Algebraic Data Types

The enum concept is general enough to also support algebraic data types (ADTs) and their generalized version (GADTs). Here is an example how an Option type can be represented as an ADT:

enum Option[+T]:
  case Some(x: T)
  case None

This example introduces an Option enum with a covariant type parameter T consisting of two cases, Some and None. Some is parameterized with a value parameter x. It is a shorthand for writing a case class that extends Option. Since None is not parameterized, it is treated as a normal enum value.

The extends clauses that were omitted in the example above can also be given explicitly:

enum Option[+T]:
  case Some(x: T) extends Option[T]
  case None       extends Option[Nothing]

Note that the parent type of the None value is inferred as Option[Nothing]. Generally, all covariant type parameters of the enum class are minimized in a compiler-generated extends clause whereas all contravariant type parameters are maximized. If Option was non-variant, you would need to give the extends clause of None explicitly.

As for normal enum values, the cases of an enum are all defined in the enum's companion object. So it's Option.Some and Option.None unless the definitions are "pulled out" with an import.

Widening of Constructor Application

Observe here the inferred result types of the following expressions:

scala> Option.Some("hello")
val res1: t2.Option[String] = Some(hello)

scala> Option.None
val res2: t2.Option[Nothing] = None

Note that the type of the expressions above is always Option. Generally, the type of a enum case constructor application will be widened to the underlying enum type, unless a more specific type is expected. This is a subtle difference with respect to normal case classes. The classes making up the cases do exist, and can be unveiled, either by constructing them directly with a new, or by explicitly providing an expected type.

scala> new Option.Some(2)
val res3: Option.Some[Int] = Some(2)
scala> val x: Option.Some[Int] = Option.Some(3)
val res4: Option.Some[Int] = Some(3)

As all other enums, ADTs can define methods. For instance, here is Option again, with an isDefined method and an Option(...) constructor in its companion object.

enum Option[+T]:
  case Some(x: T)
  case None

  def isDefined: Boolean = this match
    case None => false
    case _    => true

object Option:

  def apply[T >: Null](x: T): Option[T] =
    if x == null then None else Some(x)

end Option

Enumerations and ADTs have been presented as two different concepts. But since they share the same syntactic construct, they can be seen simply as two ends of a spectrum and it is perfectly possible to construct hybrids. For instance, the code below gives an implementation of Color either with three enum values or with a parameterized case that takes an RGB value.

enum Color(val rgb: Int):
  case Red   extends Color(0xFF0000)
  case Green extends Color(0x00FF00)
  case Blue  extends Color(0x0000FF)
  case Mix(mix: Int) extends Color(mix)