How to make method return the same generic as the input?

Question

I want to split a string delimited by commas and use the result as either a Seq or a Set:

def splitByComma(commaDelimited: String): Arr         


        

Answer 1

@KrzysztofAtłasik's answer works great for Scala 2.12.
This is a solution for 2.13. (Not completely sure if this is the best way).

import scala.collection.Factory
import scala.language.higherKinds

def splitByComma[C[_]](commaDelimited: String)(implicit f: Factory[String, C[String]]): C[String] =
  f.fromSpecific(commaDelimited.split(","))
  // Or, as Dmytro stated, which I have to agree looks better.
  commaDelimited.split(",").to(f)

Which you can use like this:

splitByComma[Array]("hello,world!")
// res: Array[String] = Array(hello, world!)

splitByComma[Set]("hello,world!")
// res: Set[String] = Set(hello, world!)

splitByComma[List]("hello,world!")
// res: List[String] = List(hello, world!)