Kotlin Starter Pack
In this section you'll find some basics syntax to start coding with Kotlin.
Variables
Kotlin provides two way to declare variable.
- Immutable (read-only) variable:
Using the keyword valmeans that your variable could be assign just once.
immediate assignment
val a: Int = 1
variable's type can be inferred
val b = 2 // `Int`
deferred assignment
val c: Int // type is required when there is no initializer
c = 3
- Mutable (read/write) variable:
Using the keyword var allow you to declare mutable variables.
String templates
String are made easier with Kotlin, more convinient to use, and more readable.
Simple templates
Here is a more interesting part. You may be able to invoke piece of code inside a template, avoiding lots of boilerplate code.
String manipulation
Math expression
Control expressions
if statement becomes an expression
To compare two values, you would write the following code
In Kotlin, if can be an expression, that means that you can assign a variable or return the if directly.
Previous snippet can be write as follow.
Or, in idiomatic Kotlin (c.f. part 3. on Functions)
fun max(a: Int, b: Int) = if (a > b) a else b
when expression
If you were familiar to the switch statement from other language like Java, you won't find it in Kotlin. It has
been replaced by the when expression.
You can use when to evaluate objects and return a result.
To go further, when allow you to make some condition by mixing values, ranges, Types, etc. The when expression will
try to match with every branches sequentially and stop at the first satisfied condition.
A third one, you can use when without any input value, like in this snippet.
when {
obj1 is Person -> goToRestaurant()
obj2 is Animal -> feedTheDog()
}
Loops
For loops
for works on anything that's iterable. You may think of it as a foreach, like in Java's lambda or C#.
A combination of Kotlin's features, makes for even more convinient. By desctructuring we can iterate over a
collection with indexes:
While loops
while works as in many languages