Kotlin generic Collection cast - kotlin

I a very new to Kotlin and working on a simple method that sorts and joins a list to string
private fun generateKey(params: Array<Any>): String {
val genericCollection = if (params.isNotEmpty() && params[0] is Collection<*>) params[0] as Collection<*>
else throw Exception("no params provided for keyGenerator")
return genericCollection.sortedBy { it }.joinToString(separator = "_")
}
but I got this compilation error:
Type parameter bound for R in
inline fun > Iterable.sortedBy ( crossinline
selector: (T) → R? ) : List
is not satisfied: inferred type Any is not a subtype of
Comparable
Any idea how to fix this?

The problem is that you try sort this collection via it. But it can be an instance of any type.
Any however isn't something what can be compared (Any doesn't implement Comparable interface).
So, when you use sortedBy method you have to provide something what can be compared. For example:
return genericCollection.sortedBy { it.hashCode() }.joinToString(separator = "_")
hashCode() returns Int and Int can be easily compared.
In fact until you use <*> as generic type you won't be able to find something better to compare collection.

Guess, you must understand, what exactly you expect from param[0]. In this case, it must be some keyGenerator params. Pretty sure, these params could be String or Numeric type. All you need is to map them by casting to appropriate class. Foe example, String class:
private fun generateKey(params: Array<Any>): String {
val genericCollection = if (params.isNotEmpty() && params[0] is Collection<*>) params[0] as Collection<*>
else throw Exception("no params provided for keyGenerator")
return genericCollection.map { it as String }.sortedBy { it }.joinToString(separator = "_")
}

Related

Generic transpose (or anything else really!) in Kotlin

Working on an Advent of Code puzzle I had found myself defining a function to transpose matrices of integers:
fun transpose(xs: Array<Array<Int>>): Array<Array<Int>> {
val cols = xs[0].size // 3
val rows = xs.size // 2
var ys = Array(cols) { Array(rows) { 0 } }
for (i in 0..rows - 1) {
for (j in 0..cols - 1)
ys[j][i] = xs[i][j]
}
return ys
}
Turns out that in the following puzzle I also needed to transpose a matrix, but it wasn't a matrix of Ints, so i tried to generalize. In Haskell I would have had something of type
transpose :: [[a]] -> [[a]]
and to replicate that in Kotlin I tried the following:
fun transpose(xs: Array<Array<Any>>): Array<Array<Any>> {
val cols = xs[0].size
val rows = xs.size
var ys = Array(cols) { Array(rows) { Any() } } // maybe this is the problem?
for (i in 0..rows - 1) {
for (j in 0..cols - 1)
ys[j][i] = xs[i][j]
}
return ys
}
This seems ok but it isn't. In fact, when I try calling it on the original matrix of integers I get Type mismatch: inferred type is Array<Array<Int>> but Array<Array<Any>> was expected.
The thing is, I don't really understand this error message: I thought Any was a supertype of anything else?
Googling around I thought I understood that I should use some sort of type constraint syntax (sorry, not sure it's called like that in Kotlin), thus changing the type to fun <T: Any> transpose(xs: Array<Array<T>>): Array<Array<T>>, but then at the return line I get Type mismatch: inferred type is Array<Array<Any>> but Array<Array<T>> was expected
So my question is, how do I write a transpose matrix that works on any 2-dimensional array?
As you pointed out yourself, the line Array(cols) { Array(rows) { Any() } } creates an Array<Array<Any>>, so if you use it in your generic function, you won't be able to return it when Array<Array<T>> is expected.
Instead, you should make use of this lambda to directly provide the correct value for the correct index (instead of initializing to arbitrary values and replacing all of them):
inline fun <reified T> transpose(xs: Array<Array<T>>): Array<Array<T>> {
val cols = xs[0].size
val rows = xs.size
return Array(cols) { j ->
Array(rows) { i ->
xs[i][j]
}
}
}
I don't really understand this error message: I thought Any was a supertype of anything else?
This is because arrays in Kotlin are invariant in their element type. If you don't know about generic variance, it's about describing how the hierarchy of a generic type compares to the hierarchy of their type arguments.
For example, assume you have a type Foo<T>. Now, the fact that Int is a subtype of Any doesn't necessarily imply that Foo<Int> is a subtype of Foo<Any>. You can look up the jargon, but essentially you have 3 possibilities here:
We say that Foo is covariant in its type argument T if Foo<Int> is a subtype of Foo<Any> (Foo types "vary the same way" as T)
We say that Foo is contravariant in its type argument T if Foo<Int> is a supertype of Foo<Any> (Foo types "vary the opposite way" compared to T)
We say that Foo is invariant in its type argument T if none of the above can be said
Arrays in Kotlin are invariant. Kotlin's read-only List, however, is covariant in the type of its elements. This is why it's ok to assign a List<Int> to a variable of type List<Any> in Kotlin.

Kotlin - Type mismatch: inferred type is Any? but Boolean was expected

I'm trying my hands on Kotlin. Being from a Python background is really giving me a tough time to get the knack of the Kotlin syntax. I'm trying to do a simple dictionary (Mutable Map) operation. However, its giving me exceptions.
This is what I tried. Kotlin compiler
Adding the code snippet for reference.
fun main() {
val openActivityMap = mutableMapOf<String, MutableMap<String, Any>>()
val packageName = "amazon"
val currentTime = 23454321234
if(openActivityMap.containsKey(packageName)){
if(openActivityMap[packageName]?.get("isAlreadyApplied")){
if((openActivityMap[packageName]?.get("lastAppliedAt") - currentTime) > 3600){
openActivityMap[packageName]?.put("isAlreadyApplied", false)
}
}
else{
openActivityMap[packageName]?.put("isAlreadyApplied", false)
}
}
}
I'm a bit late to the party, but I'd like to point out another solution here.
As I commented on the OP, heterogeneous maps with fixed string keys like this are usually better expressed with classes in Kotlin. For instance, in your case, the class for your main map's values could be the following:
data class PackageInfo(
var isAlreadyApplied: Boolean,
var lastAppliedAt: Long,
)
(you could obviously add more properties if need be)
This would save you all the casts on the final values.
Another point I'd like to make is that if you access the value for a key anyway, you don't need to check up front the existence of the key with containsKey. Maps return null for keys that are not associated with any value (this is why you need to check for null after getting the value).
The compiler cannot see the correlation between containsKey and the subsequent get or [] access. However, it's smart enough to understand a null check if you simply get the value first and then check for null.
This always applies unless you want to tell the difference between keys that aren't in the map and keys that are in the map but associated null values (which is quite rare).
All in all, I would write something like that:
fun main() {
val openActivityMap = mutableMapOf<String, PackageInfo>()
val packageName = "amazon"
val currentTime = 23454321234
val packageInfo = openActivityMap[packageName]
if (packageInfo != null) { // the key was found and the value is smart cast to non-null in the next block
if (packageInfo.isAlreadyApplied) {
if ((packageInfo.lastAppliedAt - currentTime) > 3600) {
packageInfo.isAlreadyApplied = false
}
} else {
packageInfo.isAlreadyApplied = false
}
}
}
data class PackageInfo(
var isAlreadyApplied: Boolean,
var lastAppliedAt: Long,
)
I would recommend writing tests first and working in small increments, but this should fix your compilation issues:
fun main() {
val openActivityMap = mutableMapOf<String, MutableMap<String, Any>>()
val packageName = "amazon"
val currentTime = 23454321234
if(openActivityMap.containsKey(packageName)){
if(openActivityMap[packageName]?.get("isAlreadyApplied") as Boolean){
if((openActivityMap[packageName]?.get("lastAppliedAt") as Long - currentTime) > 3600){
openActivityMap[packageName]?.put("isAlreadyApplied", false)
}
}
else {
openActivityMap[packageName]?.put("isAlreadyApplied", false)
}
}
}
EDIT: Also I prefer to avoid nullable variables and mutable objects in general, but I suppose there's an exception to every rule.
Couldn't you just declare your Map<String, Any> to return a Boolean instead of Any? So,
val openActivityMap = mutableMapOf<String, MutableMap<String, Boolean>>()
It looks like you're trying to use your second Map to store both Booleans and Ints, which is complicating the logic. You'll need to typecast if you decide to approach it without Typing.
There's a problem with the 2 statement below
if(openActivityMap[packageName]?.get("isAlreadyApplied"))
if((openActivityMap[packageName]?.get("lastAppliedAt") - currentTime) > 3600)
As we all know, an IF statement requires a boolean value for it's param. The types of both statement are unknown at compilation time as they are of a Generic type, Any. As such,
openActivityMap[packageName]?.get("isAlreadyApplied") could be a null or of type Any (Not Boolean).
openActivityMap[packageName]?.get("lastAppliedAt") could be a null or of type Any (an Int was expected here for computation).
This would throw compilation errors as the compiler does not know the types to go with. What could be done is to cast to it's proper types.
Solution
openActivityMap[packageName]?.get("isAlreadyApplied") as Boolean ?: false
((openActivityMap[packageName]?.get("lastAppliedAt") as Int ?: 0) - currentTime)
Giving a default value if it's null.
maybe you can try something like this
if (openActivityMap.containsKey(packageName)) {
val packageMap = openActivityMap[packageName]!!
val applyRequired = (packageMap["lastAppliedAt"] as Long - currentTime) > 3600
packageMap["isAlreadyApplied"] = packageMap.containsKey("isAlreadyApplied") && !applyRequired
}
btw. do you really want to have lastAppliedAt to be in te future? otherewise it will never be > 3600

How to skip specification of the generic type parameter in Kotlin?

This is the main body of my function
val client = ConnectionFactory.createClient() # <- Return lettice.io RedisClusterClient
val conn = client.connect()
val command = conn.sync()
var index: String? = null
index = readDataStructure(command, key)
This is my first try to define my readDataStructure function:
fun readDataStructure(command: RedisCommand, key: String): String {
...
kotlin complaints error: 3 type arguments expected for interface RedisCommand<K : Any!, V : Any!, T : Any!>
I want to be able to NOT specifying K, V and T because I am just writing a throwaway script.
Is there any Kotlin lang syntax and can allow me to just pass the command variable as is?
I suppose you are after:
fun readDataStructure(command: RedisCommand<*,*,*>, key: String): String {
?
From Kotlin docs https://kotlinlang.org/docs/tutorials/kotlin-for-py/generics.html:
If you don't have any idea (or don't care) what the generic type might be, you can use a star-projection:
fun printSize(items: List<*>) = println(items.size)
When using a generic type where you have star-projected one or more of its type parameters, you can:
Use any members that don't mention the star-projected type parameter(s) at all
Use any members that return the star-projected type parameter(s), but the return type will appear to be Any? (unless the type parameter is constrained, in which case you'll get the type mentioned in the constraint)
Not use any members that take a star-projected type as a parameter

How can I construct a generic object with a reified type parameter in Kotlin?

I have a class called Column<E> that delegates to a MutableList<E>.
To sort the Comparable elements ("e") of columns without providing a comparator, I pass a reified type argument ("type") to determine whether e implements comparable using reflection and then use e's compareTo method to construct a comparator. This all works fine.
I also have a function object called AggregateFunction that is used in reduce operations. AggregateFunction holds an actual function (to do the reduction operation), and a name (for programmatically creating a name for the result). There are several subtypes of AggregateFunction. NumericAggregateFunction, for example, takes an input column of type Column and always returns a Double.
The typical use case is to partition the input data into subgroups and return a Column containing the computed values for each subgroup. The catch is that I want to programmatically construct a column to hold the results. In the case of NumericAggregateFunction, I want to create a Column<Double>. For BooleanAggregateFunction, a Column<Boolean>, etc.
If I want Aggregate function to return a MutableList<Double> I can create it without a problem using:
fun resultList() : MutableList<OUT> {
return ArrayList<OUT>()
}
However, the same approach fails to compile for Column, apparently because of the reified type. If I attempt to use the inline function, e.g.
fun resultColumnA() : Column<OUT> {
return Column<OUT>("column name")
}
I get:
Cannot use 'OUT' as reified type parameter. Use a class instead.
I also attempted to call the primary constructor directly, passing in the type parameter as shown below, it also fails to compile:
fun resultColumn() : Column<OUT> {
return Column<OUT>(
inputColumn!!.type,
"column name")
}
I now get the error:
Type mismatch. Required: OUT Found: Any!
Finally, I tried reifying the type parameter in the context of the Aggregate function, adding these two methods:
inline fun <reified OUT> col(nm:String) =
Column(
OUT::class.java,
nm
)
fun resultColumnB() : Column<OUT> {
return this.col("name")
}
But the line return this.col("name") results in a compile time error:
Cannot use 'OUT' as reified type parameter. Use a class instead.
Is there a way to create a Column similar to how the MutableList was created?
If not, is there a way to determine whether the elements of a MutableList are comparable without using a reified type? If I didn't have to do that I could get rid of the type entirely.
Partial Implementation of class Column is included below
package com.fathom.core.tables
inline fun <reified E> Column(nm:String) =
Column(
E::class.java,
nm
)
open class Column<E>(val type: Class<E>, var name: String, val comparator : Comparator<E>? = null, val elements: MutableList<E?> = ArrayList()) : MutableList<E?> by elements{
var formatter: (E?) -> String = { e ->
if (e == null) "" else e.toString()
}
// when present, allows sorting on this vector without providing a comparator to the sort method
var defaultComparator: Comparator<E>? = null
/**
* Returns true if elements contained in this column implement comparable.
* That makes the column sortable
*/
fun isComparable(): Boolean {
return type.interfaces.contains(Comparable::class.java)
}
/**
* Returns an int comparator where the ints are the indexes of the elements of the column rather than the elements.
* It uses the indexes to get the values, which are then compared using
* (a) a Comparator<E> column property named 'comparator', or
* (b) the natural comparator for any column that implements Comparable
*
* #throws UnsupportedOperationException if the column has no comparator and doesn't implement Comparable
*/
#Suppress("UNCHECKED_CAST")
fun rowComparator() : Comparator<Int> {
if (comparator != null) {
return Comparator { r1, r2 ->
val v : E = get(r1) as E
val f1 : E = this[r1] as E
val f2 : E = this[r2] as E
comparator.compare(f1, f2)
}
}
if (!isComparable()) {
throw UnsupportedOperationException(
"Columns that are used in table sorts must either " +
"provide a comparator or contain elements that " +
"implement comparable"
)
}
return Comparator { r1, r2 ->
val v : E = get(r1) as E
val f1 : Comparable<E> = this[r1] as Comparable<E>
val f2 : E = get(r2) as E
f1.compareTo(f2)
}
}
}

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.