Kotlin - Transform value at initialisation - kotlin

i'm new in kotlin and i want to know if we can transform a content value at initialisation : with this example :
#Document
data class Category(
#Id val id: Id? = null,
val label: String
)
Category is a document (entity for mongodb) and when i'm instanciating this object, i want to transform label property in uppercase. How can i do that to stay idiomatic with the language ? The point is to keep the immutable properties of the val keyword.
val categ = Category(label = "Test")
println(categ.label) // --> TEST
Thanks.

You can encapsulate the "upperCasing" into a factory:
data class Category constructor(val label: String) {
init {
if (label != label.toUpperCase()) {
throw IllegalStateException("Label must be uppercase")
}
}
companion object {
fun createInstance(str: String) = Category(str.toUpperCase())
}
}
The init block ensures, that clients don't create unwanted instances with non-upper labels (which should be documented).
Create an instance like this:
val instance = Category.createInstance("xy")
You might want to make explicit that you do transformations if the parameter is not upper case already by naming the factory accordingly, e.g. withTransformedLabel or simply add some documentation ;-)

Related

Strange Kotlin behaviour using Data Classes in Maps

I'm new to Kotlin and I'm trying to understand it, I've just written a simple example that shows how using data classes with maps is a bit tricky, because it seems to me that data classes have a strange behaviour. By default, they define hashCode() based on every property of the class. But they don't define a default equals() method.
This caused to me a lot of confusion because I created a HashMap with a Data Class as a key, but I didn't override hashCode() and equals(). My data class has a MutableList member. When I put an element in the map, I retrieved it using map.get(dataObject) as long as I didn't add an element to the MutableList. After that, even if the data object was still the same, and I found it using map.keys (map.keys.indexOf(dataObject) works), map.get(dataObject) failed, due to the hashCode().
I can fix it using a normal class or adding hashCode() and equals(), removing the MutableList from hashCode(), but I'm wondering if, due to the default behaviour, overriding hashCode() and equals() should be "mandatory" with data classes because otherwise using them with Maps can lead to errors.
Is there something else I can do to avoid this problem?
package cards
data class Player(val name: String, var cards: MutableList<Card>) {
constructor(name: String): this(name, mutableListOf())
//I don't need to define equals, so pointers are checked. But if I don't override hashCode, as it's based
//on every property, the hashCode is calculated considering the content of the MutableList!
// override fun hashCode(): Int {
// return name.hashCode()
// }
}
data class Card(val name: String, val suite: String)
class Game(val players: List<Player>) {
val cardMap: MutableMap<Player, MutableList<Card>> = mutableMapOf()
fun putIntoMapAndGiveCards() {
val newCards = cardMap.getOrDefault(players[0], mutableListOf())
newCards.add(Card(name = "Four", suite = "Clubs"))
cardMap[players[0]] = newCards
//This changes the default hashCode - I can use data classes in a list, but not in a map, because maps are
//based on it.
players[0].cards.add(Card(name = "Five", suite = "Clubs"))
}
fun getFromMap(): MutableList<Card>? {
val player = players[0]
assert(player != null, { "Player from list failure" })
val indexOfPlayer = cardMap.keys.indexOf(player)
assert(indexOfPlayer == 0, { "Player is in the map" })
//Without overriding hashCode, cards is null!
val cards = cardMap.get(players[0])
assert(cards != null, { "Cards from map failure" })
return cards
}
}
fun main() {
val player1 = Player(name = "John")
val game = Game(mutableListOf(player1))
game.putIntoMapAndGiveCards()
game.getFromMap()
?: throw Exception( """Map.get() failure because Player is a data class.
| A data class by default builds its hashCode with every property. As it contains a MutableList,
| the hashCode changes when I add elements to the list. This means that I can't find the element using get()
""".trimMargin())
println("Test finished!")
}
By default, they define hashCode() based on every property of the class. But they don't define a default equals() method
This is not correct. Data classes generate both equals() and hashCode() consistently based on the properties declared in the data class's primary constructor (same goes for toString() btw).
Here is the decompiled code for equals and hashCode of your Player class:
public int hashCode() {
String var10000 = this.name;
int var1 = (var10000 != null ? var10000.hashCode() : 0) * 31;
List var10001 = this.cards;
return var1 + (var10001 != null ? var10001.hashCode() : 0);
}
public boolean equals(#Nullable Object var1) {
if (this != var1) {
if (var1 instanceof Player) {
Player var2 = (Player)var1;
if (Intrinsics.areEqual(this.name, var2.name) && Intrinsics.areEqual(this.cards, var2.cards)) {
return true;
}
}
return false;
} else {
return true;
}
}
Your problem is that you declare your cards mutable list in the primary constructor so it's part of the generated equals and hashCode.
The solution is to move this cards property to the body of your class instead (since it's not part of the player's "core data", but rather part of the state):
data class Player(val name: String) {
val cards: MutableList<Card> = mutableListOf()
}
This way, the generated equals/hashCode pair will only be based on the name property.
Another option obviously is to override both equals and hashCode manually to take only the name into account, but that's tedious and not very idiomatic.
I'm wondering if, due to the default behaviour, overriding hashCode() and equals() should be "mandatory" with data classes because otherwise using them with Maps can lead to errors.
I think you have misdiagnosed the default behaviour. So I'd say on the contrary overriding equals/hashCode is actually not very idiomatic for data classes, and should in general be avoided.
Using data classes is usually safe in maps, as long as the data in the primary constructor is not mutable.
Side notes
you really should not mix var with mutable collections. It creates 2 ways of changing the collection, which is pretty unexpected and error-prone. You should instead either use a val MutableList or a var List, so you can only change the list via mutation, or only change it via assignment, but not both.
if you want to insert the new value into the map, you shouldn't use getOrDefault + assign the value to the key. Instead, use getOrPut directly, so the default value will be inserted without extra work.
why are you both using a cards property on the Player and a Map<Player, List<Card>>? Looks like you have 2 states that can change independently now because those card lists are independent.

Retrieve data class members

I need to check if any variables inside of my data class are null. To do this I need retrieve them first but I can't access them directly (e.g. myDataClass.name) because I need it to be generic. Is there a way to access these variables without directly naming them. For example, like accessing a member of an array (myArray[0]).
The mechanism you're looking for is called "reflection" and it allows to introspect objects at runtime. You'll find a lot of information on the internet, but just to give you a link you may want to check this answer.
In your case you could do something like this:
data class MyDataClass(
val first: String?,
val second: String?,
val third: Int?
)
fun main() {
val a = MyDataClass("firstValue", "secondValue", 1)
val b = MyDataClass("firstValue", null, null)
printProperties(a)
printProperties(b)
}
fun printProperties(target: MyDataClass) {
val properties = target::class.memberProperties
for (property in properties) {
val value = property.getter.call(target)
val propertyName = property.name
println("$propertyName=$value")
}
}
Note that for this code to work you must add kotlin-reflect package as a dependency.

How to clone object in Kotlin?

The Kotlin documentation describes cloning only in accessing Java and in enum class. In latter case clone is just throwing an exception.
So, how would I / should I clone arbitrary Kotlin object?
Should I just use clone() as in Java?
For a data class, you can use the compiler-generated copy() method. Note that it will perform a shallow copy.
To create a copy of a collection, use the toList() or toSet() methods, depending on the collection type you need. These methods always create a new copy of a collection; they also perform a shallow copy.
For other classes, there is no Kotlin-specific cloning solution. You can use .clone() if it suits your requirements, or build a different solution if it doesn't.
You can use Gson library to convert the original object to a String and then convert back that String to an actual Object type, and you'll have a clone. Although this is not the intended usage of the Gson library which is actually used to convert between JSON and other object types, but I have devised this method to solve the cloning problem in many of my Kotlin based Android applications.
See my example. Put this function in the class/model of which you want to create a clone. In my example I'm cloning an Animal type object so I'll put it in the Animal class
class Animal{
fun clone(): Animal
{
val stringAnimal = Gson().toJson(this, Animal::class.java)
return Gson().fromJson<Animal>(stringAnimal, Animal::class.java)
}
}
Then use it like this:
val originalAnimal = Animal()
val clonedAnimal = originalAnimal.clone()
A Kotlin data class is easy to clone using .copy()
All values will be shallow copied, be sure to handle any list/array contents carefully.
A useful feature of .copy() is the ability to change any of the values at copy time. With this class:
data class MyData(
val count: Int,
val peanuts: Int?,
val name: String
)
val data = MyData(1, null, "Monkey")
You could set values for any of the properties
val copy = data.copy(peanuts = 100, name = "Elephant")
The result in copy would have values (1, 100, "Elephant")
If the class you are trying to clone does not implement Cloneable or is not a data class and is a part of an outside library, you can create an extension method that returns a new instance. For example:
class Person {
var id: String? = null
var name: String? = null
}
fun Person.clone(): Person {
val person = Person()
person.id = id
person.name = name
return person
}
It requires to implement Cloneable for your class then override clone() as a public like:
public override fun clone(): Any {<your_clone_code>}
https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/how-to-use-cloneable/2364/3
fun <T : Any> clone (obj: T): T {
if (!obj::class.isData) {
println(obj)
throw Error("clone is only supported for data classes")
}
val copy = obj::class.memberFunctions.first { it.name == "copy" }
val instanceParam = copy.instanceParameter!!
return copy.callBy(mapOf(
instanceParam to obj
)) as T
}
I've voted for #yole for nice answer, but other ways if you don't (or can't) use data class. You can write helper method like this:
object ModelHelper {
inline fun <reified T : Serializable> mergeFields(from: T, to: T) {
from::class.java.declaredFields.forEach { field ->
val isLocked = field.isAccessible
field.isAccessible = true
field.set(to, field.get(from))
field.isAccessible = isLocked
}
}
}
So you can "copy" instance A into B by:
val bInstance = AClassType()
ModelHelper.mergeFields(aInstance, bInstance)
Sometimes, I use this way to merge data from many instances into one object which value available (not null).
Here is a consistent solution that works for any object type:
Kotlin's Array data structure provides a clone() method that can be used to clone the contents of the array:
val a = arrayOf(1)
//Prints one object reference
println(a)
//Prints a different object reference
println(a.clone())
As of Kotlin 1.3, the clone method has been supported on all major targets, so it should be usable across platforms.
It's also possible to clone an object using kotlinx.serialization
import kotlinx.serialization.Serializable
import kotlinx.serialization.json.Json
import kotlinx.serialization.json.JsonConfiguration
#Serializable
class A
{
val name: String = "Cloneable class A"
fun clone(): A {
val json = Json(JsonConfiguration.Stable)
val jsonStr = json.stringify(serializer(), this)
return json.parse(serializer(), jsonStr)
}
}
Collection copying functions, such as toList(), toMutableList(), toSet() and others, create a snapshot of a collection at a specific moment. Their result is a new collection of the same elements. If you add or remove elements from the original collection, this won't affect the copies. Copies may be changed independently of the source as well.
val alice = Person("Alice")
val sourceList = mutableListOf(alice, Person("Bob"))
val copyList = sourceList.toList()
sourceList.add(Person("Charles"))
alice.name = "Alicia"
println("First item's name is: ${sourceList[0].name} in source and ${copyList[0].name} in copy")
println("List size is: ${sourceList.size} in source and ${copyList.size} in copy")
First item's name is: Alicia in source and Alicia in copy
List size is: 3 in source and 2 in copy
Kotlin Official Document
Sample Screenshot

is it possible to add a template to the getter/setter of a data class?

for example , I want to change all setters this way:
this.a = StringUtils.trim(a);
If it's a java bean, I can do this by modifying the code generating template of the ide. But Intellij seems not support to atomically add getter/setter for kotlin data class.
Is there a way to do this?
There is not a way to do this as of Kotlin 1.1.
A Kotlin data class, for the most part, is a class "to do nothing but hold data".
I think the closest you can get is to validate your data upon class initialization and make your data class properties read-only values. e.g.:
data class Data(val a: String) {
init {
require(a == a.trim())
}
}
The following won't throw an exception:
val a = Data("ab")
val b = a.copy(a = "abc")
While the following will:
val c = a.copy(a = "abc ")
It looks like if you declare the property as private, you can create your own getter/setters for accessing it. This example works for me.
fun main(args: Array<String>) {
var t = test("foo")
t.setHello("bar")
println(t)
}
data class test(private var hello: String) {
fun setHello(blah: String) {
this.hello = blah
}
}
But you will still have an issue when the property is passed in to the constructor. You will probably need to rethink how you are doing this, either declaring the field private and trimming it in the getter, or not using a data class for this instance.

Extension fields in Kotlin

It's easy to write extension methods in Kotlin:
class A { }
class B {
fun A.newFunction() { ... }
}
But is there some way to create extension variable? Like:
class B {
var A.someCounter: Int = 0
}
You can create an extension property with overridden getter and setter:
var A.someProperty: Int
get() = /* return something */
set(value) { /* do something */ }
But you cannot create an extension property with a backing field because you cannot add a field to an existing class.
No - the documentation explains this:
Extensions do not actually modify classes they extend. By defining an extension, you do not insert new members into a class, but merely make new functions callable with the dot-notation on instances of this class.
and
Note that, since extensions do not actually insert members into classes, there’s no efficient way for an extension property to have a backing field. This is why initializers are not allowed for extension properties. Their behavior can only be defined by explicitly providing getters/setters.
Thinking about extension functions/properties as just syntactic sugar for calling a static function and passing in a value hopefully makes this clear.
However, if you really, really want to do something like this...
As stated above regarding efficiency, an additional backing field added directly to the class is the best way to store data non-derivable from existing non-private members from the class. However, if you don't control the implementation of the class and are dead-set on creating a new property that can store new data, it can be done in a way that is not abysmally inefficient by using separate external tables. Use a separate map that keys on object instances of this class with values that map directly to the value you want to add then define an extension getter and/or setter for this property which uses your external table to store the data associated with each instance.
val externalMap = mutableMapOf<ExistingClass, Int>()
var ExistingClass.newExtensionProperty : Int
get() = externalMap[this] ?: 0
set(value:Int) { externalMap[this] = value }
The additional map lookups will cost you - and you need to consider memory leaks, or using appropriately GC-aware types, but it does work.
There's no way to add extension properties with backing fields to classes, because extensions do not actually modify a class.
You can only define an extension property with custom getter (and setter for var) or a delegated property.
However, if you need to define an extension property which would behave as if it had a backing field, delegated properties come in handy.
The idea is to create a property delegate that would store the object-to-value mapping:
using the identity, not equals()/hashCode(), to actually store values for each object, like IdentityHashMap does;
not preventing the key objects from being garbage collected (using weak references), like WeakHashMap does.
Unfortunately, there is no WeakIdentityHashMap in JDK, so you have to implement your own (or take a complete implementation).
Then, based on this mapping you can create a delegate class satisfying the property delegates requirements. Here's an example non-thread-safe implementation:
class FieldProperty<R, T : Any>(
val initializer: (R) -> T = { throw IllegalStateException("Not initialized.") }
) {
private val map = WeakIdentityHashMap<R, T>()
operator fun getValue(thisRef: R, property: KProperty<*>): T =
map[thisRef] ?: setValue(thisRef, property, initializer(thisRef))
operator fun setValue(thisRef: R, property: KProperty<*>, value: T): T {
map[thisRef] = value
return value
}
}
Usage example:
var Int.tag: String by FieldProperty { "$it" }
fun main(args: Array<String>) {
val x = 0
println(x.tag) // 0
val z = 1
println(z.tag) // 1
x.tag = "my tag"
z.tag = x.tag
println(z.tag) // my tag
}
When defined inside a class, the mapping can be stored independently for instances of the class or in a shared delegate object:
private val bATag = FieldProperty<Int, String> { "$it" }
class B() {
var A.someCounter: Int by FieldProperty { 0 } // independent for each instance of B
var A.tag: String by bATag // shared between the instances, but usable only inside B
}
Also, please note that identity is not guaranteed for Java's primitive types due to boxing.
And I suspect the performance of this solution to be significantly worse than that of regular fields, most probably close to normal Map, but that needs further testing.
For nullable properties support and thread-safe implementation please refer to here.
You can't add a field, but you can add a property, that delegates to other properties/methods of the object to implement its accessor(s). For example suppose you want to add a secondsSinceEpoch property to the java.util.Date class, you can write
var Date.secondsSinceEpoch: Long
get() = this.time / 1000
set(value) {
this.time = value * 1000
}
If you are extending View you can do it quite easily like this...
This is example how I create some my custom class Event property in EditText class extension:
Define id for key :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<item name="EditTextEventOnClearTagKey" type="id" />
</resources>
Define one reusable extension like this:
fun <T : Any> View.tagProperty(#IdRes key: Int, onCreate: () -> T): T {
#Suppress("UNCHECKED_CAST")
var value = getTag(key) as? T
if (value.isNull) {
value = onCreate()
setTag(key, value)
}
return value!!
}
Use it in wherever View extension you need:
val EditText.eventClear get() = tagProperty(R.id.EditTextEventOnClearTagKey) { event<Unit>() }