Ignore setter and set property directly - kotlin

Question

I have a class that writes a user to SharedPreferences every time it is set:
class UserManager #Inject constructor(
val prefs: SharedPreferences,
val jsonAdapter: JsonAdapter<User>
) {
companion object {
val USER = "user"
}
var user: User = User()
set(value) {
field = value
prefs.edit().putString(USER, jsonAdapter.toJson(user)).apply()
}
init {
val userString = prefs.getString(USER, null)
if (userString != null) {
user = jsonAdapter.fromJson(userString)
}
}
}
Problem: If the user is set in the init block, it calls the setter and writes the user that we just got from the shared prefs... to the shared prefs.
Question 1: How can I directly set the property from the init block?
Question 2: Why do I have to initialize the User when I define a custom setter, but can omit the initialization when the default setter is used?

Answer 1

You need to directily initiliaze the property with the correct value. You can do this using the run function from the stdlib:
class UserManager #Inject constructor(
val prefs: SharedPreferences,
val jsonAdapter: JsonAdapter<User>
) {
companion object {
val USER = "user"
}
var user: User = run {
val userString = prefs.getString(USER, null)
if (userString != null) {
jsonAdapter.fromJson(userString)
} else {
User()
}
}
set(value) {
field = value
prefs.edit().putString(USER, jsonAdapter.toJson(user)).apply()
}
}
Shorter syntax proposed by Ilya Ryzhenkov on the Kotlin Slack:
var user: User = prefs.getString(USER, null)?.let { jsonAdapter.fromJson(it) } ?: User()
set(value) {
field = value
prefs.edit().putString(USER, jsonAdapter.toJson(user)).apply()
}

Answer 2

I believe the best solution is to use the 'backing property' concept described here: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/properties.html#backing-properties
private var _table: Map<String, Int>? = null
public val table: Map<String, Int>
get() {
if (_table == null)
_table = HashMap() // Type parameters are inferred
return _table ?: throw AssertionError("Set to null by another thread")
}
Then initialize the backing property in the constructor and do <backingproperty> = value instead of field = value as well as point the getter to the backing property.

Answer 3

Take a look at by map delegate, seems like this is the pattern you want:
class User(val map: MutableMap<String, Any?>) {
var name: String by map
var age: Int by map
}
https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/delegated-properties.html#storing-properties-in-a-map