Scala type equality and path-dependent types

Question

I am trying to express a constraint like:

in a method def run[A, B](...), B must be equal to A#SomeInner

Here is my example code:

trait Wrapper {
  type Implementation
  implicit val instance: Data[Implementation]
}

trait Data[A] {
  def create : A
}

object DataInstances {
  implicit object IntData extends Data[Int] { def create = 0}
  implicit object StringData extends Data[String] { def create = "<empty>"}
  implicit object FloatData extends Data[Float] { def create = 0.5F}
}


import DataInstances._

object IntWrapper extends Wrapper { type Implementation = Int; implicit val instance = IntData }
object StringWrapper extends Wrapper { type Implementation = String; implicit val instance = StringData}
object FloatWrapper extends Wrapper { type Implementation = Float; implicit val instance = FloatData}



object Test extends App {

  def run[W <: Wrapper, D](wrapper: W)(implicit data: Data[D], ev: D =:= W#Implementation) : D = {
    data.create
  }

  run(StringWrapper)
}

and here I get a compilation error:

Error:(31, 6) ambiguous implicit values:
              both object IntData in object DataInstances of type DataInstances.IntData.type
              and object StringData in object DataInstances of type DataInstances.StringData.type
              match expected type Data[D]
              run(StringWrapper)
                ^

Can you explain me why the compiler finds it ambiguous? From what I can tell (and what I tried to express) is that when I pass StringWrapper then, according to type equality evidence the only possible value for D would be String and therefore the only possible value for data would be StringData.

But obviously the compiler doesn't think so :)

And what would be the way to express this constraint properly?

Eugene Zhulenev Eugene Zhulenev · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-27T04:40:14

I don't see a reason to introduce type D in method run. Without it method signature looks simpler and successfully compiles

def run[W <: Wrapper](wrapper: W)(implicit data: Data[W#Implementation]) : W#Implementation = {
     data.create
}

+++

btw, if you change order of implicits in your original method it will compile too, looks like 'ev' help to "type-bound" implicit resolution for data

  def run[W <: Wrapper, D](wrapper: W)(implicit ev: D =:= W#Implementation, data: Data[D]) : D = {
    data.create
  }

Scala type equality and path-dependent types

1 Answers