How to clone a case class instance and change just one field in Scala?

Question

Let\'s say I have a case class that represents personas, people on different social networks. Instances of that class are fully immutable, and are held in immutable collecti

Answer 1

Consider using lens in Shapeless library:

import shapeless.lens

case class Persona(serviceName  : String,
                   serviceId    : String,
                   sentMessages : Set[String])
// define the lens
val messageLens = lens[Persona] >> 'sentMessages 

val existingPersona = Persona("store", "apple", Set("iPhone"))

// When you need the new copy, by setting the value,
val newPersona1 = messageLens.set(existingPersona)(Set.empty)
// or by other operation based on current value.
val newPersona2 = messageLens.modify(existingPersona)(_ + "iPad")

// Results:
// newPersona1: Persona(store,apple,Set())
// newPersona2: Persona(store,apple,Set(iPhone, iPad))

Moreover, in case you have nested case classes, the getter and setter methods can be a bit tedious to compose. It will be a good chance to simplify by using lens library.

Please also refer to:

• Shapeless Github / Boilerplate-free lenses for arbitrary case classes
• Quicklens Github
• Lens in scala

Answer 2

I didn't want to include a big library to do complex lenses that let you set values deep in nested case classes. It turns out it is just a few lines of code in the scalaz library:

  /** http://stackoverflow.com/a/5597750/329496 */
  case class Lens[A, B](get: A => B, set: (A, B) => A) extends ((A) => B) with Immutable {
    def apply(whole: A): B = get(whole)

    def mod(a: A, f: B => B) = set(a, f(this (a)))

    def compose[C](that: Lens[C, A]) = Lens[C, B](
      c => this(that(c)),
      (c, b) => that.mod(c, set(_, b))
    )

    def andThen[C](that: Lens[B, C]) = that compose this
  }

You can then create lenses that set deeply nested values far easier than using the built in copy feature. Here is a link to a big set if complex lenses that that my library uses to set heavily nested values.

Answer 3

existingPersona.copy(sentMessages = existingPersona.sentMessages + newMessage)

Answer 4

Since 2.8, Scala case classes have a copy method that takes advantage of named/default params to work its magic:

val newPersona =
  existingPersona.copy(sentMessages = existing.sentMessages + newMessage)

You can also create a method on Persona to simplify usage:

case class Persona(
  svcName  : String,
  svcId    : String,
  sentMsgs : Set[String]
) {
  def plusMsg(msg: String) = this.copy(sentMsgs = this.sentMsgs + msg)
}

then

val newPersona = existingPersona plusMsg newMsg

Answer 5

case classcomes with a copy method that is dedicated exactly to this usage:

val newPersona = existingPersona.copy(sentMessages = 
                   existingPersona.sentMessages + newMessage)