How to write this recursive groupBy function in Scala - scala

Question

Recently I have come across a very useful groupBy function that Groovy has made available on Iterable:
public static Map groupBy(Iterable self, List<Closure> closures)
Which you can use to perform recursive groupBy on Lists and even Maps see example by mrhaki here
I would like to write a function that does the same in Scala. But having just started my Scala journey, I am kind of lost on how I should going about defining and implementing this method. Especially the generics side of the functions and return type on this method's signature are way beyond my level.
I would need more experienced Scala developers to help me out here.
Is this following signature totally wrong or am I in the ball park?
def groupBy[A, K[_]](src: List[A], fs: Seq[(A) ⇒ K[_]]): Map[K[_], List[A]]
Also, how would I implement the recursion with the correct types?

Answer 1

This is simple multigroup implementation:
implicit class GroupOps[A](coll: Seq[A]) {
def groupByKeys[B](fs: (A => B)*): Map[Seq[B], Seq[A]] =
coll.groupBy(elem => fs map (_(elem)))
}
val a = 1 to 20
a.groupByKeys(_ % 3, _ % 2) foreach println
If you really need some recursive type you'll need a wrapper:
sealed trait RecMap[K, V]
case class MapUnit[K, V](elem: V) extends RecMap[K, V] {
override def toString = elem.toString()
}
case class MapLayer[K, V](map: Map[K, RecMap[K, V]]) extends RecMap[K, V] {
override def toString = map.toString()
}
out definition changes to:
implicit class GroupOps[A](coll: Seq[A]) {
def groupByKeys[B](fs: (A => B)*): Map[Seq[B], Seq[A]] =
coll.groupBy(elem => fs map (_(elem)))
def groupRecursive[B](fs: (A => B)*): RecMap[B, Seq[A]] = fs match {
case Seq() => MapUnit(coll)
case f +: fs => MapLayer(coll groupBy f mapValues {_.groupRecursive(fs: _*)})
}
}
and a.groupRecursive(_ % 3, _ % 2) yield something more relevant to question
And finally i rebuild domain definition from referred article:
case class User(name: String, city: String, birthDate: Date) {
override def toString = name
}
implicit val date = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd").parse(_: String)
val month = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM").format (_:Date)
val users = List(
User(name = "mrhaki", city = "Tilburg" , birthDate = "1973-9-7"),
User(name = "bob" , city = "New York" , birthDate = "1963-3-30"),
User(name = "britt" , city = "Amsterdam", birthDate = "1980-5-12"),
User(name = "kim" , city = "Amsterdam", birthDate = "1983-3-30"),
User(name = "liam" , city = "Tilburg" , birthDate = "2009-3-6")
)
now we can write
users.groupRecursive(_.city, u => month(u.birthDate))
and get
Map(Tilburg -> Map(Mar -> List(liam), Sep -> List(mrhaki)), New York
-> Map(Mar -> List(bob)), Amsterdam -> Map(Mar -> List(kim), May -> List(britt)))

Answer 2

I decided add another answer, due to fully different approach.
You could, actually get non-wrapped properly typed maps with huge workarounds. I not very good at this, so it by the chance could be simplified.
Trick - is to create Sequence of typed functions, which is lately producing multi-level map using type classes and type path approach.
So here is the solution
sealed trait KeySeq[-V] {
type values
}
case class KeyNil[V]() extends KeySeq[V] {
type values = Seq[V]
}
case class KeyCons[K, V, Next <: KeySeq[V]](f: V => K, next: Next)
(implicit ev: RecGroup[V, Next]) extends KeySeq[V] {
type values = Map[K, Next#values]
def #:[K1](f: V => K1) = new KeyCons[K1, V, KeyCons[K, V, Next]](f, this)
}
trait RecGroup[V, KS <: KeySeq[V]] {
def group(seq: Seq[V], ks: KS): KS#values
}
implicit def groupNil[V]: RecGroup[V, KeyNil[V]] = new RecGroup[V, KeyNil[V]] {
def group(seq: Seq[V], ks: KeyNil[V]) = seq
}
implicit def groupCons[K, V, Next <: KeySeq[V]](implicit ev: RecGroup[V, Next]): RecGroup[V, KeyCons[K, V, Next]] =
new RecGroup[V, KeyCons[K, V, Next]] {
def group(seq: Seq[V], ks: KeyCons[K, V, Next]) = seq.groupBy(ks.f) mapValues (_ groupRecursive ks.next)
}
implicit def funcAsKey[K, V](f: V => K): KeyCons[K, V, KeyNil[V]] =
new KeyCons[K, V, KeyNil[V]](f, KeyNil[V]())
implicit class GroupOps[V](coll: Seq[V]) {
def groupRecursive[KS <: KeySeq[V]](ks: KS)(implicit g: RecGroup[V, KS]) =
g.group(coll, ks)
}
key functions are composed via #: right-associative operator
so if we define
def mod(m:Int) = (x:Int) => x % m
def even(x:Int) = x % 2 == 0
then
1 to 30 groupRecursive (even _ #: mod(3) #: mod(5) )
would yield proper Map[Boolean,Map[Int,Map[Int,Int]]] !!!
and if from previous question we would like to
users.groupRecursive(((u:User)=> u.city(0)) #: ((u:User) => month(u.birthDate)))
We are building Map[Char,Map[String,User]] !