In Scala, is it possible to instantiate an object of generic type T? [duplicate]

Answer 1

Technically speaking it's possible using reflection. You could for example catch runtime class of type T using ClassTag then find proper constructor and create instance:

def createObject[T](fieldValues: Seq[Any])(implicit ct: ClassTag[T]): Option[T] = {
   //we lookup for matching constructor using arguments count, you might also consider checking types
   ct.runtimeClass.getConstructors.find(_.getParameterCount == fieldValues.size) 
   .flatMap {constructor =>
        Try(constructor.newInstance(fieldValues: _*).asInstanceOf[T]).toOption
    }
}

createObject[Person](Seq("Bob", 20)) //Some(Person("Bob", 20))
createObject[Person](Seq(20, 10)) //None

In case there's no constructor matching parameters, that function fails returning None.

It should work, but it'd be best if you can avoid this approach because you lose all type safety.