Can someone explain this syntax?
fun Date.getTimeAgo(): String { /* ... */ }
What's this 'Date.' prefix? What's the benefit, respectively meaning? Why isn't the name of the function just 'getTimeAgo'?
Related
How does the Kotlin compiler decide whether an expression enclosed in { } is a block or a lambda?
Consider this:
val a: Int
if (cond)
a = 1
else
a = 2
can be written more succinctly as:
val a =
if (cond)
1
else
2
Similarly, one might think that this:
val a: () -> Int
if (cond)
a = { 1 }
else
a = { 2 }
should be able to be written more succinctly like this:
val a =
if (cond)
{ 1 }
else
{ 2 }
But this is not the same: a is now an Int, and not of type () -> Int, because now the { 1 } is no longer a lambda. What are the rules that say whether something is a lambda or a block?
I didn't look into the Kotlin lexer, but I guess there are few possible places in the code where the compiler expects either a single expression or a block of code. That includes the code immediately following most of control flow statements like: if, else, while, when (one of its cases), etc. If you put { in one of these places, it will be interpreted as a start of the block of code related to this control flow statement and not as a lambda.
This is as simple as that. Note that even if you hint the compiler about the type, it still won't work:
// compile error
val a: () -> Int = if (cond)
{ 1 }
else
{ 2 }
It will be interpreted more like this:
// compile error
val a: () -> Int = if (cond) {
1
} else {
2
}
{ after if condition is always interpreted as a start of block of code. You need to put double {, } in cases like this:
// works fine
val a: () -> Int = if (cond) {
{ 1 }
} else {
{ 2 }
}
To put it very succinctly and easy to remember, the first opening brace after an if/when/else/for is always assumed to be the opening of a block. Use double braces if you want a lambda in there.
This is specified in the Kotlin Language Specification, section 1.2: Syntax Grammar:
The grammar defines a block as statements between { and }. In most cases (such as function bodies) the syntax is different between a block and a lambda. Where it is the same is in the usage of controlStructureBody - these are the places where the block has a value, or where you could put a non-block expression in its place. If you search the whole spec document for "controlStructureBody", you'll find it's used in the following places:
For statement
While statement
Do-while statement
If expression
When expression
When entry
In every other place where a value is required, a '{' signifies the start of a lambda.
I'm playing around with Antlr, designing a toy language, which I think is where most people start! - I had a question on how best to think about switching on token type.
consider a 'function call' in the language, where a function can consume a string, number or variable - for example like the below (project() is the function call)
project("ABC") vs project(123) vs project($SOME_VARIABLE)
I have the alteration operator in my grammar, so the grammar parses the right thing, but in the visitor code, it would be nice to tell the difference between the three versions of the above.
#Override
public ASTRoot visitCreateproj(projectmgmtParser.CreateprojContext ctx) {
try {
s1 = ctx.STRING_LITERAL().getText();
}catch(Exception e){}
try{
s2 = ctx.NUM().getText();
}catch(Exception e){}
System.out.println("Created Project via => " + ctx.getChild(1).toString());
}
The code above worked, depending on whether s1 or s2 are null, I can infer how I was called (with a literal or a number, I haven't shown the variable case above), but I'm interested if there is a better or more elegant way - for example switching on token type inside the visitor code to actually process the language.
The grammar I had for the above was
createproj: 'project('WS?(STRING_LITERAL|NUM)')';
and when I use the intellij antlr plugin, it seems to know the token type of the argument to the project() function - but I don't seem to be able to get to it from my code.
You could do something like this:
createproj
: 'project' '(' WS? param ')'
;
param
: STRING_LITERAL
| NUM
;
and in your visitor code:
#Override
public ASTRoot visitCreateproj(projectmgmtParser.CreateprojContext ctx) {
switch(ctx.param().start.getType()) {
case YourLexerName.STRING_LITERAL:
...
case YourLexerName.NUM:
...
...
}
}
so by inlining the token in the grammar I had originally, I've lost the opportunity to inspect it in the visitor code?
No really, you could also do it like this:
createproj
: 'project' '(' WS? param_token=(STRING_LITERAL | NUM) ')'
;
and could then do this:
#Override
public ASTRoot visitCreateproj(projectmgmtParser.CreateprojContext ctx) {
switch(ctx.param_token.getType()) {
case YourLexerName.STRING_LITERAL:
...
case YourLexerName.NUM:
...
...
}
}
Just make sure you don't mix lexer rules (tokens) and parser rules in your set param_token=( ... ). When it's a parser rule, ctx.param_token.getType() will fail (it must then be ctx.param_token.start.getType()). That is why I recommended adding an extra parser rule, because this would then still work:
param
: STRING_LITERAL
| NUM
| some_parser_rule
;
This question already has answers here:
Swift 'if let' statement equivalent in Kotlin
(16 answers)
Closed 4 years ago.
let say I have this variable
val number : Int? = 12
I want to make control flow based on the variable, if the variable is null then do something, otherwise do something else
in Swift I can make something like this:
if let number = number {
print(number)
} else {
// do something else
}
I actually can do like this
if number != null {
print(number!!) // I want to avoid exclamation mark like this
} else {
// do something else
}
but I want to avoid exclamation mark, like in print(number!!)
I previously though that I can do something like this
number?.let {
print(it)
} else {
// else block is not available in let in Kotlin
}
so how to solve this ?
The ?. means it will be executed only if the left side is not null.
The ?: operator executes the right side only if the left side is not null.
You may have something like:
theExpression().toCompute().theNumber?.let { number ->
print("This is my number $number
} ?: run {
print("There is no number")
}
Here we use T.let extension function for the then clause and run{ } (extension) function for the else clause.
Warning: The semantics is that you expected to return non-null value from the let {...} closure to avoid the `run {..} closure from being executed. Thus the code like:
number?.let { null } ?: run { 42 } === 42 (and not null)
I'd like to use a when() expression in Kotlin to return different values from a function. The input is a String, but it might be parsable to an Int, so I'd like to return the parsed Int if possible, or a String if it is not. Since the input is a String, I cannot use the is type check expression.
Is there any idiomatic way to achieve that?
My problem is what the when() expression should look like, not about the return type.
Version 1 (using toIntOrNull and when as requested)
fun String.intOrString(): Any {
val v = toIntOrNull()
return when(v) {
null -> this
else -> v
}
}
"4".intOrString() // 4
"x".intOrString() // x
Version 2 (using toIntOrNull and the elvis operator ?:)
when is actually not the optimal way to handle this, I only used when because you explicitly asked for it. This would be more appropriate:
fun String.intOrString() = toIntOrNull() ?: this
Version 3 (using exception handling):
fun String.intOrString() = try { // returns Any
toInt()
} catch(e: NumberFormatException) {
this
}
The toIntOrNull function in the kotlin.text package (in kotlin-stdlib) is probably what you're looking for:
toIntOrNull
fun String.toIntOrNull(): Int? (source)
Platform and version requirements: Kotlin 1.1
Parses the string as an Int number and returns the result or null if the string is not a valid representation of a number.
fun String.toIntOrNull(radix: Int): Int? (source)
Platform and version requirements: Kotlin 1.1
Parses the string as an Int number and returns the result or null if the string is not a valid representation of a number.
More information: https://kotlinlang.org/api/latest/jvm/stdlib/kotlin.text/to-int-or-null.html
Using let for one
fun isInteger(str: String?) = str?.toIntOrNull()?.let { true } ?: false
Simple and intuitive
fun isNumeric(str: String) = str.all { it in '0'..'9' }
As #coolMind point out, if you want to filter +/-
fun isNumeric(str: String): Boolean = str
.removePrefix("-")
.removePrefix("+")
.all { it in '0'..'9' }
The performance would be similar
If you want to check if it is numeric (Int) the string and do something a simple solution could be:
if (myString.toIntOrNull() != null) {
//Write your code you want to execute if myString is (Int)
} else {
//Write your code you want to execute if myString is (not Int)
}
Sharing Regex matches solution, repost from my answer here
Best suited solution if negative and positive number which can be formatted with '-' and '.'
below method returns true if formatted string number matches the regex pattern
fun isPosOrNegNumber(s: String?) : Boolean {
val regex = """^(-)?[0-9]{0,}((\.){1}[0-9]{1,}){0,1}$""".toRegex()
return if (s.isNullOrEmpty()) false
else regex.matches(s)
}
Above sample regex is only for US number formats but if you want to use EU number formats then just replace '.' with ',' in regex pattern string
Note:. if the numbers contain commas then just replace it while sending to this method or better form a regex pattern with commas in it.
I searched for the same and I found this answer so I have made my own version from the above answer:
//function to check strin is int or bull
fun String.intOrString(): Boolean{
val v = toIntOrNull()
return when(v) {
null -> false
else -> true
}
}
In Edit distance: Ignore start/end, I offered a Perl 6 solution to a fuzzy fuzzy matching problem. I had a grammar like this (although maybe I've improved it after Edit #3):
grammar NString {
regex n-chars { [<.ignore>* \w]**4 }
regex ignore { \s }
}
The literal 4 itself was the length of the target string in the example. But the next problem might be some other length. So how can I tell the grammar how long I want that match to be?
Although the docs don't show an example or using the $args parameter, I found one in S05-grammar/example.t in roast.
Specify the arguments in :args and give the regex an appropriate signature. Inside the regex, access the arguments in a code block:
grammar NString {
regex n-chars ($length) { [<.ignore>* \w]**{ $length } }
regex ignore { \s }
}
class NString::Actions {
method n-chars ($/) {
put "Found $/";
}
}
my $string = 'The quick, brown butterfly';
loop {
state $from = 0;
my $match = NString.subparse(
$string,
:rule('n-chars'),
:actions(NString::Actions),
:c($from++),
:args( \(5) )
);
last unless ?$match;
}
I'm still not sure about the rules for passing the arguments though. This doesn't work:
:args( 5 )
I get:
Too few positionals passed; expected 2 arguments but got 1
This works:
:args( 5, )
But that's enough thinking about this for one night.