Scala - how to print case classes like (pretty printed) tree

Check out a small extensions library named sext. It exports these two functions exactly for purposes like that.

Here's how it can be used for your example:

object Demo extends App {

  import sext._

  case class ClassDecl( kind : Kind, list : List[ VarDecl ] )
  sealed trait Kind
  case object Complex extends Kind
  case class VarDecl( a : Int, b : String )


  val data = ClassDecl(Complex,List(VarDecl(1, "abcd"), VarDecl(2, "efgh")))
  println("treeString output:\n")
  println(data.treeString)
  println()
  println("valueTreeString output:\n")
  println(data.valueTreeString)

}

Following is the output of this program:

treeString output:

ClassDecl:
- Complex
- List:
| - VarDecl:
| | - 1
| | - abcd
| - VarDecl:
| | - 2
| | - efgh

valueTreeString output:

- kind:
- list:
| - - a:
| | | 1
| | - b:
| | | abcd
| - - a:
| | | 2
| | - b:
| | | efgh

Starting Scala 2.13, case classes (which are an implementation of Product) are now provided with a productElementNames method which returns an iterator over their field's names.

Combined with Product::productIterator which provides the values of a case class, we have a simple way to pretty print case classes without requiring reflection:

def pprint(obj: Any, depth: Int = 0, paramName: Option[String] = None): Unit = {

  val indent = "  " * depth
  val prettyName = paramName.fold("")(x => s"$x: ")
  val ptype = obj match { case _: Iterable[Any] => "" case obj: Product => obj.productPrefix case _ => obj.toString }

  println(s"$indent$prettyName$ptype")

  obj match {
    case seq: Iterable[Any] =>
      seq.foreach(pprint(_, depth + 1))
    case obj: Product =>
      (obj.productIterator zip obj.productElementNames)
        .foreach { case (subObj, paramName) => pprint(subObj, depth + 1, Some(paramName)) }
    case _ =>
  }
}

which for your specific scenario:

// sealed trait Kind
// case object Complex extends Kind
// case class VarDecl(a: Int, b: String)
// case class ClassDecl(kind: Kind, decls: List[VarDecl])

val data = ClassDecl(Complex, List(VarDecl(1, "abcd"), VarDecl(2, "efgh")))

pprint(data)

produces:

ClassDecl
  kind: Complex
  decls: 
    VarDecl
      a: 1
      b: abcd
    VarDecl
      a: 2
      b: efgh