Type polymorphism misunderstanding

[James Bullard]

Hi, I am very new to Scala programming and I am attempting to understand
how to write a simple square function. I have:

def square(x : Int) = x*x

If I do:

def square[T <: Number](x : T):T = x*x

Then I get:

error: value * is not a member of type parameter T

Someone very helpful on stackoverflow stated that I should do the
following:

def square[T: Numeric](x: T): T = implicitly[Numeric[T]].times(x,x)

This certainly works, however, when I do the following:

var x = List[Int](1,2,3)
x.map(square)

I get:

error: could not find implicit value for evidence parameter of type
Numeric[T]
       x.map(square)

This works:

x.map(square[Int])

However, it would be nice to not have to do that. Or at least understand
a bit better whether or not my definition of square could be changed to
avoid that.

Thanks very much in advance, jim

[Aaron Novstrup]

For those interested, the stackoverflow question is here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4056452/type-polymorphism-in-scala

I responded to James' question there to avoid cross-posting.

On 10/29/2010 05:01 PM, James Bullard wrote:
> Hi, I am very new to Scala programming and I am attempting to understand
> how to write a simple square function. [snip]

[Aaron Novstrup]

Ok, I guess that was premature.  My solution doesn't actually work...

On 10/29/2010 05:29 PM, Aaron Novstrup wrote:
> For those interested, the stackoverflow question is here:
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4056452/type-polymorphism-in-scala
>
> I responded to James' question there to avoid cross-posting.
>
> On 10/29/2010 05:01 PM, James Bullard wrote:
>> Hi, I am very new to Scala programming and I am attempting to understand
>> how to write a simple square function. [snip]

[Derek Williams]

It probably has to do with the method square having 2 parameter lists.
Writing it like this works:

x.map(square(_))

On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 6:39 PM, Aaron Novstrup
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> Ok, I guess that was premature.  My solution doesn't actually work...
>
> On 10/29/2010 05:29 PM, Aaron Novstrup wrote:
>> For those interested, the stackoverflow question is here:
>> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4056452/type-polymorphism-in-scala
>>
>> I responded to James' question there to avoid cross-posting.
>>
>> On 10/29/2010 05:01 PM, James Bullard wrote:
>>> Hi, I am very new to Scala programming and I am attempting to understand
>>> how to write a simple square function. [snip]
>
>

--
Derek