At SO, I have seen questions that compare Array with Seq, List with Seq and Vector with well, everything. I do not understand one thing though. When should I actually use a Seq over any of these? I understand when to use a List, when to use an Array and when to use a Vector. But when is it a good idea to use Seq rather than any of the above listed collections? Why should I use a trait that extends Iterable rather than all the concrete classes listed above?
You usually should use Seq as input parameter for method or class, defined for sequences in general (just general, not necessarily with generic):
def mySort[T](seq: Seq[T]) = ...
case class Wrapper[T](seq: Seq[T])
implicit class RichSeq[T](seq: Seq[T]) { def mySort = ...}
So now you can pass any sequence (like Vector or List) to mySort.
If you care about algorithmic complexity - you can specialize it to IndexedSeq (quick random element access) or LinearSeq (fast memory allocation). Anyway, you should prefer most top-level class if you want your function to be more polymorphic has on its input parameter, as Seq is a common interface for all sequences. If you need something even more generic - you may use Traversable or Iterable.