Suppose I have this macro:
import language.experimental.macros
import scala.reflect.macros.Context
object FooExample {
def foo[A](xs: A*): Int = macro foo_impl[A]
def foo_impl[A](c: Context)(xs: c.Expr[A]*) = c.literal(xs.size)
}
This works as expected with "real" varargs:
scala> FooExample.foo(1, 2, 3)
res0: Int = 3
But the behavior with a sequence ascribed to the varargs type is confusing to me (in Scala 2.10.0-RC3):
scala> FooExample.foo(List(1, 2, 3): _*)
res1: Int = 1
And to show that nothing fishy is going on with the inferred type:
scala> FooExample.foo[Int](List(1, 2, 3): _*)
res2: Int = 1
I would have expected a compile-time error here, and that's what I want. I've used the following approach in most of the macros I've written:
object BarExample {
def bar(xs: Int*): Int = macro bar_impl
def bar_impl(c: Context)(xs: c.Expr[Int]*) = {
import c.universe._
c.literal(
xs.map(_.tree).headOption map {
case Literal(Constant(x: Int)) => x
case _ => c.abort(c.enclosingPosition, "bar wants literal arguments!")
} getOrElse c.abort(c.enclosingPosition, "bar wants arguments!")
)
}
}
And this catches the problem at compile time:
scala> BarExample.bar(3, 2, 1)
res3: Int = 3
scala> BarExample.bar(List(3, 2, 1): _*)
<console>:8: error: bar wants literal arguments!
BarExample.bar(List(3, 2, 1): _*)
This feels like a hack to me, though—it's mixing up one bit of validation (checking that the arguments are literals) with another (confirming that we really have varargs). I can also imagine cases where I don't need the arguments to be literals (or where I want their type to be generic).
I know I could do the following:
object BazExample {
def baz[A](xs: A*): Int = macro baz_impl[A]
def baz_impl[A](c: Context)(xs: c.Expr[A]*) = {
import c.universe._
xs.toList.map(_.tree) match {
case Typed(_, Ident(tpnme.WILDCARD_STAR)) :: Nil =>
c.abort(c.enclosingPosition, "baz wants real varargs!")
case _ => c.literal(xs.size)
}
}
}
But this is an ugly way of handling a very simple (and I'd suppose widely necessary) bit of argument validation. Is there a trick I'm missing here? What's the simplest way that I can make sure that foo(1 :: Nil: _*)
in my first example gives a compile-time error?