An example of using a Manifest to get around type erasure

gistfile1.scala

scala> def foo[T : Manifest](a : List[T]) = {
     |   val m = implicitly[Manifest[T]]
     |   val I = classOf[Int]
     |   val S = classOf[String]
     |   m.erasure match {
     |       case I => "hi"
     |       case S => "bye"
     |       case _ => "whatever"
     |   }
     | }
foo: [T](a: List[T])(implicit evidence$1: Manifest[T])java.lang.String

scala> foo(List(1,2,3))
res6: java.lang.String = hi

scala> foo(List("blah"))
res7: java.lang.String = bye

scala> foo(List(1.2))
res8: java.lang.String = whatever

scala>