long] = ArrayBuffer()
scala> buffer+=89l
res0: scala.collection.mutable.ArrayBuffer[Long] = ArrayBuffer(89)
You don't need to specify the type parameter when Scala infers the type you want. This inference is based both on arguments to method/constructor (none in your case) and on expected type (none in your case). You could also have e.g.
val buffer: ArrayBuffer[Long] = new ArrayBuffer()
In the below code, I try to invoke an object's method that has an Int parameter (giving it a value of 3). This returns an error that Int and 3 are incompatible types.
//Using scala's Int does not work!
object MyObject{
def handleInt(id:Int) : Boolean = {
true
}
}
object testApp extends App {
val obj = MyObject.getClass
val method = obj.getDeclaredMethod("handleInt", classOf[Int]) //Int.getClass shows the same behavior
val rsp = method.invoke(obj, 3)
}
Error:(106, 41) the result type of an implicit conversion must be more
specific than AnyRef
val rsp = method.invoke(obj, 3)
Error:(106, 41) type mismatch; found : Int(3) required: Object
val rsp = method.invoke(obj, 3)
I tried modifying a lot of things here, the only way this could work is by changing all signatures to Java's Integer. The code will look like this:
//This works with Java's Integer
object MyObject{
def handleInt(id:Integer) : Boolean = {
true
}
}
object testApp extends App {
val obj = MyObject.getClass
val method = obj.getDeclaredMethod("handleInt", classOf[Integer])
val rsp = method.invoke(obj, 3)
}
My question(s) are:
Can someone explain why this happens? I think scala's Int wraps java's primitive int (which is why this is not considered an object), but I'm not sure.
Is there a way to achieve this using Scala's Int type?
Is it acceptable to mix scala and java types like this? Is it a good practice?
The first problem is that you invoke method on the wrong object: obj doesn't have handleInt method, MyObject does. The second is kind of an edge case: invoke takes Object... varargs and Scala doesn't automatically convert an Int directly to Object because that's not what you normally want to do. You can use a type ascription to say "box this Int into an Integer" and then Scala will upcast it to Object automatically.
So, combining these 2 fixes: you don't need to change handleInt or val method, just
val rsp = method.invoke(MyObject, 3: Integer)
To answer your final question: use of Integer, java.lang.Double, etc. shouldn't be common in Scala code, but it isn't particularly problematic. And reflection is one of the areas where you may have to use them.
No we cannot use Scala types.
Its Ok to mix Java and Scala types.
As reflection deals with reading class bytecode at Runtime. At bytecode level only types that are visible are the Java types because all scala types are boiled down to Java types.
Suppose I have:
class X
{
val listPrimitive: List[Int] = null
val listX: List[X] = null
}
and I print out the return types of each method in Scala as follows:
classOf[ComplexType].getMethods().foreach { m => println(s"${m.getName}: ${m.getGenericReturnType()}") }
listPrimitive: scala.collection.immutable.List<Object>
listX: scala.collection.immutable.List<X>
So... I can determine that the listX's element type is X, but is there any way to determine via reflection that listPrimitive's element type is actually java.lang.Integer? ...
val list:List[Int] = List[Int](123);
val listErased:List[_] = list;
println(s"${listErased(0).getClass()}") // java.lang.Integer
NB. This seems not to be an issue due to JVM type erasure since I can find the types parameter of List. It looks like the scala compiler throws away this type information IFF the parameter type is java.lang.[numbers] .
UPDATE:
I suspect this type information is available, due to the following experiment. Suppose I define:
class TestX{
def f(x:X):Unit = {
val floats:List[Float] = x.listPrimitive() // type mismatch error
}
}
and X.class is imported via a jar. The full type information must be available in X.class in order that this case correctly fails to compile.
UPDATE2:
Imagine you're writing a scala extension to a Java serialization library. You need to implement a:
def getSerializer(clz:Class[_]):Serializer
function that needs to do different things depending on whether:
clz==List[Int] (or equivalently: List[java.lang.Integer])
clz==List[Float] (or equivalently: List[java.lang.Float])
clz==List[MyClass]
My problem is that I will only ever see:
clz==List[Object]
clz==List[Object]
clz==List[MyClass]
because clz is provided to this function as clz.getMethods()(i).getGenericReturnType().
Starting with clz:Class[_] how can I recover the element type information that was lost?
Its not clear to me that TypeToken will help me because its usages:
typeTag[T]
requires that I provide T (ie. at compile time).
So, one path to a solution... Given some clz:Class[_], can I determine the TypeTokens of its method's return types? Clearly this is possible as this information must be contained (somewhere) in a .class file for a scala compiler to correctly generate type mismatch errors (see above).
At the java bytecode level Ints have to be represented as something else (apparently Object) because a List can only contain objects, not primitives. So that's what java-level reflection can tell you. But the scala type information is, as you infer, present (at the bytecode level it's in an annotation, IIRC), so you should be able to inspect it with scala reflection:
import scala.reflect.runtime.universe._
val list:List[Int] = List[Int](123)
def printTypeOf[A: TypeTag](a: A) = println(typeOf[A])
printTypeOf(list)
Response to update2: you should use scala reflection to obtain a mirror, not the Class[_] object. You can go via the class name if need be:
import scala.reflect.runtime.universe._
val rm = runtimeMirror(getClass.getClassLoader)
val someClass: Class[_] = ...
val scalaMirrorOfClass = rm.staticClass(someClass.getName)
// or possibly rm.reflectClass(someClass) ?
val someObject: Any = ...
val scalaMirrorOfObject = rm.reflectClass(someObject)
I guess if you really only have the class, you could create a classloader that only loads that class? I can't imagine a use case where you wouldn't have the class, or even a value, though.
For purposes of my app I need to be able to find out a list of fields of a type (not an instance) and types of those fields in runtime. So far I was only able to get a list of methods of a case class containing getters with classOf[MyCaseClass].getMethods and nothing useful from a simple class. Am I missing something? Are there any reflection libraries for that kinda purposes? How's that done correctly?
Using Scala 2.10 reflection:
scala> import reflect.runtime.{universe => ru}
import reflect.runtime.{universe=>ru}
scala> trait A { val field1: Int; val field2: Char; def meth1: Int }
defined trait A
scala> val fieldSymbols = ru.typeOf[A].members.collect{ case m: ru.MethodSymbol if m.isGetter => m }
fieldSymbols: Iterable[reflect.runtime.universe.MethodSymbol] = List(value field2, value field1)
The returned symbols contain all the type information, e.g.:
scala> fieldSymbols.map(_.typeSignature)
res16: Iterable[reflect.runtime.universe.Type] = List(=> scala.Char, => scala.Int)
You may want to take a look at this document on reflecting scala. getMethods is a method from Java reflection. What can't you find there? From the Javadoc:
String getName(): Returns the name of the method represented by this Method object, as a String.
Class[] getParameterTypes(): Returns an array of Class objects that represent the formal parameter types, in declaration order, of the method represented by this Method object.
Class getReturnType(): Returns a Class object that represents the formal return type of the method represented by this Method object.
You could read more about Java reflection.
Note that not all type information will be available at runtime because of erasure.