What does “abstract over” mean?

In algebra, as in everyday concept formation, abstractions are formed by grouping things by some essential characteristics and omitting their specific other characteristics. The abstraction is unified under a single symbol or word denoting the similarities. We say that we abstract over the differences, but this really means we’re integrating by the similarities.

For example, consider a program that takes the sum of the numbers 1, 2, and 3:

val sumOfOneTwoThree = 1 + 2 + 3

This program is not very interesting, since it’s not very abstract. We can abstract over the numbers we’re summing, by integrating all lists of numbers under a single symbol ns:

def sumOf(ns: List[Int]) = ns.foldLeft(0)(_ + _)

And we don’t particularly care that it’s a List either. List is a specific type constructor (takes a type and returns a type), but we can abstract over the type constructor by specifying which essential characteristic we want (that it can be folded):

trait Foldable[F[_]] {
  def foldl[A, B](as: F[A], z: B, f: (B, A) => B): B
}

def sumOf[F[_]](ns: F[Int])(implicit ff: Foldable[F]) =
  ff.foldl(ns, 0, (x: Int, y: Int) => x + y)

And we can have implicit Foldable instances for List and any other thing we can fold.

implicit val listFoldable = new Foldable[List] {
  def foldl[A, B](as: List[A], z: B, f: (B, A) => B) = as.foldLeft(z)(f)
}

implicit val setFoldable = new Foldable[Set] {
  def foldl[A, B](as: Set[A], z: B, f: (B, A) => B) = as.foldLeft(z)(f)
}

val sumOfOneTwoThree = sumOf(List(1,2,3))

What’s more, we can abstract over both the operation and the type of the operands:

trait Monoid[M] {
  def zero: M
  def add(m1: M, m2: M): M
}

trait Foldable[F[_]] {
  def foldl[A, B](as: F[A], z: B, f: (B, A) => B): B
  def foldMap[A, B](as: F[A], f: A => B)(implicit m: Monoid[B]): B =
    foldl(as, m.zero, (b: B, a: A) => m.add(b, f(a)))
}

def mapReduce[F[_], A, B](as: F[A], f: A => B)
                         (implicit ff: Foldable[F], m: Monoid[B]) =
  ff.foldMap(as, f)

Now we have something quite general. The method mapReduce will fold any F[A] given that we can prove that F is foldable and that A is a monoid or can be mapped into one. For example:

case class Sum(value: Int)
case class Product(value: Int)

implicit val sumMonoid = new Monoid[Sum] {
  def zero = Sum(0)
  def add(a: Sum, b: Sum) = Sum(a.value + b.value)
}

implicit val productMonoid = new Monoid[Product] {
  def zero = Product(1)
  def add(a: Product, b: Product) = Product(a.value * b.value)
}

val sumOf123 = mapReduce(List(1,2,3), Sum)
val productOf456 = mapReduce(Set(4,5,6), Product)

We have abstracted over monoids and foldables.