Idiomatic way to assign values from an array to individual variables - kotlin

There is an array of length 4
var foo: String? // These variable declarations are out of your control
var foo2: String? // they are part of a bean and an api contract
var foo3: String?
var foo4: String?
var bars: Array<String> = Array(NUMBER_OF_BARS) { "" }
foo = bars[0]
foo2 = bars[1]
foo3 = bars[2]
foo4 = bars[3] // <- Invalid
Any numbers except 0, 1 and 2 in the code result in a
MagicNumber complaint by static code checker and is not allowed.
Basically this question but for kotlin, Java - quick way of assigning array values to individual variables
How is that written idiomatically given the restraints? I tried naming the indexes as the static code checker hints I should do, but it's not that nice to be honest:
const val BAR_1 = 0
const val BAR_2 = 1
const val BAR_3 = 2
const val BAR_4 = 3
That's no fun

If your array is bars then Kotlin allows you to do
var (foo, foo2, foo3, foo4, foo5) = bars
Make sure you aren't trying to create more variables than the array contains though. That will cause an exception. If you aren't creating new variables, then this approach won't work. But the good news is, the above statement is basically just syntactic sugar for using the componentN methods, so you can just use them directly.
foo = bars.component1()
foo2 = bars.component2()
foo3 = bars.component3()
foo4 = bars.component4()
A bit more verbose than just using indices, but it will get your static code checker to shut up.

Related

Expecting member declaration (this happens when using a variable from another class)

The code here works:
fun main(){
val pizza = random()
print(pizza.num)
}
class random{
val num = 5
}
But the code here does not work
fun main(){
val pizza = random()
print(pizza.num)
}
class random{
val num = 5
num = 7
}
The only difference is that in the last line of code I reassign the variable num. The only thing I did was change this variable from 5 to 7.
Why is this causing errors?
Note This is the online IDE I was using: https://developer.android.com/training/kotlinplayground
2 things:
Firstly, you can't reassign vals. you need to change that to var
Secondly, you can't do assignments directly in a class body, only declarations.
However, you could put it in an init block like this to get the desired result:
class random{
var num = 5
init {
num = 7
}
}
you might want to read the documentation about kotlin classes here

Override getValue and setValue to capselate a Pair

Let's say I have following class:
class Person() {
var age: Pair<String, Int> = Pair("person_age", 23)
// override getValue and setValue here
}
Now I want to capsulate the actual Pair and only want the user to read/write the second value of the pair. Is it possible to override the getValue and setValue methods so I can do something like this:
val p = Person()
p.age = 25
if(p.age <= 30)
Of course I can write own getter and setter methods for each property but one nice thing about Kotlin is that you have to write such less boilerplate code which will get lost then.
The following should probably already suffice:
class Person() {
var age : Int = 23 // public by default
private /* or internal */ fun toAgePair() = "person_age" to age // narrow visibility
}
So all your code accesses the age as you have shown:
val p = Person()
p.age = 25
if (p.age <= 30) ...
But if you require your Pair you just do the following instead:
p.toAgePair() // or skip that method and use: '"person_age" to p.age' instead
Alternatives to access the Pair content are: Pair.first, Pair.second or destructured, e.g.:
val myPair = Pair("person_age", 23)
// myPair.second = 25 // setting will not work however
myPair.let { (name, age) -> /* do something with it */ }
Or alternatively:
val p = Person()
val (name, age) = p.toAgePair()
// age = 25 // setting will not work however (and it wouldn't set the actual value inside the Pair if it would contain vars)
if (age < 30) // accessing is OK
However then you get access to both values which you probably didn't want in the first place, if I understood you correctly.
You could overcome the setting part using your own data class with a var but then again, you do not really gain something from it.
I wouldn't recommend you to use Pair at all. Maybe you could modify it (inherit from it, use extension functions) to suit your needs, but why try to change something as simple as Pair?. It is much easier and in this case also cleaner to just create your own class which suits your needs:
data class MyPair<out A, B>(
val first: A,
var second: B
)
val pair = MyPair("age", 1)
pair.second = 2
pair.first = 1 // error
This class has all important features which Pair has: generic types for first and second, and you can use destructuring declarations.
Now I want to capselate the actual Pair and only want the user to read/write the second value of the pair.
Assuming this means you want the first value to be final, but not the second one, there are some options.
If you only want one of the values to be writeable and readable, don't use a pair. It's not designed to be used like that. All the items of a Pair are vals.
If you want a Pair either way, can do this:
class Person(var age: Int = 23){
val pair: Pair<String, Int>
get() = Pair("person_age", age)
//Alternatively, if you don't want to use a property:
//fun getPair() = "person_age" to age
}
What this does is creating a final pair where the first value can't be modified, but the second can.
So now:
fun example(){
val person = Person()
person.age = 25;//Fine: Age is an int, and a var
//person.pair = Pair("something", 45)//fails: "Val cannot be reassigned
val pair = person.pair // Allowed. Accessing the pair still works
assert(pair.second == person.age) // This is true
}
However, if you're fine with a non-Pair solution, this works too:
data class Person (var age: Int, val string: String = "person_age")
fun example(){
val person = Person(23)
val (name, string) = person// Allowed! Just like with Pairs
person.age = 25; // Also allowed
//person.string = "something"//Not allowed
}
The n-touple unpacking is supported for data classes. If you don't have a data class, you need to declare an operator fun for each component you want to unpack. Example:
class Person (val string: String = "person_age", var age: Int){
operator fun component1() = string
operator fun component2() = age
}
But tbh, it sounds like the data class solution is the one you're looking for. It would lock the String to what it's initialized with, and because of the default value and its position, you can initialize it with a single positioned argument*
You could also use generics if you want to use the same class for multiple types.
* Assumes the code is in Kotlin. Positioned and default arguments don't work from Java code.
Here's how to overwrite a getter method in Kotlin
class Person {
var age: Int = 0
get() = if (field < 0) 0 else field
}
The attribute is accessed directly
fun main(args: Array<String>) {
val p = Person()
p.age = -28
println(p.age) //0
}

I am getting the val cannot be reassigned compile time error. But I have declared the variable as `var` only

val cannot be reassigned compile time error var variable. Can't we change the array value?
Error
Array.kt:11:3: error: val cannot be reassigned
Code:
import java.util.Scanner
fun main(args: Array< String>){
println("Enter the no")
val scanner = Scanner(System.`in`)
var nos = Array<Int>(5){0}
var i : Int = 1
for (i in 1..3){
nos[i] = scanner.nextInt()
i = i+1
}
println("Given values $nos")
}
The for (i in 1..3) ... statement redefines i for the scope of its body, where it becomes a val (it's actually a separate variable that shadows the i declared outside the loop).
You can fix the code by using different names for these variables, or, in your case, by simply removing var i: Int = 1 and i = i + 1:
val scanner = Scanner(System.`in`)
var nos = Array<Int>(5) { 0 }
for (i in 1..3) {
nos[i] = scanner.nextInt()
}
println("Given values $nos")
UPD (answering to the comment): You can iterate in the opposite direction or using a non-unit step by building a progression with functions downTo and step, both described here in the reference.
var i : Int = 1
for (i in 1..3){
nos[i] = scanner.nextInt()
i = i+1
}
In this code you declared not one, but two variables with the name i because the for header creates its own declaration. Within the loop, only the version declared in the for header is visible, and that one is a val by definition.
Having said that, I'm unclear on what you were trying to achieve since everything looks like it would work just the way you want it without trying to update i in the loop.

Why does var foo = null compile

I am starting with Kotlin and trying to understand something.
var foo: String = null does not compile as expected.
var foo: String? = null should be the correct syntax and compile as expected.
So why does var foo = null compile??
The type of foo in this case will be inferred to Nothing?, which is a very special type. In short, Nothing is a type that is a subtype of every type in Kotlin (therefore Nothing? is a subtype of every nullable type), has no instances, and can be used as a return type for functions that can never return.
Even though Nothing can have no instances, null itself of type Nothing?, which is why it can be assigned to any nullable variable.
You can learn more in depth about Nothing in the official docs, in this excellent Medium article, and in this article that covers the overall Kotlin type hierarchy.
For var foo = null, the type is inferred to Nothing?, and is therefore valid syntax.
var foo = null is equivalent to var foo:Nothing? = null
similarly
var foo = "" is equivalent to var foo:String = ""
and slo
var foo = 1 is equivalent to var foo:Int = 1
The compiler is smart enough to infer the type of foo from the right hand expression type.

How can I tell Kotlin that an array or collection cannot contain nulls?

If I create an array, then fill it, Kotlin believes that there may be nulls in the array, and forces me to account for this
val strings = arrayOfNulls<String>(10000)
strings.fill("hello")
val upper = strings.map { it!!.toUpperCase() } // requires it!!
val lower = upper.map { it.toLowerCase() } // doesn't require !!
Creating a filled array doesn't have this problem
val strings = Array(10000, {"string"})
val upper = strings.map { it.toUpperCase() } // doesn't require !!
How can I tell the compiler that the result of strings.fill("hello") is an array of NonNull?
A rule of thumb: if in doubts, specify the types explicitly (there is a special refactoring for that):
val strings1: Array<String?> = arrayOfNulls<String>(10000)
val strings2: Array<String> = Array(10000, {"string"})
So you see that strings1 contains nullable items, while strings2 does not. That and only that determines how to work with these arrays:
// You can simply use nullability in you code:
strings2[0] = strings1[0]?.toUpperCase ?: "KOTLIN"
//Or you can ALWAYS cast the type, if you are confident:
val casted = strings1 as Array<String>
//But to be sure I'd transform the items of the array:
val asserted = strings1.map{it!!}
val defaults = strings1.map{it ?: "DEFAULT"}
Why the filled array works fine
The filled array infers the type of the array during the call from the lambda used as the second argument:
val strings = Array(10000, {"string"})
produces Array<String>
val strings = Array(10000, { it -> if (it % 2 == 0) "string" else null })
produces Array<String?>
Therefore changing the declaration to the left of the = that doesn't match the lambda does not do anything to help. If there is a conflict, there is an error.
How to make the arrayOfNulls work
For the arrayOfNulls problem, they type you specify to the call arrayOfNulls<String> is used in the function signature as generic type T and the function arrayOfNulls returns Array<T?> which means nullable. Nothing in your code changes that type. The fill method only sets values into the existing array.
To convert this nullable-element array to non-nullable-element list, use:
val nullableStrings = arrayOfNulls<String>(10000).apply { fill("hello") }
val strings = nullableStrings.filterNotNull()
val upper = strings.map { it.toUpperCase() } // no !! needed
Which is fine because your map call converts to a list anyway, so why not convert beforehand. Now depending on the size of the array this could be performant or not, the copy might be fast if in CPU cache. If it is large and no performant, you can make this lazy:
val nullableStrings = arrayOfNulls<String>(10000).apply { fill("hello") }
val strings = nullableStrings.asSequence().filterNotNull()
val upper = strings.map { it.toUpperCase() } // no !! needed
Or you can stay with arrays by doing a copy, but really this makes no sense because you undo it with the map:
val nullableStrings = arrayOfNulls<String>(10000).apply { fill("hello") }
val strings: Array<String> = Array(nullableStrings.size, { idx -> nullableStrings[idx]!! })
Arrays really are not that common in Java or Kotlin code (JetBrains studied the statistics) unless the code is doing really low level optimization. It could be better to use lists.
Given that you might end up with lists anyway, maybe start there too and give up the array.
val nullableStrings = listOf("a","b",null,"c",null,"d")
val strings = nullableStrings.filterNotNull()
But, if you can't stop the quest to use arrays, and really must cast one without a copy...
You can always write a function that does two things: First, check that all values are not null, and if so then return the array that is cast as not null. This is a bit hacky, but is safe only because the difference is nullability.
First, create an extension function on Array<T?>:
fun <T: Any> Array<T?>.asNotNull(): Array<T> {
if (this.any { it == null }) {
throw IllegalStateException("Cannot cast an array that contains null")
}
#Suppress("CAST_NEVER_SUCCEEDS")
return this as Array<T>
}
Then use this function new function to do the conversion (element checked as not null cast):
val nullableStrings = arrayOfNulls<String>(10000).apply { fill("hello") }
val strings = nullableStrings.asNotNull() // magic!
val upperStrings = strings.map { it.toUpperCase() } // no error
But I feel dirty even talking about this last option.
There is no way to tell this to the compiler. The type of the variable is determined when it is declared. In this case, the variable is declared as an array that can contain nulls.
The fill() method does not declare a new variable, it only modifies the contents of an existing one, so it cannot cause the variable type to change.