Single-function listeners using lambda - kotlin

Question

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.

Answer 1

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()
}

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.