Avoiding implicit def ambiguity in Scala

Question

I am trying to create an implicit conversion from any type (say, Int) to a String...

An implicit conversion to String means RichString methods (like reverse) are not

Answer 1

I don't have a solution, but will comment that the reason RichString methods are not available after your intToString implicit is that Scala does not chain implicit calls (see 21.2 "Rules for implicits" in Programming in Scala).

If you introduce an intermediate String, Scala will make the implict converstion to a RichString (that implicit is defined in Predef.scala).

E.g.,

$ scala
Welcome to Scala version 2.7.5.final [...].
Type in expressions to have them evaluated.
Type :help for more information.

scala> implicit def intToString(i: Int) = String.valueOf(i)
intToString: (Int)java.lang.String

scala> val i = 100
i: Int = 100

scala> val s: String = i
s: String = 100

scala> s.reverse
res1: scala.runtime.RichString = 001