Scala. Can case class with one field be a value class?

scala, scala-2.10

Solution

You can have a case class that is a value class. As you can see from the example below, there is no object creation. Except of course the inevitable boxing if you would upcast to Any.

Here is a little piece of scala code

class ValueClass(val value:Int) extends AnyVal

case class ValueCaseClass(value:Int) extends AnyVal

class ValueClassTest {

  var x: ValueClass = new ValueClass(1)

  var y: ValueCaseClass = ValueCaseClass(2)

  def m1(x:ValueClass) = x.value

  def m2(x:ValueCaseClass) = x.value
}

And the bytecode, which does not contain the slightest trace of the two value classes.

Compiled from "ValueClassTest.scala"
public class ValueClassTest {
  public int x();
    Code:
       0: aload_0       
       1: getfield      #14                 // Field x:I
       4: ireturn       

  public void x_$eq(int);
    Code:
       0: aload_0       
       1: iload_1       
       2: putfield      #14                 // Field x:I
       5: return        

  public int y();
    Code:
       0: aload_0       
       1: getfield      #21                 // Field y:I
       4: ireturn       

  public void y_$eq(int);
    Code:
       0: aload_0       
       1: iload_1       
       2: putfield      #21                 // Field y:I
       5: return        

  public int m1(int);
    Code:
       0: iload_1       
       1: ireturn       

  public int m2(int);
    Code:
       0: iload_1       
       1: ireturn       

  public rklaehn.ValueClassTest();
    Code:
       0: aload_0       
       1: invokespecial #29                 // Method java/lang/Object."<init>":()V
       4: aload_0       
       5: iconst_1      
       6: putfield      #14                 // Field x:I
       9: aload_0       
      10: iconst_2      
      11: putfield      #21                 // Field y:I
      14: return        
}

Problem

Scala 2.10 introduced value classes. They are very usefull for writing typesafe code. Moreover there are some limitations, some of them will be detected by compiler, and some will require allocation in runtime. I want to create value classes using `case class` syntax, to allow creating-without-new-syntax and human-friendly `toString`. No pattern matching, cause it requires allocation. So the question is: will using `case class` syntax require value class allocation?

Original source