Scala – Traits and abstract methods override in Scala

scalatraits

I have a base abstract class (trait). It has an abstract method foo(). It is extended and implemented by several derived classes. I want to create a trait that can be mixed into the derived classes so that it implements foo() and then calls the derived class's foo().

Something like:

trait Foo {
  def foo()
}

trait M extends Foo {
  override def foo() {
    println("M")
    super.foo()
  }
}

class FooImpl1 extends Foo {
  override def foo() {
    println("Impl")
  }
}

class FooImpl2 extends FooImpl1 with M

I tried self types and structural types, but I can't get it to work.

Best Answer

You were very close. Add the abstract modifier to M.foo, and you have the 'Stackable Trait' pattern: http://www.artima.com/scalazine/articles/stackable_trait_pattern.html

trait Foo {
  def foo()
}

trait M extends Foo {
  abstract override def foo() {println("M"); super.foo()}
}

class FooImpl1 extends Foo {
  override def foo() {println("Impl")}
}

class FooImpl2 extends FooImpl1 with M

tl;dr

class C defines a class, just as in Java or C++.
object O creates a singleton object O as instance of some anonymous class; it can be used to hold static members that are not associated with instances of some class.
object O extends T makes the object O an instance of trait T; you can then pass O anywhere, a T is expected.
if there is a class C, then object C is the companion object of class C; note that the companion object is not automatically an instance of C.

Also see Scala documentation for object and class.

`object` as host of static members

Most often, you need an object to hold methods and values/variables that shall be available without having to first instantiate an instance of some class. This use is closely related to static members in Java.

object A {
  def twice(i: Int): Int = 2*i
}

You can then call above method using A.twice(2).

If twice were a member of some class A, then you would need to make an instance first:

class A() {
  def twice(i: Int): Int = 2 * i
}

val a = new A()
a.twice(2)

You can see how redundant this is, as twice does not require any instance-specific data.

`object` as a special named instance

You can also use the object itself as some special instance of a class or trait. When you do this, your object needs to extend some trait in order to become an instance of a subclass of it.

Consider the following code:

object A extends B with C {
  ...
}

This declaration first declares an anonymous (inaccessible) class that extends both B and C, and instantiates a single instance of this class named A.

This means A can be passed to functions expecting objects of type B or C, or B with C.

Additional Features of `object`

There also exist some special features of objects in Scala. I recommend to read the official documentation.

def apply(...) enables the usual method name-less syntax of A(...)
def unapply(...) allows to create custom pattern matching extractors
if accompanying a class of the same name, the object assumes a special role when resolving implicit parameters

Scala – the advantage of using abstract classes instead of traits

I can think of two differences

Abstract classes can have constructor parameters as well as type parameters. Traits can have only type parameters. There was some discussion that in future even traits can have constructor parameters
Abstract classes are fully interoperable with Java. You can call them from Java code without any wrappers. Traits are fully interoperable only if they do not contain any implementation code

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Scala – Difference between object and class in Scala

tl;dr

object as host of static members

object as a special named instance

Additional Features of object

Scala – the advantage of using abstract classes instead of traits

Related Topic

`object` as host of static members

`object` as a special named instance

Additional Features of `object`