Scala REPL “error: value > is not a member of type

Question

This is my file

trait Set[T] {
    def contains(x: T): Boolean
    def incl(x: T): Set[T]
    def union(that: Set[T]): Set[T]
}

class Empty[T] extends Set[T] {
    override def toString = "."
    def contains(x: T): Boolean = false
    def incl(x: T): Set[T] = new NonEmpty[T](x, new Empty[T], new Empty[T])
    def union(that: Set[T]): Set[T] = that
}

class NonEmpty[T](elem: T, left: Set[T], right: Set[T]) extends Set[T] {
    override def toString = "{" + left + elem + right + "}"

    def contains(x: T): Boolean =
        if (x < elem) left contains x
        else if (x > elem) right contains x
        else true

    def incl(x: T): Set[T] =
         if (x < elem) new NonEmpty(elem, left incl x, right)
         else if (x > elem) new NonEmpty(elem, left, right incl x)
         else this

    def union(that: Set[T]): Set[T] =
        ((left union right) union that) incl elem
}

I'm using the ":paste" method because :load doesn't work. But I get the following error

<console>:25: error: value < is not a member of type parameter T
               if (x < elem) left contains x
                     ^
<console>:26: error: value > is not a member of type parameter T
               else if (x > elem) right contains x
                          ^
<console>:30: error: value < is not a member of type parameter T
                if (x < elem) new NonEmpty(elem, left incl x, right)
                      ^
<console>:31: error: value > is not a member of type parameter T
                else if (x > elem) new NonEmpty(elem, left, right incl x)

I'm sure this file is correct, because it is from class examples, and it worked in class when Prof. is using...

Any helps?

Answer 1

You get that error because not every type T has >,< etc. defined.

What you probably wanted is T to be Ordered or be implicitly convertible to something that is Ordered , and therefore have all of them defined.

This should fix the error messages:

class NonEmpty[T <% Ordered[T]](elem: T, left: Set[T], right: Set[T]) extends Set[T] {
    override def toString = "{" + left + elem + right + "}"

    def contains(x: T): Boolean =
        if (x < elem) left contains x
        else if (x > elem) right contains x
        else true

    def incl(x: T): Set[T] =
        if (x < elem) new NonEmpty(elem, left incl x, right)
        else if (x > elem) new NonEmpty(elem, left, right incl x)
        else this

    def union(that: Set[T]): Set[T] =
        ((left union right) union that) incl elem
}

T <% S (a view bound) says that type T must be convertible to S, so it has to be either a subtype of S or have implicit conversion defined.

Accepter answer to this queston explains it in more detail.

Answer 2

Since "view bounds" have been deprecated in Scala 2.11, an alternative implementation of a generic Binary Search Tree using "context bounds" is below:

object GenericBinarySearchTree {

abstract class Set[T] {
  def incl(x: T): Set[T]
  def contains(x: T): Boolean
  def union(that: Set[T]): Set[T]
}

type L[X] = X => Ordered[X]

class Empty[T : L] extends Set[T] {

  override def toString = "."

  def incl(x: T): Set[T] = new NonEmpty(x, new Empty, new Empty)

  def contains(x: T): Boolean = false

  def union(that: Set[T]): Set[T] = that
}

class NonEmpty[T : L](elem: T, left: Set[T], right: Set[T]) extends Set[T] {  

  override def toString = "{" + left + elem + right + "}"

  def incl(x: T): Set[T] = {
    if(x > elem) new NonEmpty(elem, left, right.incl(x))
    else if(x < elem) new NonEmpty(elem, left.incl(x), right)
    else this
  }

  def contains(x: T): Boolean = {
    if(x == elem) true 
    else if(x > elem) right.contains(x)
    else left.contains(x)
  } 

  def union(that: Set[T]): Set[T] = ((left union right) union that) incl elem
}

}