UPD Compile-time fail solution added
I have one solution that may suit you. Types of your first 3 examples are resolved in compile time: Int, Tuple2[Int, Int], Tuple2[Int, Tuple2[Int, Int]]. For you example with the list you have heterogeneous list with actual type List[(Int, Any)] and you have to resolve the second type in runtime or it maybe can be done by macro. So you may want to actually write implicit def flatten[T](x: (T,Any))
as your error advises you
Here is the fast solution. It gives a couple of warnings, but it works nicely:
implicit def FS[T](x: T): List[T] = List(x)
implicit def FP[T](x: Product): List[T] = {
val res = (0 until x.productArity).map(i => x.productElement(i) match {
case p: Product => FP[T](p)
case e: T => FS(e)
case _ => sys.error("incorrect element")
})
res.toList.flatten
}
implicit def flatten[T](x: (T,Any))(implicit ft: T=>List[T], fp: Product =>List[T]) =
ft(x._1) ++ (x._2 match {
case p: Product => fp(p)
case t: T => ft(t)
})
val l = List( (1,2), (1,(2,3)), (1,(2,(3,4))) )
scala> l.map(_.flatten)
res0: List[List[Int]] = List(List(1, 2), List(1, 2, 3), List(1, 2, 3, 4))
UPD I have researched problem a little bit more, and I have found simple solution to make homogeneus list, which can fail at compile time. It is fully typed without Any and match and looks like compiler now correctly resolves nested implicits
case class InfiniteTuple[T](head: T, tail: Option[InfiniteTuple[T]] = None) {
def flatten: List[T] = head +: tail.map(_.flatten).getOrElse(Nil)
}
implicit def toInfiniteTuple[T](x: T): InfiniteTuple[T] = InfiniteTuple(x)
implicit def toInfiniteTuple2[T, V](x: (T, V))(implicit ft: V => InfiniteTuple[T]): InfiniteTuple[T] =
InfiniteTuple(x._1, Some(ft(x._2)))
def l: List[InfiniteTuple[Int]] = List( (1,2), (1,(2,3)), (1,(2,(3,4)))) //OK
def c: List[InfiniteTuple[Int]] = List( (1,2), (1,(2,3)), (1,(2,(3,"44"))))
//Compile-time error
//<console>:11: error: No implicit view available from (Int, (Int, java.lang.String)) => InfiniteTuple[Int]
Then you can implement any flatten you want. For example, one above:
scala> l.map(_.flatten)
res0: List[List[Int]] = List(List(1, 2), List(1, 2, 3), List(1, 2, 3, 4))