scala Class.forName pattern matching - scala

Question

I am newbie using scala .
I am trying to use pattern matching with reflection:
abstract class Person{
val name:String,
val age:Int
}
case class Man (name:String,age:Int,workPlace:String) extends Person
val aclass = Class.forName("man")
aclass match{
case m:Man => println("this is a man class")
case p:Person => println("Person")
case _ => println("Nothing")
}
I am always getting to default part ("Nothing") and to the correct match (Man) . what am I doing wrong ?
Thanks

Answer 1

First, you need to use the full and properly cased class name. Second, Class.forName returns a Class[_], not an instance of the class you give it. Take a look at modifications to your code that I made to get a clearer picture:
abstract class Person {
val name: String //removed comma
val age: Int
}
case class Man(name: String, age: Int, workPlace: String) extends Person
val manClassName = classOf[Man].getName //get the proper name of the class
println("Man class name: %s".format(manClassName))
val aclass = Class.forName(manClassName) //returns Class[Man]
aclass match {
case m: Class[Man] => println("this is a man class") //Pattern match on Class[Man]
case p: Class[Person] => println("Person")
case _ => println("Nothing")
}

Answer 2

Few problems with your code. Maybe I'm not understanding what you're doing with Class.forName(String) so I changed things a bit.
First, use case classes for these so you get your getters and setters for encapsulation.
sealed trait Person
case class Man (name:String,age:Int,workPlace:String) extends Person
Next, Class.forName returns a Class, not an object.
So you need to instantiate by calling the Constructor of Man
val man = Man("Jo", 24, "anywhere")
Then you can pattern match on that:
man match{
case m:Man => println("this is a man class")
case p:Person => println("Person")
case _ => println("Nothing")
}
It will match the first case that hits though so make sure you order man and person cases how you want them.
For reflection, you'll want to look at TypeTags and ClassTags
http://docs.scala-lang.org/overviews/reflection/typetags-manifests.html