Controlled value semantics in Scala

I recently discovered AutoValue for Java, which uses annotation-driven code generation to ease the writing of classes with value semantics (that is to say, classes without object identity). In Scala, one can accomplish a similar result with case classes, but these also come bundled with a selection of other features – copy methods and pattern-matching support, for instance. In the case that one only seeks immutable value semantics, there is a need to hide some of this generated behaviour. The trick I employed was to use a sealed trait, viz.:

sealed trait Account {
  def id: AccountId
  def email: Email
}

object Account {
  case class Account_ private[Account]
    (val id: AccountId, val email: Email) extends Account

  def create(id: AccountId, email: Email): Account =
    Account_(id, email)
}

The private case class buys us appropriate equals and hashCode implementations, but the trait hides the unwanted copy and apply methods from the consumer. The trait’s companion object provides the create factory method, meaning that the trait can in effect be treated as a concrete type.

Note: the toString method will be slightly off (mentioning the private Account_ type as opposed to the public Account trait), but this is of no consequence in my case. Your mileage may vary.