Understanding Type classes in Scala : extending types you don’t own
Type classes are a very common pattern in Scala. My goal in this post is to demystify what they are, how they are useful, and how they are supposed to evolve in the next big iteration of Scala, currently known as Dotty.
Why do we need type classes ? Type classes are a programming technique that allows you to define common behavior for multiple types. Type classes act as a kind of interface, providing a common way of interacting with multiple types, while each of those type have different concrete implementation for this interface.