How does Scala's type system handle path-dependent types?

Path-dependent types are types that depend on a specific object instance path. In Scala, a type member or inner class creates a path-dependent type. Example: class Database { type Record; def read(): Record = ??? }. Two different Database instances have different Record types: db1.Record is a different type from db2.Record even though both are called Record. This enables powerful type-safety guarantees — a record from database1 cannot be passed to a function expecting database2's records. Dependent method types: def process(db: Database)(r: db.Record): Unit. Abstract type members in traits with path-dependent types implement a form of phantom types for API safety. Use in type-safe collections: a typed cursor or session can have a type member for the row type, preventing mixing rows from different result sets. Path-dependent types are one of Scala's most distinctive advanced features, encoding constraints at the type level that would require runtime checks in other languages.