Steps

1. Review how to define a generic typed function which will specify the type of its parameter

Let's first review what we've learned from the previous tutorial on Typed Functions. Typed functions allow you to define functions where you can specify the type of its parameters.

In the previous tutorial, we defined an applyDiscount() function which has a generic type parameter named discount.

println("\nStep 1: Review how to define a generic typed function which will specify the type of its parameter")
def applyDiscount[T](discount: T) {
  discount match {
    case d: String =>
      println(s"Lookup percentage discount in database for $d")

    case d: Double =>
      println(s"$d discount will be applied")

    case _ =>
      println("Unsupported discount type")
  }
}

2. Review how to call a function which has typed parameters

To call the typed function applyDiscount() from Step 1, you have to specify the type of the discount parameter as follows:

println("\nStep 2: Review how to call a function which has typed parameters")
applyDiscount[String]("COUPON_123")
applyDiscount[Double](10)

You should see the following output when you run your Scala application in IntelliJ:

Step 2: Review how to call a function which has typed parameters
Lookup percentage discount in database for COUPON_123
10.0 discount will be applied

NOTE:

• Sure you can rely on Scala's type inference to infer the type of your function parameter.
• But in general it's a good practice to explicitly specify your parameter types.

3. How to define a polymorphic typed function which also has a generic return type

With the applyDiscount() function from Step 1 in mind, let us define another function which will be polymorphic in nature. We will name the function applyDiscountWithReturnType() and it will take a generic type T for its discount parameter. But it will also return a Sequence of the type T.

println("\nStep 3: How to define a generic typed function which also has a generic return type")
def applyDiscountWithReturnType[T](discount: T): Seq[T] = {
  discount match {
    case d: String =>
      println(s"Lookup percentage discount in database for $d")
      Seq[T](discount)

  case d: Double =>
      println(s"$d discount will be applied")
      Seq[T](discount)

  case d @ _ =>
      println("Unsupported discount type")
      Seq[T](discount)
  }
}

NOTE:

• For simplicity, we are returning a new Sequence of type T for each of the cases within the pattern match.

4. How to call a generic polymorphic function which also has a generic return type

Let us call the polymorphic applyDiscountWithReturnType() function from Step 3 with different types namely String, Double and Char.

println("\nStep 4: How to call a generic typed function which also has a generic return type")
println(s"Result of applyDiscountWithReturnType with String parameter = ${applyDiscountWithReturnType[String]("COUPON_123")}")

println()
println(s"Result of applyDiscountWithReturnType with Double parameter = ${applyDiscountWithReturnType[Double](10.5)}")

println()
println(s"Result of applyDiscountWithReturnType with Char parameter = ${applyDiscountWithReturnType[Char]('U')}")

You should see the following output when you run your Scala application in IntelliJ:

Step 4: How to call a generic typed function which also has a generic return type
Lookup percentage discount in database for COUPON_123
Result of applyDiscountWithReturnType with String parameter = List(COUPON_123)

10.5 discount will be applied
Result of applyDiscountWithReturnType with Double parameter = List(10.5)

Unsupported discount type
Result of applyDiscountWithReturnType with Char parameter = List(U)

NOTE:

• For each of the specified types used when calling the polymorphic function applyDiscountWithReturnType(), the function also returns the Sequence of the same type.