shapeless HList to TupleN where the tuple shape need not exactly match the HList shape

Question

I would like to create the equivalent of:

def toTupleN[A1, ..., AN, L <: HList](l: L): TupleN[A1, ..., AN]

Code using toTupleN

Answer 1

I haven't been able to make target type inference work out quite the way you wanted, but as compensation I've generalized to an arbitrary product type via shapeless's Generic,

import shapeless._, ops.hlist._, test._

object Demo {
  trait UniqueSelect[L <: HList, M <: HList] {
    def apply(l: L): M
  }

  object UniqueSelect {
    implicit def hnil[L <: HList]: UniqueSelect[L, HNil] =
      new UniqueSelect[L, HNil] {
        def apply(l: L): HNil = HNil
      }

    implicit def hcons[L <: HList, H, T <: HList, S <: HList]
      (implicit
        pt: Partition.Aux[L, H, H :: HNil, S],
        ust: UniqueSelect[S, T]
      ): UniqueSelect[L, H :: T] =
      new UniqueSelect[L, H :: T] {
        def apply(l: L): H :: T = {
          val (h :: HNil, s) = pt(l)
          h :: ust(s)
        }
      }
  }

  def toProductUniquely[P <: Product] = new ToProductUniquely[P]
  class ToProductUniquely[P <: Product] {
    def apply[L <: HList, M <: HList](l: L)
      (implicit gen: Generic.Aux[P, M], up: UniqueSelect[L, M]): P =
        gen.from(up(l))
  }

  val l = 23 :: (1, "wibble") :: (2, "wobble") :: "foo" :: HNil

  val t2 = toProductUniquely[(String, Int)](l)
  typed[(String, Int)](t2)
  assert(t2 == ("foo", 23))

  illTyped("""
  toProductUniquely[(String, String)](l)
  """)

  illTyped("""
  toProductUniquely[Tuple1[(Int, String)]](l)
  """)
}

Update 1

Adding support for the selection being satisfied by subtypes of the requested types is fairly straightforward if we say that where we have types A and B <: A then the selection of A from A :: B :: HNil is ambiguous because both elements conform to A. This can be done by adding a SubtypeUnifier to the witnesses in the previous definition of hcons,

import shapeless._, ops.hlist._, test._

object Demo extends App {
  trait UniqueSelect[L <: HList, M <: HList] {
    def apply(l: L): M
  }

  object UniqueSelect {
    implicit def hnil[L <: HList]: UniqueSelect[L, HNil] =
      new UniqueSelect[L, HNil] {
        def apply(l: L): HNil = HNil
      }

    implicit def hcons[L <: HList, M <: HList, H, T <: HList, S <: HList]
      (implicit
        su: SubtypeUnifier.Aux[L, H, M],
        pt: Partition.Aux[M, H, H :: HNil, S],
        upt: UniqueSelect[S, T]
      ): UniqueSelect[L, H :: T] =
      new UniqueSelect[L, H :: T] {
        def apply(l: L): H :: T = {
          val (h :: HNil, s) = pt(su(l))
          h :: upt(s)
        }
      }
  }

  def toProductUniquely[P <: Product] = new ToProductUniquely[P]
  class ToProductUniquely[P <: Product] {
    def apply[L <: HList, M <: HList](l: L)
      (implicit gen: Generic.Aux[P, M], up: UniqueSelect[L, M]): P =
        gen.from(up(l))
  }

  class A
  class B extends A
  class C

  val ac = new A :: new C :: HNil
  val bc = new B :: new C :: HNil
  val abc = new A :: new B :: new C :: HNil

  // Exact match
  val tac = toProductUniquely[(A, C)](ac)
  typed[(A, C)](tac)

  // Subtype
  val tbc = toProductUniquely[(A, C)](bc)
  typed[(A, C)](tbc)

  // Exact match again
  val tabc = toProductUniquely[(B, C)](abc)
  typed[(B, C)](tabc)

  // Ambiguous due to both elements conforming to A
  illTyped("""
  toProductUniquely[(A, C)](abc)
  """)
}

Update 2

We can also accommodate a unification semantics which gives preference to exact match and then falls back to a unique subtype as described in your updated question. We do this by combining the instances from the two solutions above: the exact match instance from the first at normal priority and the subtype match instance at low priority,

import shapeless._, ops.hlist._, test._

object Demo extends App {
  trait UniqueSelect[L <: HList, M <: HList] {
    def apply(l: L): M
  }

  object UniqueSelect extends UniqueSelect0 {
    implicit def hnil[L <: HList]: UniqueSelect[L, HNil] =
      new UniqueSelect[L, HNil] {
        def apply(l: L): HNil = HNil
      }

    implicit def hconsExact[L <: HList, H, T <: HList, S <: HList]
      (implicit
        pt: Partition.Aux[L, H, H :: HNil, S],
        upt: UniqueSelect[S, T]
      ): UniqueSelect[L, H :: T] =
      new UniqueSelect[L, H :: T] {
        def apply(l: L): H :: T = {
          val (h :: HNil, s) = pt(l)
          h :: upt(s)
        }
      }
  }

  trait UniqueSelect0 {
    implicit def hconsSubtype[L <: HList, M <: HList, H, T <: HList, S <: HList]
      (implicit
        su: SubtypeUnifier.Aux[L, H, M],
        pt: Partition.Aux[M, H, H :: HNil, S],
        upt: UniqueSelect[S, T]
      ): UniqueSelect[L, H :: T] =
      new UniqueSelect[L, H :: T] {
        def apply(l: L): H :: T = {
          val (h :: HNil, s) = pt(su(l))
          h :: upt(s)
        }
      }
  }

  def toProductUniquely[P <: Product] = new ToProductUniquely[P]
  class ToProductUniquely[P <: Product] {
    def apply[L <: HList, M <: HList](l: L)
      (implicit gen: Generic.Aux[P, M], up: UniqueSelect[L, M]): P = gen.from(up(l))
  }

  trait A
  trait B extends A
  trait C extends A

  val a: A = new A {}
  val b: B = new B {}
  val c: C = new C {}

  // (b, 5): subtypes match supertypes when there is no exact match
  toProductUniquely[(A, Int)](5 :: b :: HNil)

  // (a, 5): only one exact match is available
  toProductUniquely[(A, Int)](5 :: b :: a :: HNil)

  // compile error: more than one exact match is available
  illTyped("""
  toProductUniquely[(A, Int)](5 :: a :: a :: HNil)
  """)

  // compile error: more than one inexact match is available
  illTyped("""
  toProductUniquely[(A, Int)](5 :: b :: c :: HNil)
  """)
}