Pass a static method as a parameter to another method in Kotlin - oop

As per this question, a function can be passed as a parameter to another function as shown below
fun foo(m: String, bar: (m: String) -> Unit) {
bar(m)
}
fun buz(m: String) {
println("another message: $m")
}
fun something() {
foo("hi", ::buz)
}
Similarly, we can also pass a method from a class
class OtherClass {
fun buz(m: String) {
println("another message: $m")
}
}
foo("hi", OtherClass()::buz)
But what if the method we want to pass is static (within a companion object)?
class OtherClass {
companion object {
fun buz(m: String) {
println("another message: $m")
}
}
}
I am aware that since it is static we can simply call the method directly without having to resort to passing it as a parameter, however, there are still some situations (such as when taking advantage of pre-existing code) where this would be useful.

To access companion object of class use ${className}.Companion. So...
foo("hit", OtherClass.Companion::buz).

Related

Kotlin: use generic on interface level as argument type for function

Is it impossible to use generic on interface level as argument type for function?
I read about out and in keywords but as I understand they don't work for this case.
interface BaseB
open class ChildB1: BaseB
open class ChildB2: BaseB
abstract class BaseMapper<V: BaseB> {
open fun test(v: V) {
return
}
}
class TestMapper1: BaseMapper<ChildB1>() {
override fun test(v: ChildB1) {
return
}
}
class TestMapper2: BaseMapper<ChildB2>() {
override fun test(v: ChildB2) {
return
}
}
#Test
fun t() {
//ERROR
val mappers: List<BaseMapper<BaseB>> = listOf(TestMapper1(), TestMapper2())
mappers[0].test(ChildB1())
}
A BaseMapper<ChildB1> is not logically a BaseMapper<BaseB>. It consumes ChildB’s, so if you passed some other implementation of Base it would cause a ClassCastException if the compiler let you do that. There is no common subtype of your two subclasses besides Nothing, so the only way to put both of these types in the same list is to make it a List<BaseMapper<in Nothing>>.
Example of why it is not logically a BaseMapper<BaseB>:
open class ChildB1: BaseB {
fun sayHello() = println("Hello world")
}
class TestMapper1: BaseMapper<ChildB1>() {
override fun test(v: ChildB1) {
v.sayHello() // if v is not a ChildB1, this would be impossible
}
}
//...
val impossibleCast: BaseMapper<BaseB> = TestMapper1()
// TestMapper1 cannot call sayHello() because it's undefined for ChildB2.
// This is impossible:
impossibleCast.test(ChildB2())
// ...so the compiler prevents you from doing the impossible cast in the first place.

Pass different functions with different method signatures to a function as a parameter in kotlin

I am working on an android application using kotlin as my primary language. I needed to ask some runtime permissions for some parts of the app. So instead of writing similar boilerplate code to ask for the permissions I decided to to write a separate static function that checks for the permission, and run a method. Here is the static function
fun permissionExecution(childFragment: Fragment, permission: String, expression: ????) {
Dexter.withActivity(childFragment.requireActivity())
.withPermission(permission)
.withListener(object : PermissionListener {
override fun onPermissionGranted(response: PermissionGrantedResponse?) {
expression()
}
override fun onPermissionRationaleShouldBeShown(
permission: PermissionRequest?,
token: PermissionToken
) {
token.continuePermissionRequest()
}
override fun onPermissionDenied(response: PermissionDeniedResponse) {
if(response.isPermanentlyDenied) {
openSettings(childFragment)
}
}
}).check()
}
This code works perfectly when I passed in methods with no arguments. But I have some situations where I will like to pass in methods with different arguments types.
calling the method like this permissionExecution(childfragment, permission, foo(string))
calling the same method like this permissionExecution(childfrgment, permission, bas(string, Int))
what class type can I use for the espression argument in the permissionExecution() method
It doesn't make sense to include the function parameters in the definition of the lambda arument. You already have everything you need to call these other functions:
permissionExecution(myFragment, Manifest.permission.RECORD_AUDIO) {
foo(myString)
}
permissionExecution(myFragment, Manifest.permission.CAMERA) {
bar(myString, myInt)
}
If you need the PermissionGrantedResponse to determine what these parameters are, you can define that as the function input:
fun permissionExecution(childFragment: Fragment, permission: String, expression: (PermissionGrantedResponse) -> Unit) {
Dexter.withActivity(childFragment.requireActivity())
.withPermission(permission)
.withListener(object : PermissionListener {
override fun onPermissionGranted(response: PermissionGrantedResponse) {
expression(response)
}
//...
}
//...
permissionExecution(myFragment, Manifest.permission.RECORD_AUDIO) { response ->
foo(response.permissionName)
}
If I understand correctly, you have implemented a common static func that checks permission and pass some lambda to it that will be invoked when permission is granted. I do not understand why you these lambdas need some argument parameters. Is the below implementation what you desire?
class CameraFragment {
fun onCreateView() {
permissionExecution(childFragment = arg1, permission = "perm", expression = {
// open camera
})
}
}
class LocationActivity {
fun onCreate() {
permissionExecution(childFragment = arg1, permission = "perm", expression = {
fetchLocation()
})
}
fun fetchLocation() {
// get location, do stuff
}
}
here is a not so elegant solution. I create a wrapper class with a single method interface like this
class Permissions(val childFragment: Fragment, private val permission: String, val runExpression: RunExpression) {
interface RunExpression{
fun expression()
}
fun permissionExecution() {
Dexter.withActivity(childFragment.requireActivity())
.withPermission(permission)
.withListener(object : PermissionListener {
override fun onPermissionGranted(response: PermissionGrantedResponse?) {
runExpression.expression()
}
override fun onPermissionRationaleShouldBeShown(
permission: PermissionRequest?,
token: PermissionToken
) {
token.continuePermissionRequest()
}
override fun onPermissionDenied(response: PermissionDeniedResponse) {
if(response.isPermanentlyDenied) {
openSettings(childFragment)
}
}
}).check()
}
}
then call the class like this each time I need the permission
1.
Permissions(this, Manifest.permission.READ_CONTACTS, object : Permissions.RunExpression {
override fun expression() {
startActivityForResult(intent, PICK_CONTACT)
}
}).permissionExecution()
2.
Permissions(this, Manifest.permission.READ_CONTACTS, object : Permissions.RunExpression {
override fun expression() {
writeFileToLocation(file, locationPath)
}
}).permissionExecution()
a better way i find by adapting the solution here is firstly, create an interface like this
interface RunExpression{
fun expression()}
then use the interface in the function signature
fun permissionExecution(childFragment: Fragment, permission : String, runExpression: RunExpression) {
Dexter.withActivity(childFragment.requireActivity())
.withPermission(permission)
.withListener(object : PermissionListener {
override fun onPermissionGranted(response: PermissionGrantedResponse?) {
runExpression.expression()
}
override fun onPermissionRationaleShouldBeShown(
permission: PermissionRequest?,
token: PermissionToken
) {
token.continuePermissionRequest()
}
override fun onPermissionDenied(response: PermissionDeniedResponse) {
if(response.isPermanentlyDenied) {
openSettings(childFragment)
}
}
}).check()}
then wherever I want to call the function, I save the anonymous object that implement the interface into a variable
val startMyActivity = object : RunExpression {
override fun expression() {
startActivityForResult(intent, PICK_CONTACT)
}
}
then call the function with the variable
permissionExecution(this, Manifest.permission.READ_CONTACTS, startMyActivity)

Single-function listeners using lambda

With all the well-known single-function listeners we can use a simpler lambda notation
view.setOnClickListener { do() }
instead of the original, longer Java way of
view.setOnClickListener(object : View.OnClickListener {
override fun onClick(v: View?) {
do()
}
})
But what exactly makes this work? I tried to do the same with my own listener:
private var listener: OnCopyPasteClickListener? = null
interface OnCopyPasteClickListener {
fun onPasteClick(text: String)
}
fun setOnCopyPasteClickListener(onCopyPasteClickListener: OnCopyPasteClickListener) {
listener = onCopyPasteClickListener
}
and while the long approach works just fine:
copypaste.setOnCopyPasteClickListener(object : CopyPasteMenu.OnCopyPasteClickListener {
override fun onPasteClick(text: String) {
do(text)
}
})
I can't make it accept the short one:
copypaste.setOnCopyPasteClickListener {
do(it)
}
The IDE gives a type mismatch error.
Actually, if you have only one function to be invoked, I recommend you use Kotlin Callback.
typealias OnDoWorkListener = ((String) -> Unit)
class Work {
var doWork: OnDoWorkListener? = null
fun doSomething() {
doWork?.invoke("Message Here")
}
}
And in your function, you just set the callback to it
fun main() {
val work = Work()
work.doWork = {
Log.d("WORK", "This gets called from the `work` object. Message: $it")
}
work.doSomething();
}
We can also use function to set the listener as well.
class Work {
var doWork: OnDoWorkListener? = null
fun doSomething() {
doWork?.invoke("Message Here")
}
fun setOnWorkListener(listener: OnDoWorkListener) {
doWork = listener
}
}
fun main() {
val work = Work()
work.setOnWorkListener {
Log.d("WORK", "This gets called from the `work` object. Message: $it")
}
work.doSomething()
}
Higher order functions make this work:
Kotlin functions are first-class, which means that they can be stored
in variables and data structures, passed as arguments to and returned
from other higher-order functions. You can operate with functions in
any way that is possible for other non-function values.
From the same page:
Passing a lambda to the last parameter
In Kotlin, there is a convention that if the last parameter of a
function accepts a function, a lambda expression that is passed as the
corresponding argument can be placed outside the parentheses:
val product = items.fold(1) { acc, e -> acc * e }
If the lambda is the only argument to that call, the parentheses can
be omitted entirely:
run { println("...") }
Knowing this, a possible update on your class would look like:
class CopyPaste {
private var listener: (String) -> Unit = {}
fun setOnCopyPasteClickListener(onCopyPasteClickListener: (String) -> Unit) {
listener = onCopyPasteClickListener
}
fun doCopyPaste(value: String) {
listener.invoke(value)
}
}
fun main() {
val copyPaste = CopyPaste()
copyPaste.setOnCopyPasteClickListener { println(it) }
copyPaste.doCopyPaste("ClipboardContent!")
}
The class CopyPaste stores the listener, which is a function that takes a String parameter and does not return anything. Its function setOnCopyPasteClickListener accepts a function with the same signature as the listener property and at the end doCopyPaste accepts a String parameter and passes it to the stored function.
Actually, just after I posted, I searched for more thoughts and found this thread: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-7770 This is indeed a debated limitation as it currently only applies to Java, not Kotlin itself. There is also a suggestion there that gives almost the required simplicity:
interface OnCopyPasteClickListener {
fun onPasteClick(text: String)
companion object {
inline operator fun invoke(crossinline op: (text: String) -> Unit) =
object : OnCopyPasteClickListener {
override fun onPasteClick(text: String) = op(text)
}
}
}
and then, thanks to this overloaded operator, it can be called as:
copypaste.setOnCopyPasteClickListener(CopyPasteMenu.OnCopyPasteClickListener { text ->
do(text)
})
But as the suggested answers offer a more idiomatic solution, I'll accept one of those, I only wanted to include this approach here for reference.

Method References to Super Class Method

How to use method references to refer to super class methods?
In Java 8 you can do SubClass.super::method.
What would be the syntax in Kotlin?
Looking forward to your response!
Conclusion
Thanks to Bernard Rocha!
The syntax is SubClass::method.
But be careful. In my case the subclass was a generic class. Don't forget to declare it as those:
MySubMap<K, V>::method.
EDIT
It still doesn't work in Kotlin.
Hers's an example in Java 8 of a method reference to a super class method:
public abstract class SuperClass {
void method() {
System.out.println("superclass method()");
}
}
public class SubClass extends SuperClass {
#Override
void method() {
Runnable superMethodL = () -> super.method();
Runnable superMethodMR = SubClass.super::method;
}
}
I'm still not able to do the same in Kotlin...
EDIT
This is an example how I tried to achieve it in Kotlin:
open class Bar {
open fun getString(): String = "Hello"
}
class Foo : Bar() {
fun testFunction(action: () -> String): String = action()
override fun getString(): String {
//this will throw an StackOverflow error, since it will continuously call 'Foo.getString()'
return testFunction(this::getString)
}
}
I want to have something like that:
...
override fun getString(): String {
//this should call 'Bar.getString' only once. No StackOverflow error should happen.
return testFunction(super::getString)
}
...
Conclusion
It's not possible to do so in Kotlin yet.
I submitted a feature report. It can be found here: KT-21103 Method Reference to Super Class Method
As the documentation says you use it like in java:
If we need to use a member of a class, or an extension function, it
needs to be qualified. e.g. String::toCharArray gives us an extension
function for type String: String.() -> CharArray.
EDIT
I think you can achieve what you want doing something like this:
open class SuperClass {
companion object {
fun getMyString(): String {
return "Hello"
}
}
}
class SubClass : SuperClass() {
fun getMyAwesomeString(): String {
val reference = SuperClass.Companion
return testFunction(reference::getMyString)
}
private fun testFunction(s: KFunction0<String>): String {
return s.invoke()
}
}
Don't know if it is possible to get the reference to super class's function, but here is an alternative to what you want to achieve:
override fun getString(): String = testFunction { super.getString() }
According to Bernardo's answer, you might have something like this. It doesn't have remarkable changes.
fun methodInActivity() {
runOnUiThread(this::config)
}
fun config(){
}
What is more, in the incoming 1.2 version you can use just
::config

How to specify "own type" as return type in Kotlin

Is there a way to specify the return type of a function to be the type of the called object?
e.g.
trait Foo {
fun bar(): <??> /* what to put here? */ {
return this
}
}
class FooClassA : Foo {
fun a() {}
}
class FooClassB : Foo {
fun b() {}
}
// this is the desired effect:
val a = FooClassA().bar() // should be of type FooClassA
a.a() // so this would work
val b = FooClassB().bar() // should be of type FooClassB
b.b() // so this would work
In effect, this would be roughly equivalent to instancetype in Objective-C or Self in Swift.
There's no language feature supporting this, but you can always use recursive generics (which is the pattern many libraries use):
// Define a recursive generic parameter Me
trait Foo<Me: Foo<Me>> {
fun bar(): Me {
// Here we have to cast, because the compiler does not know that Me is the same as this class
return this as Me
}
}
// In subclasses, pass itself to the superclass as an argument:
class FooClassA : Foo<FooClassA> {
fun a() {}
}
class FooClassB : Foo<FooClassB> {
fun b() {}
}
You can return something's own type with extension functions.
interface ExampleInterface
// Everything that implements ExampleInterface will have this method.
fun <T : ExampleInterface> T.doSomething(): T {
return this
}
class ClassA : ExampleInterface {
fun classASpecificMethod() {}
}
class ClassB : ExampleInterface {
fun classBSpecificMethod() {}
}
fun example() {
// doSomething() returns ClassA!
ClassA().doSomething().classASpecificMethod()
// doSomething() returns ClassB!
ClassB().doSomething().classBSpecificMethod()
}
You can use an extension method to achieve the "returns same type" effect. Here's a quick example that shows a base type with multiple type parameters and an extension method that takes a function which operates on an instance of said type:
public abstract class BuilderBase<A, B> {}
public fun <B : BuilderBase<*, *>> B.doIt(): B {
// Do something
return this
}
public class MyBuilder : BuilderBase<Int,String>() {}
public fun demo() {
val b : MyBuilder = MyBuilder().doIt()
}
Since extension methods are resolved statically (at least as of M12), you may need to have the extension delegate the actual implementation to its this should you need type-specific behaviors.
Recursive Type Bound
The pattern you have shown in the question is known as recursive type bound in the JVM world. A recursive type is one that includes a function that uses that type itself as a type for its parameter or its return value. In your example, you are using the same type for the return value by saying return this.
Example
Let's understand this with a simple and real example. We'll replace trait from your example with interface because trait is now deprecated in Kotlin. In this example, the interface VitaminSource returns different implementations of the sources of different vitamins.
In the following interface, you can see that its type parameter has itself as an upper bound. This is why it's known as recursive type bound:
VitaminSource.kt
interface VitaminSource<T: VitaminSource<T>> {
fun getSource(): T {
#Suppress("UNCHECKED_CAST")
return this as T
}
}
We suppress the UNCHECKED_CAST warning because the compiler can't possibly know whether we passed the same class name as a type argument.
Then we extend the interface with concrete implementations:
Carrot.kt
class Carrot : VitaminSource<Carrot> {
fun getVitaminA() = println("Vitamin A")
}
Banana.kt
class Banana : VitaminSource<Banana> {
fun getVitaminB() = println("Vitamin B")
}
While extending the classes, you must make sure to pass the same class to the interface otherwise you'll get ClassCastException at runtime:
class Banana : VitaminSource<Banana> // OK
class Banana : VitaminSource<Carrot> // No compiler error but exception at runtime
Test.kt
fun main() {
val carrot = Carrot().getSource()
carrot.getVitaminA()
val banana = Banana().getSource()
banana.getVitaminB()
}
That's it! Hope that helps.
Depending on the exact use case, scope functions can be a good alternative. For the builder pattern apply seems to be most useful because the context object is this and the result of the scope function is this as well.
Consider this example for a builder of List with a specialized builder subclass:
open class ListBuilder<E> {
// Return type does not matter, could also use Unit and not return anything
// But might be good to avoid that to not force users to use scope functions
fun add(element: E): ListBuilder<E> {
...
return this
}
fun buildList(): List<E> {
...
}
}
class EnhancedListBuilder<E>: ListBuilder<E>() {
fun addTwice(element: E): EnhancedListBuilder<E> {
addNTimes(element, 2)
return this
}
fun addNTimes(element: E, times: Int): EnhancedListBuilder<E> {
repeat(times) {
add(element)
}
return this
}
}
// Usage of builder:
val list = EnhancedListBuilder<String>().apply {
add("a") // Note: This would return only ListBuilder
addTwice("b")
addNTimes("c", 3)
}.buildList()
However, this only works if all methods have this as result. If one of the methods actually creates a new instance, then that instance would be discarded.
This is based on this answer to a similar question.
You can do it also via extension functions.
class Foo
fun <T: Foo>T.someFun(): T {
return this
}
Foo().someFun().someFun()