Kotlin Docs

Kotlin Language Documentation
Table of Contents
Overview 4
Using Kotlin for Server-side Development 4
Using Kotlin for Android Development 6
Kotlin JavaScript Overview 7
Kotlin/Native 8
What's New in Kotlin 1.1 9
Getting Started 18
Basic Syntax 18
Idioms 24
Coding Conventions 29
Basics 31
Basic Types 31
Packages 36
Control Flow: if, when, for, while 38
Returns and Jumps 41
Classes and Objects 43
Classes and Inheritance 43
Properties and Fields 49
Interfaces 52
Visibility Modifiers 54
Extensions 56
Data Classes 61
Sealed Classes 63
Generics 64
Nested and Inner Classes 69
Enum Classes 70
Object Expressions and Declarations 72
Delegation 76
Delegated Properties 77
Functions and Lambdas 83
Functions 83
Higher-Order Functions and Lambdas 89
Inline Functions 94
Coroutines 97
Other 102
Destructuring Declarations 102
Collections: List, Set, Map 104
Ranges 106
2
Type Checks and Casts: 'is' and 'as' 109
This Expression 111
Equality 112
Operator overloading 113
Null Safety 116
Exceptions 119
Annotations 121
Reflection 125
Type-Safe Builders 129
Multiplatform Projects (Preview) 135
Reference 139
Keywords and Operators 139
Grammar 143
Notation 143
Semicolons 143
Syntax 143
Lexical structure 151
Compatibility 153
Java Interop 156
Calling Java code from Kotlin 156
Calling Kotlin from Java 166
JavaScript 173
Dynamic Type 173
Calling JavaScript from Kotlin 175
Calling Kotlin from JavaScript 178
JavaScript Modules 180
JavaScript Reflection 183
JavaScript DCE 184
Example 184
Tools 185
Documenting Kotlin Code 185
Annotation processing with Kotlin 188
Using Gradle 191
Using Maven 196
Using Ant 202
Kotlin and OSGi 205
Compiler Plugins 206
FAQ 211
FAQ 211
Comparison to Java Programming Language 214
3
Overview
Using Kotlin for Server-side Development
Kotlin is a great t for developing server-side applications, allowing to write concise and expressive code while maintaining full
compatibility with existing Java-based technology stacks and a smooth learning curve:
Expressiveness: Kotlin's innovative language features, such as its support for type-safe builders and delegated properties,
help build powerful and easy-to-use abstractions.
Scalability: Kotlin's support for coroutines helps build server-side applications that scale to massive numbers of clients with
modest hardware requirements.
Interoperability: Kotlin is fully compatible with all Java-based frameworks, which lets you stay on your familiar technology
stack while reaping the benets of a more modern language.
Migration: Kotlin supports gradual, step by step migration of large codebases from Java to Kotlin. You can start writing new
code in Kotlin while keeping older parts of your system in Java.
Tooling: In addition to great IDE support in general, Kotlin oers framework-specic tooling (for example, for Spring) in the
plugin for IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate.
Learning Curve: For a Java developer, getting started with Kotlin is very easy. The automated Java to Kotlin converter
included in the Kotlin plugin helps with the rst steps. Kotlin Koans oer a guide through the key features of the language
with a series of interactive exercises.
Frameworks for Server-side Development with Kotlin

Spring makes use of Kotlin's language features to oer more concise APIs, starting with version 5.0. The online project
generator allows to quickly generate a new project in Kotlin.
Vert.x, a framework for building reactive Web applications on the JVM, oers dedicated support for Kotlin, including full
documentation.
Ktor is a Kotlin-native Web framework built by JetBrains, making use of coroutines for high scalability and oering an easy-to-
use and idiomatic API.
kotlinx.html is a DSL that can be used to build HTML in a Web application. It serves as an alternative to traditional templating
systems such as JSP and FreeMarker.
The available options for persistence include direct JDBC access, JPA, as well as using NoSQL databases through their Java
drivers. For JPA, the kotlin-jpa compiler plugin adapts Kotlin-compiled classes to the requirements of the framework.
Deploying Kotlin Server-side Applications

Kotlin applications can be deployed into any host that supports Java Web applications, including Amazon Web Services, Google
Cloud Platform and more.
To deploy Kotlin applications on Heroku, you can follow the ocial Heroku tutorial.
AWS Labs provides a sample project showing the use of Kotlin for writing AWS Lambda functions.
Users of Kotlin on the Server Side

Corda is an open-source distributed ledger platform, supported by major banks, and built entirely in Kotlin.
JetBrains Account, the system responsible for the entire license sales and validation process at JetBrains, is written in 100%
Kotlin and has been running in production since 2015 with no major issues.
4
Next Steps
The Creating Web Applications with Http Servlets and Creating a RESTful Web Service with Spring Boot tutorials show you
how you can build and run very small Web applications in Kotlin.
For a more in-depth introduction to the language, check out the reference documentation on this site and Kotlin Koans.
5
Using Kotlin for Android Development
Kotlin is a great t for developing Android applications, bringing all of the advantages of a modern language to the Android
platform without introducing any new restrictions:
Compatibility: Kotlin is fully compatible with JDK 6, ensuring that Kotlin applications can run on older Android devices with
no issues. The Kotlin tooling is fully supported in Android Studio and compatible with the Android build system.
Performance: A Kotlin application runs as fast as an equivalent Java one, thanks to very similar bytecode structure. With
Kotlin's support for inline functions, code using lambdas often runs even faster than the same code written in Java.
Interoperability: Kotlin is 100% interoperable with Java, allowing to use all existing Android libraries in a Kotlin application.
This includes annotation processing, so databinding and Dagger work too.
Footprint: Kotlin has a very compact runtime library, which can be further reduced through the use of ProGuard. In a real
application, the Kotlin runtime adds only a few hundred methods and less than 100K to the size of the .apk le.
Compilation Time: Kotlin supports ecient incremental compilation, so while there's some additional overhead for clean
builds, incremental builds are usually as fast or faster than with Java.
Learning Curve: For a Java developer, getting started with Kotlin is very easy. The automated Java to Kotlin converter
included in the Kotlin plugin helps with the rst steps. Kotlin Koans oer a guide through the key features of the language
with a series of interactive exercises.
Kotlin for Android Case Studies

Kotlin has been successfully adopted by major companies, and a few of them have shared their experiences:
Pinterest has successfully introduced Kotlin into their application, used by 150M people every month.
Basecamp's Android app is 100% Kotlin code, and they report a huge dierence in programmer happiness and great
improvements in work quality and speed.
Keepsafe's App Lock app has also been converted to 100% Kotlin, leading to a 30% decrease in source line count and 10%
decrease in method count.
Tools for Android Development

The Kotlin team oers a set of tools for Android development that goes beyond the standard language features:
Kotlin Android Extensions is a compiler extension that allows you to get rid of findViewById() calls in your code and to
replace them with synthetic compiler-generated properties.
Anko is a library providing a set of Kotlin-friendly wrappers around the Android APIs, as well as a DSL that lets your replace
your layout .xml les with Kotlin code.
Next Steps
Download an install Android Studio 3.0, which includes Kotlin support out of the box.
Follow the Getting Started with Android and Kotlin tutorial to create your rst Kotlin application.
For a more in-depth introduction, check out the reference documentation on this site and Kotlin Koans.
Another great resource is Kotlin for Android Developers, a book that guides you step by step through the process of
creating a real Android application in Kotlin.
Check out Google's sample projects written in Kotlin.
6
Kotlin JavaScript Overview
Kotlin provides the ability to target JavaScript. It does so by transpiling Kotlin to JavaScript. The current implementation targets
ECMAScript 5.1 but there are plans to eventually target ECMAScript 2015 also.
When you choose the JavaScript target, any Kotlin code that is part of the project as well as the standard library that ships with
Kotlin is transpiled to JavaScript. However, this excludes the JDK and any JVM or Java framework or library used. Any le that is not
Kotlin will be ignored during compilation.
The Kotlin compiler tries to comply with the following goals:
Provide output that is optimal in size

Provide output that is readable JavaScript
Provide interoperability with existing module systems
Provide the same functionality in the standard library whether targeting JavaScript or the JVM (to the largest possible degree).
How can it be used

You may want to compile Kotlin to JavaScript in the following scenarios:
Creating Kotlin code that targets client-side JavaScript
Interacting with DOM elements. Kotlin provides a series of statically typed interfaces to interact with the Document
Object Model, allowing creation and update of DOM elements.
Interacting with graphics such as WebGL. You can use Kotlin to create graphical elements on a web page using
WebGL.
Creating Kotlin code that targets server-side JavaScript
Working with server-side technology. You can use Kotlin to interact with server-side JavaScript such as node.js
Kotlin can be used together with existing third-party libraries and frameworks, such as JQuery or ReactJS. To access third-party
frameworks with a strongly-typed API, you can convert TypeScript denitions from the Denitely Typed type denitions repository
to Kotlin using the ts2kt tool. Alternatively, you can use the dynamic type to access any framework without strong typing.
Kotlin is also compatible with CommonJS, AMD and UMD, making interaction with dierent module systems straightforward.
Getting Started with Kotlin to JavaScript

To nd out how to start using Kotlin for JavaScript, please refer to the tutorials.
7
Kotlin/Native
Kotlin/Native is a technology for compiling Kotlin to native binaries that run without any VM. It comprises a LLVM-based backend
for the Kotlin compiler and a native implementation of the Kotlin runtime library. Kotlin/Native is primarily designed to allow
compilation for platforms where virtual machines are not desirable or possible (such as iOS, embedded targets), or where a
developer needs to produce a reasonably-sized self-contained program that does not require an additional runtime.
Kotlin/Native fully supports interoperability with native code. For platform libraries, the corresponding interop libraries are available
out of the box. For other libraries, we provide a tool to generate an interop library from a C header le, with full support for all C
language features. On macOS and iOS, interoperability with Objective/C code is also supported.
Kotlin/Native is currently in development; preview releases are available for you to try. IDE support for Kotlin/Native is available as
plugins for CLion.
Target Platforms
Kotlin/Native currently supports the following platforms:
Windows (x86_64 only at the moment)

Linux (x86_64, arm32, MIPS, MIPS little endian)
MacOS (x86_64)
iOS (arm64 only)
Android (arm32 and arm64)
WebAssembly (wasm32 only)
Sample Projects
We've built a number of sample projects to showcase the possibilities of Kotlin/Native:
The Kotlin/Native GitHub repository contains a number of sample projects;

The KotlinConf Spinner app is a simple cross-platform mobile multiplayer game fully built in Kotlin/Native, consisting of the
following components:
a backend, using SQLite for data storage and exposing a REST/JSON API;
mobile clients for iOS and Android, using OpenGL;
a WebAssembly-based browser frontend for viewing the game scores.
The KotlinConf app is an iOS app with a UIKit-based UI, showcasing the Objective/C interop facilities of Kotlin/Native.
8
What's New in Kotlin 1.1
Table of Contents
Coroutines
Other language features
Standard library
JVM backend
JavaScript backend
JavaScript
Starting with Kotlin 1.1, the JavaScript target is no longer considered experimental. All language features are supported, and
there are many new tools for integration with the front-end development environment. See below for a more detailed list of
changes.
Coroutines (experimental)
The key new feature in Kotlin 1.1 is coroutines , bringing the support of async / await , yield and similar programming
patterns. The key feature of Kotlin's design is that the implementation of coroutine execution is part of the libraries, not the
language, so you aren't bound to any specic programming paradigm or concurrency library.
A coroutine is eectively a light-weight thread that can be suspended and resumed later. Coroutines are supported through
suspending functions : a call to such a function can potentially suspend a coroutine, and to start a new coroutine we usually use
an anonymous suspending functions (i.e. suspending lambdas).
Let's look at async / await which is implemented in an external library, kotlinx.coroutines:
// runs the code in the background thread pool

fun asyncOverlay() = async(CommonPool) {
// start two async operations
val original = asyncLoadImage("original")
val overlay = asyncLoadImage("overlay")
// and then apply overlay to both results
applyOverlay(original.await(), overlay.await())
}
// launches new coroutine in UI context

launch(UI) {
// wait for async overlay to complete
val image = asyncOverlay().await()
// and then show it in UI
showImage(image)
}
Here, async { ... } starts a coroutine and, when we use await() , the execution of the coroutine is suspended while the
operation being awaited is executed, and is resumed (possibly on a dierent thread) when the operation being awaited
completes.
The standard library uses coroutines to support lazily generated sequences with yield and yieldAll functions. In such a
sequence, the block of code that returns sequence elements is suspended after each element has been retrieved, and
resumed when the next element is requested. Here's an example:
9
val seq = buildSequence {
for (i in 1..5) {
// yield a square of i
yield(i * i)
}
// yield a range
yieldAll(26..28)
}
// print the sequence

println(seq.toList())
Run the code above to see the result. Feel free to edit it and run again!
For more information, please refer to the coroutine documentation and tutorial.
Note that coroutines are currently considered an experimental feature, meaning that the Kotlin team is not committing to
supporting the backwards compatibility of this feature after the nal 1.1 release.
Other Language Features
Type aliases
A type alias allows you to dene an alternative name for an existing type. This is most useful for generic types such as
collections, as well as for function types. Here is an example:
typealias OscarWinners = Map<String, String>
fun countLaLaLand(oscarWinners: OscarWinners) =

oscarWinners.count { it.value.contains("La La Land") }
// Note that the type names (initial and the type alias) are interchangeable:
fun checkLaLaLandIsTheBestMovie(oscarWinners: Map<String, String>) =
oscarWinners["Best picture"] == "La La Land"
See the documentation and KEEP for more details.
Bound callable references
You can now use the :: operator to get a member reference pointing to a method or property of a specic object instance.
Previously this could only be expressed with a lambda. Here's an example:
val numberRegex = "\\d+".toRegex()

val numbers = listOf("abc", "123", "456").filter(numberRegex::matches)
Read the documentation and KEEP for more details.
Sealed and data classes
Kotlin 1.1 removes some of the restrictions on sealed and data classes that were present in Kotlin 1.0. Now you can dene
subclasses of a top-level sealed class on the top level in the same le, and not just as nested classes of the sealed class. Data
classes can now extend other classes. This can be used to dene a hierarchy of expression classes nicely and cleanly:
10
sealed class Expr
data class Const(val number: Double) : Expr()

data class Sum(val e1: Expr, val e2: Expr) : Expr()
object NotANumber : Expr()
fun eval(expr: Expr): Double = when (expr) {

is Const -> expr.number
is Sum -> eval(expr.e1) + eval(expr.e2)
NotANumber -> Double.NaN
}
val e = eval(Sum(Const(1.0), Const(2.0)))
Read the documentation or sealed class and data class KEEPs for more detail.
Destructuring in lambdas
You can now use the destructuring declaration syntax to unpack the arguments passed to a lambda. Here's an example:
val map = mapOf(1 to "one", 2 to "two")

// before
println(map.mapValues { entry ->
val (key, value) = entry
"$key -> $value!"
})
// now
println(map.mapValues { (key, value) -> "$key -> $value!" })
Underscores for unused parameters
For a lambda with multiple parameters, you can use the _ character to replace the names of the parameters you don't use:
map.forEach { _, value -> println("$value!") }
This also works in destructuring declarations:
val (_, status) = getResult()
Read the KEEP for more details.
Underscores in numeric literals
Just as in Java 8, Kotlin now allows to use underscores in numeric literals to separate groups of digits:
val oneMillion = 1_000_000

val hexBytes = 0xFF_EC_DE_5E
val bytes = 0b11010010_01101001_10010100_10010010
Shorter syntax for properties
For properties with the getter dened as an expression body, the property type can now be omitted:
data class Person(val name: String, val age: Int) {

val isAdult get() = age >= 20 // Property type inferred to be 'Boolean'
}
11
Inline property accessors
You can now mark property accessors with the inline modier if the properties don't have a backing eld. Such accessors are
compiled in the same way as inline functions.
public val <T> List<T>.lastIndex: Int

inline get() = this.size - 1
You can also mark the entire property as inline - then the modier is applied to both accessors.
Local delegated properties
You can now use the delegated property syntax with local variables. One possible use is dening a lazily evaluated local variable:
val answer by lazy {

println("Calculating the answer...")
42
}
if (needAnswer()) { // returns the random value
println("The answer is $answer.") // answer is calculated at this point
}
else {
println("Sometimes no answer is the answer...")
}
Interception of delegated property binding
For delegated properties, it is now possible to intercept delegate to property binding using the provideDelegate operator. For
example, if we want to check the property name before binding, we can write something like this:
class ResourceLoader<T>(id: ResourceID<T>) {

operator fun provideDelegate(thisRef: MyUI, prop: KProperty<*>): ReadOnlyProperty<MyUI, T> {
checkProperty(thisRef, prop.name)
... // property creation
}
private fun checkProperty(thisRef: MyUI, name: String) { ... }

}
fun <T> bindResource(id: ResourceID<T>): ResourceLoader<T> { ... }
class MyUI {
val image by bindResource(ResourceID.image_id)
val text by bindResource(ResourceID.text_id)
}
The provideDelegate method will be called for each property during the creation of a MyUI instance, and it can perform the
necessary validation right away.
Read the documentation for more details.
Generic enum value access
It is now possible to enumerate the values of an enum class in a generic way.
12
enum class RGB { RED, GREEN, BLUE }
inline fun <reified T : Enum<T>> printAllValues() {

print(enumValues<T>().joinToString { it.name })
}
Scope control for implicit receivers in DSLs
The @DslMarker annotation allows to restrict the use of receivers from outer scopes in a DSL context. Consider the canonical
HTML builder example:
table {
tr {
td { +"Text" }
}
}
In Kotlin 1.0, code in the lambda passed to td has access to three implicit receivers: the one passed to table , to tr and to
td . This allows you to call methods that make no sense in the context - for example to call tr inside td and thus to put a
<tr> tag in a <td> .
In Kotlin 1.1, you can restrict that, so that only methods dened on the implicit receiver of td will be available inside the lambda
passed to td . You do that by dening your annotation marked with the @DslMarker meta-annotation and applying it to the
base class of the tag classes.
rem operator
The mod operator is now deprecated, and rem is used instead. See this issue for motivation.
Standard library
String to number conversions
There is a bunch of new extensions on the String class to convert it to a number without throwing an exception on invalid
number: String.toIntOrNull(): Int? , String.toDoubleOrNull(): Double? etc.
val port = System.getenv("PORT")?.toIntOrNull() ?: 80
Also integer conversion functions, like Int.toString() , String.toInt() , String.toIntOrNull() , each got an overload with
radix parameter, which allows to specify the base of conversion (2 to 36).
onEach()
onEach is a small, but useful extension function for collections and sequences, which allows to perform some action, possibly
with side-eects, on each element of the collection/sequence in a chain of operations. On iterables it behaves like forEach but
also returns the iterable instance further. And on sequences it returns a wrapping sequence, which applies the given action
lazily as the elements are being iterated.
inputDir.walk()
.filter { it.isFile && it.name.endsWith(".txt") }
.onEach { println("Moving $it to $outputDir") }
.forEach { moveFile(it, File(outputDir, it.toRelativeString(inputDir))) }
also(), takeIf() and takeUnless()
These are three general-purpose extension functions applicable to any receiver.
13
also is like apply : it takes the receiver, does some action on it, and returns that receiver. The dierence is that in the block
inside apply the receiver is available as this , while in the block inside also it's available as it (and you can give it another
name if you want). This comes handy when you do not want to shadow this from the outer scope:
fun Block.copy() = Block().also {

it.content = this.content
}
takeIf is like filter for a single value. It checks whether the receiver meets the predicate, and returns the receiver, if it does
or null if it doesn't. Combined with an elvis-operator and early returns it allows to write constructs like:
val outDirFile = File(outputDir.path).takeIf { it.exists() } ?: return false

// do something with existing outDirFile
val index = input.indexOf(keyword).takeIf { it >= 0 } ?: error("keyword not found")

// do something with index of keyword in input string, given that it's found
takeUnless is the same as takeIf , but it takes the inverted predicate. It returns the receiver when it doesn't meet the
predicate and null otherwise. So one of the examples above could be rewritten with takeUnless as following:
val index = input.indexOf(keyword).takeUnless { it < 0 } ?: error("keyword not found")
It is also convenient to use when you have a callable reference instead of the lambda:
val result = string.takeUnless(String::isEmpty)
groupingBy()
This API can be used to group a collection by key and fold each group simultaneously. For example, it can be used to count the
number of words starting with each letter:
val frequencies = words.groupingBy { it.first() }.eachCount()
Map.toMap() and Map.toMutableMap()
These functions can be used for easy copying of maps:
class ImmutablePropertyBag(map: Map<String, Any>) {

private val mapCopy = map.toMap()
}
Map.minus(key)
The operator plus provides a way to add key-value pair(s) to a read-only map producing a new map, however there was not a
simple way to do the opposite: to remove a key from the map you have to resort to less straightforward ways to like
Map.filter() or Map.filterKeys() . Now the operator minus lls this gap. There are 4 overloads available: for removing a
single key, a collection of keys, a sequence of keys and an array of keys.
val map = mapOf("key" to 42)

val emptyMap = map - "key"
minOf() and maxOf()
These functions can be used to nd the lowest and greatest of two or three given values, where values are primitive numbers
or Comparable objects. There is also an overload of each function that take an additional Comparator instance, if you want to
compare objects that are not comparable themselves.
14
val list1 = listOf("a", "b")
val list2 = listOf("x", "y", "z")
val minSize = minOf(list1.size, list2.size)
val longestList = maxOf(list1, list2, compareBy { it.size })
Array-like List instantiation functions
Similar to the Array constructor, there are now functions that create List and MutableList instances and initialize each
element by calling a lambda:
val squares = List(10) { index -> index * index }

val mutable = MutableList(10) { 0 }
Map.getValue()
This extension on Map returns an existing value corresponding to the given key or throws an exception, mentioning which key
was not found. If the map was produced with withDefault , this function will return the default value instead of throwing an
exception.
val map = mapOf("key" to 42)

// returns non-nullable Int value 42
val value: Int = map.getValue("key")
val mapWithDefault = map.withDefault { k -> k.length }

// returns 4
val value2 = mapWithDefault.getValue("key2")
// map.getValue("anotherKey") // <- this will throw NoSuchElementException
Abstract collections
These abstract classes can be used as base classes when implementing Kotlin collection classes. For implementing read-only
collections there are AbstractCollection , AbstractList , AbstractSet and AbstractMap , and for mutable collections there
are AbstractMutableCollection , AbstractMutableList , AbstractMutableSet and AbstractMutableMap . On JVM these
abstract mutable collections inherit most of their functionality from JDK's abstract collections.
Array manipulation functions
The standard library now provides a set of functions for element-by-element operations on arrays: comparison ( contentEquals
and contentDeepEquals ), hash code calculation ( contentHashCode and contentDeepHashCode ), and conversion to a string
( contentToString and contentDeepToString ). They're supported both for the JVM (where they act as aliases for the
corresponding functions in java.util.Arrays ) and for JS (where the implementation is provided in the Kotlin standard library).
val array = arrayOf("a", "b", "c")

println(array.toString()) // JVM implementation: type-and-hash gibberish
println(array.contentToString()) // nicely formatted as list
JVM Backend
Java 8 bytecode support
Kotlin has now the option of generating Java 8 bytecode ( -jvm-target 1.8 command line option or the corresponding options
in Ant/Maven/Gradle). For now this doesn't change the semantics of the bytecode (in particular, default methods in interfaces
and lambdas are generated exactly as in Kotlin 1.0), but we plan to make further use of this later.
Java 8 standard library support
15
There are now separate versions of the standard library supporting the new JDK APIs added in Java 7 and 8. If you need access
to the new APIs, use kotlin-stdlib-jre7 and kotlin-stdlib-jre8 maven artifacts instead of the standard kotlin-stdlib .
These artifacts are tiny extensions on top of kotlin-stdlib and they bring it to your project as a transitive dependency.
Parameter names in the bytecode
Kotlin now supports storing parameter names in the bytecode. This can be enabled using the -java-parameters command
line option.
Constant inlining
The compiler now inlines values of const val properties into the locations where they are used.
Mutable closure variables
The box classes used for capturing mutable closure variables in lambdas no longer have volatile elds. This change improves
performance, but can lead to new race conditions in some rare usage scenarios. If you're aected by this, you need to provide
your own synchronization for accessing the variables.
javax.script support
Kotlin now integrates with the javax.script API (JSR-223). The API allows to evaluate snippets of code at runtime:
val engine = ScriptEngineManager().getEngineByExtension("kts")!!

engine.eval("val x = 3")
println(engine.eval("x + 2")) // Prints out 5
See here for a larger example project using the API.
kotlin.re ect.full
To prepare for Java 9 support, the extension functions and properties in the kotlin-reflect.jar library have been moved to
the package kotlin.reflect.full . The names in the old package ( kotlin.reflect ) are deprecated and will be removed in
Kotlin 1.2. Note that the core reection interfaces (such as KClass ) are part of the Kotlin standard library, not kotlin-reflect ,
and are not aected by the move.
JavaScript Backend
Uni ed standard library
A much larger part of the Kotlin standard library can now be used from code compiled to JavaScript. In particular, key classes
such as collections ( ArrayList , HashMap etc.), exceptions ( IllegalArgumentException etc.) and a few others
( StringBuilder , Comparator ) are now dened under the kotlin package. On the JVM, the names are type aliases for the
corresponding JDK classes, and on the JS, the classes are implemented in the Kotlin standard library.
Better code generation
JavaScript backend now generates more statically checkable code, which is friendlier to JS code processing tools, like miniers,
optimisers, linters, etc.
The external modi er
If you need to access a class implemented in JavaScript from Kotlin in a typesafe way, you can write a Kotlin declaration using the
external modier. (In Kotlin 1.0, the @native annotation was used instead.) Unlike the JVM target, the JS one permits to use
external modier with classes and properties. For example, here's how you can declare the DOM Node class:
16
external class Node {
val firstChild: Node
fun appendChild(child: Node): Node
fun removeChild(child: Node): Node
// etc
}
Improved import handling
You can now describe declarations which should be imported from JavaScript modules more precisely. If you add the
@JsModule("<module-name>") annotation on an external declaration it will be properly imported to a module system (either
CommonJS or AMD) during the compilation. For example, with CommonJS the declaration will be imported via require(...)
function. Additionally, if you want to import a declaration either as a module or as a global JavaScript object, you can use the
@JsNonModule annotation.
For example, here's how you can import JQuery into a Kotlin module:
external interface JQuery {

fun toggle(duration: Int = definedExternally): JQuery
fun click(handler: (Event) -> Unit): JQuery
}
@JsModule("jquery")
@JsNonModule
@JsName("$")
external fun jquery(selector: String): JQuery
In this case, JQuery will be imported as a module named jquery . Alternatively, it can be used as a $-object, depending on what
module system Kotlin compiler is congured to use.
You can use these declarations in your application like this:
fun main(args: Array<String>) {

jquery(".toggle-button").click {
jquery(".toggle-panel").toggle(300)
}
}
17
Getting Started
Basic Syntax
De ning packages
Package specication should be at the top of the source le:
package my.demo
import java.util.*
// ...
It is not required to match directories and packages: source les can be placed arbitrarily in the le system.
See Packages.
De ning functions
Function having two Int parameters with Int return type:
fun sum(a: Int, b: Int): Int {

return a + b
}
Function with an expression body and inferred return type:
fun sum(a: Int, b: Int) = a + b
Function returning no meaningful value:
fun printSum(a: Int, b: Int): Unit {

println("sum of $a and $b is ${a + b}")
}
Unit return type can be omitted:
fun printSum(a: Int, b: Int) {

println("sum of $a and $b is ${a + b}")
}
See Functions.
De ning variables
Assign-once (read-only) local variable:
18
val a: Int = 1 // immediate assignment
val b = 2 // Ìnt` type is inferred
val c: Int // Type required when no initializer is provided
c = 3 // deferred assignment
Mutable variable:
var x = 5 // Ìnt` type is inferred

x += 1
Top-level variables:
val PI = 3.14
var x = 0
fun incrementX() {
x += 1
}
See also Properties And Fields.
Comments
Just like Java and JavaScript, Kotlin supports end-of-line and block comments.
// This is an end-of-line comment
/* This is a block comment

on multiple lines. */
Unlike Java, block comments in Kotlin can be nested.
See Documenting Kotlin Code for information on the documentation comment syntax.
Using string templates
var a = 1
// simple name in template:
val s1 = "a is $a"
a = 2
// arbitrary expression in template:
val s2 = "${s1.replace("is", "was")}, but now is $a"
See String templates.
Using conditional expressions
fun maxOf(a: Int, b: Int): Int {

if (a > b) {
return a
} else {
return b
}
}
Using if as an expression:
fun maxOf(a: Int, b: Int) = if (a > b) a else b
19
See if-expressions.
Using nullable values and checking for null

A reference must be explicitly marked as nullable when null value is possible.
Return null if str does not hold an integer:
fun parseInt(str: String): Int? {

// ...
}
Use a function returning nullable value:
fun printProduct(arg1: String, arg2: String) {

val x = parseInt(arg1)
val y = parseInt(arg2)
// Using `x * y` yields error because they may hold nulls.

if (x != null && y != null) {
// x and y are automatically cast to non-nullable after null check
println(x * y)
}
else {
println("either '$arg1' or '$arg2' is not a number")
}
}
or
// ...
if (x == null) {
println("Wrong number format in arg1: '$arg1'")
return
}
if (y == null) {
println("Wrong number format in arg2: '$arg2'")
return
}
// x and y are automatically cast to non-nullable after null check

println(x * y)
See Null-safety.
Using type checks and automatic casts

The is operator checks if an expression is an instance of a type. If an immutable local variable or property is checked for a
specic type, there's no need to cast it explicitly:
fun getStringLength(obj: Any): Int? {

if (obj is String) {
// òbj` is automatically cast to `String` in this branch
return obj.length
}
// òbj` is still of type Àny` outside of the type-checked branch

return null
}
or
20
if (obj !is String) return null
// òbj` is automatically cast to `String` in this branch

return obj.length
}
or even

// òbj` is automatically cast to `String` on the right-hand side of `&&`
if (obj is String && obj.length > 0) {
return obj.length
}
return null
}
See Classes and Type casts.
Using a for loop
val items = listOf("apple", "banana", "kiwi")

for (item in items) {
println(item)
}
or

for (index in items.indices) {
println("item at $index is ${items[index]}")
}
See for loop.
Using a while loop

var index = 0
while (index < items.size) {
println("item at $index is ${items[index]}")
index++
}
See while loop.
Using when expression
fun describe(obj: Any): String =

when (obj) {
1 -> "One"
"Hello" -> "Greeting"
is Long -> "Long"
!is String -> "Not a string"
else -> "Unknown"
}
See when expression.
21
Using ranges
Check if a number is within a range using in operator:
val x = 10
val y = 9
if (x in 1..y+1) {
println("fits in range")
}
Check if a number is out of range:
val list = listOf("a", "b", "c")
if (-1 !in 0..list.lastIndex) {

println("-1 is out of range")
}
if (list.size !in list.indices) {
println("list size is out of valid list indices range too")
}
Iterating over a range:
for (x in 1..5) {
print(x)
}
or over a progression:
for (x in 1..10 step 2) {

print(x)
}
for (x in 9 downTo 0 step 3) {
print(x)
}
See Ranges.
Using collections
Iterating over a collection:
for (item in items) {

println(item)
}
Checking if a collection contains an object using in operator:
when {
"orange" in items -> println("juicy")
"apple" in items -> println("apple is fine too")
}
Using lambda expressions to lter and map collections:
fruits
.filter { it.startsWith("a") }
.sortedBy { it }
.map { it.toUpperCase() }
.forEach { println(it) }
22
See Higher-order functions and Lambdas.
Creating basic classes and their instances:
val rectangle = Rectangle(5.0, 2.0) //no 'new' keyword required

val triangle = Triangle(3.0, 4.0, 5.0)
See classes and objects and instances.
23
Idioms
A collection of random and frequently used idioms in Kotlin. If you have a favorite idiom, contribute it by sending a pull request.
Creating DTOs (POJOs/POCOs)
data class Customer(val name: String, val email: String)
provides a Customer class with the following functionality:
getters (and setters in case of vars) for all properties

equals()
hashCode()
toString()
copy()
component1() , component2() , , for all properties (see Data classes)
Default values for function parameters
fun foo(a: Int = 0, b: String = "") { ... }
Filtering a list
val positives = list.filter { x -> x > 0 }
Or alternatively, even shorter:
val positives = list.filter { it > 0 }
String Interpolation
println("Name $name")
Instance Checks
when (x) {
is Foo -> ...
is Bar -> ...
else -> ...
}
Traversing a map/list of pairs
for ((k, v) in map) {

println("$k -> $v")
}
k , v can be called anything.
Using ranges
24
for (i in 1..100) { ... } // closed range: includes 100
for (i in 1 until 100) { ... } // half-open range: does not include 100
for (x in 2..10 step 2) { ... }
for (x in 10 downTo 1) { ... }
if (x in 1..10) { ... }
Read-only list
val list = listOf("a", "b", "c")
Read-only map
val map = mapOf("a" to 1, "b" to 2, "c" to 3)
Accessing a map
println(map["key"])
map["key"] = value
Lazy property
val p: String by lazy {

// compute the string
}
Extension Functions
fun String.spaceToCamelCase() { ... }
"Convert this to camelcase".spaceToCamelCase()
Creating a singleton
object Resource {
val name = "Name"
}
If not null shorthand
val files = File("Test").listFiles()
println(files?.size)
If not null and else shorthand
val files = File("Test").listFiles()
println(files?.size ?: "empty")
Executing a statement if null
25
val values = ...
val email = values["email"] ?: throw IllegalStateException("Email is missing!")
Execute if not null
val value = ...
value?.let {
... // execute this block if not null
}
Map nullable value if not null
val value = ...
val mapped = value?.let { transformValue(it) } ?: defaultValueIfValueIsNull
Return on when statement
fun transform(color: String): Int {

return when (color) {
"Red" -> 0
"Green" -> 1
"Blue" -> 2
else -> throw IllegalArgumentException("Invalid color param value")
}
}
'try/catch' expression
fun test() {
val result = try {
count()
} catch (e: ArithmeticException) {
throw IllegalStateException(e)
}
// Working with result

}
'if' expression
fun foo(param: Int) {

val result = if (param == 1) {
"one"
} else if (param == 2) {
"two"
} else {
"three"
}
}
Builder-style usage of methods that return Unit
26
fun arrayOfMinusOnes(size: Int): IntArray {
return IntArray(size).apply { fill(-1) }
}
Single-expression functions
fun theAnswer() = 42
This is equivalent to
fun theAnswer(): Int {

return 42
}
This can be eectively combined with other idioms, leading to shorter code. E.g. with the when-expression:
fun transform(color: String): Int = when (color) {

"Red" -> 0
"Green" -> 1
"Blue" -> 2
else -> throw IllegalArgumentException("Invalid color param value")
}
Calling multiple methods on an object instance ('with')
class Turtle {
fun penDown()
fun penUp()
fun turn(degrees: Double)
fun forward(pixels: Double)
}
val myTurtle = Turtle()

with(myTurtle) { //draw a 100 pix square
penDown()
for(i in 1..4) {
forward(100.0)
turn(90.0)
}
penUp()
}
Java 7's try with resources
val stream = Files.newInputStream(Paths.get("/some/file.txt"))

stream.buffered().reader().use { reader ->
println(reader.readText())
}
Convenient form for a generic function that requires the generic type information
// public final class Gson {

// ...
// public <T> T fromJson(JsonElement json, Class<T> classOfT) throws JsonSyntaxException {
// ...
inline fun <reified T: Any> Gson.fromJson(json: JsonElement): T = this.fromJson(json, T::class.java)
27
Consuming a nullable Boolean
val b: Boolean? = ...

if (b == true) {
...
} else {
// `b` is false or null
}
28
Coding Conventions
This page contains the current coding style for the Kotlin language.
Naming Style
If in doubt, default to the Java Coding Conventions such as:
use of camelCase for names (and avoid underscore in names)

types start with upper case
methods and properties start with lower case
use 4 space indentation
public functions should have documentation such that it appears in Kotlin Doc
Colon
There is a space before colon where colon separates type and supertype and there's no space where colon separates instance
and type:
interface Foo<out T : Any> : Bar {

fun foo(a: Int): T
}
Lambdas
In lambda expressions, spaces should be used around the curly braces, as well as around the arrow which separates the
parameters from the body. Whenever possible, a lambda should be passed outside of parentheses.
list.filter { it > 10 }.map { element -> element * 2 }
In lambdas which are short and not nested, it's recommended to use the it convention instead of declaring the parameter
explicitly. In nested lambdas with parameters, parameters should be always declared explicitly.
Class header formatting

Classes with a few arguments can be written in a single line:
class Person(id: Int, name: String)
Classes with longer headers should be formatted so that each primary constructor argument is in a separate line with
indentation. Also, the closing parenthesis should be on a new line. If we use inheritance, then the superclass constructor call or
list of implemented interfaces should be located on the same line as the parenthesis:
class Person(
id: Int,
name: String,
surname: String
) : Human(id, name) {
// ...
}
For multiple interfaces, the superclass constructor call should be located rst and then each interface should be located in a
dierent line:
29
class Person(
id: Int,
name: String,
surname: String
) : Human(id, name),
KotlinMaker {
// ...
}
Constructor parameters can use either the regular indent or the continuation indent (double the regular indent).
Unit
If a function returns Unit, the return type should be omitted:
fun foo() { // ": Unit" is omitted here
Functions vs Properties
In some cases functions with no arguments might be interchangeable with read-only properties. Although the semantics are
similar, there are some stylistic conventions on when to prefer one to another.
Prefer a property over a function when the underlying algorithm:
does not throw any Exceptions

has a O(1) complexity
is cheap to calculate (or cahed on the rst run)
returns the same result over invocations
30
Basics
Basic Types
In Kotlin, everything is an object in the sense that we can call member functions and properties on any variable. Some of the
types can have a special internal representation - for example, numbers, characters and booleans can be represented as
primitive values at runtime - but to the user they look like ordinary classes. In this section we describe the basic types used in
Kotlin: numbers, characters, booleans, arrays, and strings.
Numbers
Kotlin handles numbers in a way close to Java, but not exactly the same. For example, there are no implicit widening conversions
for numbers, and literals are slightly dierent in some cases.
Kotlin provides the following built-in types representing numbers (this is close to Java):
Type Bit width

Double 64
Float 32
Long 64
Int 32
Short 16
Byte 8
Note that characters are not numbers in Kotlin.
Literal Constants
There are the following kinds of literal constants for integral values:
Decimals: 123
Longs are tagged by a capital L : 123L
Hexadecimals: 0x0F
Binaries: 0b00001011
NOTE: Octal literals are not supported.
Kotlin also supports a conventional notation for oating-point numbers:
Doubles by default: 123.5 , 123.5e10
Floats are tagged by f or F : 123.5f
Underscores in numeric literals (since 1.1)
You can use underscores to make number constants more readable:
val oneMillion = 1_000_000

val creditCardNumber = 1234_5678_9012_3456L
val socialSecurityNumber = 999_99_9999L
val hexBytes = 0xFF_EC_DE_5E
val bytes = 0b11010010_01101001_10010100_10010010
31
Representation
On the Java platform, numbers are physically stored as JVM primitive types, unless we need a nullable number reference (e.g.
Int? ) or generics are involved. In the latter cases numbers are boxed.
Note that boxing of numbers does not necessarily preserve identity:
val a: Int = 10000

print(a === a) // Prints 'true'
val boxedA: Int? = a
val anotherBoxedA: Int? = a
print(boxedA === anotherBoxedA) // !!!Prints 'false'!!!
On the other hand, it preserves equality:
val a: Int = 10000

print(a == a) // Prints 'true'
val boxedA: Int? = a
val anotherBoxedA: Int? = a
print(boxedA == anotherBoxedA) // Prints 'true'
Explicit Conversions
Due to dierent representations, smaller types are not subtypes of bigger ones. If they were, we would have troubles of the
following sort:
// Hypothetical code, does not actually compile:

val a: Int? = 1 // A boxed Int (java.lang.Integer)
val b: Long? = a // implicit conversion yields a boxed Long (java.lang.Long)
print(a == b) // Surprise! This prints "false" as Long's equals() check for other part to be Long as well
So not only identity, but even equality would have been lost silently all over the place.
As a consequence, smaller types are NOT implicitly converted to bigger types. This means that we cannot assign a value of type
Byte to an Int variable without an explicit conversion
val b: Byte = 1 // OK, literals are checked statically

val i: Int = b // ERROR
We can use explicit conversions to widen numbers
val i: Int = b.toInt() // OK: explicitly widened
Every number type supports the following conversions:
toByte(): Byte
toShort(): Short
toInt(): Int
toLong(): Long
toFloat(): Float
toDouble(): Double
toChar(): Char
Absence of implicit conversions is rarely noticeable because the type is inferred from the context, and arithmetical operations
are overloaded for appropriate conversions, for example
val l = 1L + 3 // Long + Int => Long
32
Operations
Kotlin supports the standard set of arithmetical operations over numbers, which are declared as members of appropriate
classes (but the compiler optimizes the calls down to the corresponding instructions). See Operator overloading.
As of bitwise operations, there're no special characters for them, but just named functions that can be called in inx form, for
example:
val x = (1 shl 2) and 0x000FF000
Here is the complete list of bitwise operations (available for Int and Long only):
shl(bits) signed shift left (Java's << )

shr(bits) signed shift right (Java's >> )
ushr(bits) unsigned shift right (Java's >>> )
and(bits) bitwise and

or(bits) bitwise or
xor(bits) bitwise xor
inv() bitwise inversion
Floating Point Numbers Comparison
The operations on oating point numbers discussed in this section are:
Equality checks: a == b and a != b

Comparison operators: a b , a <= b , a >= b
Range instantiation and range checks: a..b , x in a..b , x !in a..b
When the operands a and b are statically known to be Float or Double or their nullable counterparts (the type is declared or
inferred or is a result of a smart cast), the operations on the numbers and the range that they form follow the IEEE 754 Standard
for Floating-Point Arithmetic.
However, to support generic use cases and provide total ordering, when the operands are not statically typed as oating point
numbers (e.g. Any , Comparable<...> , a type parameter), the operations use the equals and compareTo implementations for
Float and Double , which disagree with the standard, so that:
NaN is considered equal to itself

NaN is considered greater than any other element including POSITIVE_INFINITY
-0.0 is considered less than 0.0
Characters
Characters are represented by the type Char . They can not be treated directly as numbers
fun check(c: Char) {

if (c == 1) { // ERROR: incompatible types
// ...
}
}
Character literals go in single quotes: '1' . Special characters can be escaped using a backslash. The following escape
sequences are supported: \t , \b , \n , \r , \' , \" , \\ and \$ . To encode any other character, use the Unicode escape
sequence syntax: '\uFF00' .
We can explicitly convert a character to an Int number:
33
fun decimalDigitValue(c: Char): Int {
if (c !in '0'..'9')
throw IllegalArgumentException("Out of range")
return c.toInt() - '0'.toInt() // Explicit conversions to numbers
}
Like numbers, characters are boxed when a nullable reference is needed. Identity is not preserved by the boxing operation.
Booleans
The type Boolean represents booleans, and has two values: true and false.
Booleans are boxed if a nullable reference is needed.
Built-in operations on booleans include
|| lazy disjunction
&& lazy conjunction
! - negation
Arrays
Arrays in Kotlin are represented by the Array class, that has get and set functions (that turn into [] by operator overloading
conventions), and size property, along with a few other useful member functions:
class Array<T> private constructor() {

val size: Int
operator fun get(index: Int): T
operator fun set(index: Int, value: T): Unit
operator fun iterator(): Iterator<T>

// ...
}
To create an array, we can use a library function arrayOf() and pass the item values to it, so that arrayOf(1, 2, 3) creates
an array [1, 2, 3]. Alternatively, the arrayOfNulls() library function can be used to create an array of a given size lled with null
elements.
Another option is to use a factory function that takes the array size and the function that can return the initial value of each array
element given its index:
// Creates an Array<String> with values ["0", "1", "4", "9", "16"]

val asc = Array(5, { i -> (i * i).toString() })
As we said above, the [] operation stands for calls to member functions get() and set() .
Note: unlike Java, arrays in Kotlin are invariant. This means that Kotlin does not let us assign an Array<String> to an
Array<Any> , which prevents a possible runtime failure (but you can use Array<out Any> , see Type Projections).
Kotlin also has specialized classes to represent arrays of primitive types without boxing overhead: ByteArray , ShortArray ,
IntArray and so on. These classes have no inheritance relation to the Array class, but they have the same set of methods
and properties. Each of them also has a corresponding factory function:
val x: IntArray = intArrayOf(1, 2, 3)

x[0] = x[1] + x[2]
Strings
Strings are represented by the type String . Strings are immutable. Elements of a string are characters that can be accessed
by the indexing operation: s[i] . A string can be iterated over with a for-loop:
34
for (c in str) {
println(c)
}
String Literals
Kotlin has two types of string literals: escaped strings that may have escaped characters in them and raw strings that can
contain newlines and arbitrary text. An escaped string is very much like a Java string:
val s = "Hello, world!\n"
Escaping is done in the conventional way, with a backslash. See Characters above for the list of supported escape sequences.
A raw string is delimited by a triple quote ( """ ), contains no escaping and can contain newlines and any other characters:
val text = """

for (c in "foo")
print(c)
"""
You can remove leading whitespace with trimMargin() function:
val text = """

|Tell me and I forget.
|Teach me and I remember.
|Involve me and I learn.
|(Benjamin Franklin)
""".trimMargin()
By default | is used as margin prex, but you can choose another character and pass it as a parameter, like trimMargin(">") .
String Templates
Strings may contain template expressions, i.e. pieces of code that are evaluated and whose results are concatenated into the
string. A template expression starts with a dollar sign ($) and consists of either a simple name:
val i = 10
val s = "i = $i" // evaluates to "i = 10"
or an arbitrary expression in curly braces:
val s = "abc"
val str = "$s.length is ${s.length}" // evaluates to "abc.length is 3"
Templates are supported both inside raw strings and inside escaped strings. If you need to represent a literal $ character in a
raw string (which doesn't support backslash escaping), you can use the following syntax:
val price = """

${'$'}9.99
"""
35
Packages
A source le may start with a package declaration:
package foo.bar
fun baz() {}
class Goo {}
// ...
All the contents (such as classes and functions) of the source le are contained by the package declared. So, in the example
above, the full name of baz() is foo.bar.baz , and the full name of Goo is foo.bar.Goo .
If the package is not specied, the contents of such a le belong to "default" package that has no name.
Default Imports
A number of packages are imported into every Kotlin le by default:
kotlin.*
kotlin.annotation.*
kotlin.collections.*
kotlin.comparisons.* (since 1.1)
kotlin.io.*
kotlin.ranges.*
kotlin.sequences.*
kotlin.text.*
Additional packages are imported depending on the target platform:
JVM:
java.lang.*
kotlin.jvm.*
JS:
kotlin.js.*
Imports
Apart from the default imports, each le may contain its own import directives. Syntax for imports is described in the grammar.
We can import either a single name, e.g.
import foo.Bar // Bar is now accessible without qualification
or all the accessible contents of a scope (package, class, object etc):
import foo.* // everything in 'foo' becomes accessible
If there is a name clash, we can disambiguate by using as keyword to locally rename the clashing entity:
import foo.Bar // Bar is accessible

import bar.Bar as bBar // bBar stands for 'bar.Bar'
The import keyword is not restricted to importing classes; you can also use it to import other declarations:
top-level functions and properties;
36
functions and properties declared in object declarations;
enum constants.
Unlike Java, Kotlin does not have a separate "import static" syntax; all of these declarations are imported using the regular
import keyword.
Visibility of Top-level Declarations

If a top-level declaration is marked private, it is private to the le it's declared in (see Visibility Modiers).
37
Control Flow: if, when, for, while
If Expression
In Kotlin, if is an expression, i.e. it returns a value. Therefore there is no ternary operator (condition ? then : else), because
ordinary if works ne in this role.
// Traditional usage
var max = a
if (a < b) max = b
// With else
var max: Int
if (a > b) {
max = a
} else {
max = b
}
// As expression
val max = if (a > b) a else b
if branches can be blocks, and the last expression is the value of a block:
val max = if (a > b) {

print("Choose a")
a
} else {
print("Choose b")
b
}
If you're using if as an expression rather than a statement (for example, returning its value or assigning it to a variable), the
expression is required to have an else branch.
See the grammar for if.
When Expression
when replaces the switch operator of C-like languages. In the simplest form it looks like this
when (x) {
1 -> print("x == 1")
2 -> print("x == 2")
else -> { // Note the block
print("x is neither 1 nor 2")
}
}
when matches its argument against all branches sequentially until some branch condition is satised. when can be used either as
an expression or as a statement. If it is used as an expression, the value of the satised branch becomes the value of the overall
expression. If it is used as a statement, the values of individual branches are ignored. (Just like with if, each branch can be a
block, and its value is the value of the last expression in the block.)
The else branch is evaluated if none of the other branch conditions are satised. If when is used as an expression, the else
branch is mandatory, unless the compiler can prove that all possible cases are covered with branch conditions.
If many cases should be handled in the same way, the branch conditions may be combined with a comma:
38
when (x) {
0, 1 -> print("x == 0 or x == 1")
else -> print("otherwise")
}
We can use arbitrary expressions (not only constants) as branch conditions
when (x) {
parseInt(s) -> print("s encodes x")
else -> print("s does not encode x")
}
We can also check a value for being in or !in a range or a collection:
when (x) {
in 1..10 -> print("x is in the range")
in validNumbers -> print("x is valid")
!in 10..20 -> print("x is outside the range")
else -> print("none of the above")
}
Another possibility is to check that a value is or !is of a particular type. Note that, due to smart casts, you can access the
methods and properties of the type without any extra checks.
fun hasPrefix(x: Any) = when(x) {

is String -> x.startsWith("prefix")
else -> false
}
when can also be used as a replacement for an if-else if chain. If no argument is supplied, the branch conditions are simply
boolean expressions, and a branch is executed when its condition is true:
when {
x.isOdd() -> print("x is odd")
x.isEven() -> print("x is even")
else -> print("x is funny")
}
See the grammar for when.
For Loops
for loop iterates through anything that provides an iterator. This is equivalent to the foreach loop in languages like C#. The
syntax is as follows:
for (item in collection) print(item)
The body can be a block.
for (item: Int in ints) {

// ...
}
As mentioned before, for iterates through anything that provides an iterator, i.e.
has a member- or extension-function iterator() , whose return type

has a member- or extension-function next() , and
has a member- or extension-function hasNext() that returns Boolean .
39
All of these three functions need to be marked as operator .
A for loop over an array is compiled to an index-based loop that does not create an iterator object.
If you want to iterate through an array or a list with an index, you can do it this way:
for (i in array.indices) {
print(array[i])
}
Note that this "iteration through a range" is compiled down to optimal implementation with no extra objects created.
Alternatively, you can use the withIndex library function:
for ((index, value) in array.withIndex()) {

println("the element at $index is $value")
}
See the grammar for for.
While Loops
while and do..while work as usual
while (x > 0) {
x--
}
do {
val y = retrieveData()
} while (y != null) // y is visible here!
See the grammar for while.
Break and continue in loops

Kotlin supports traditional break and continue operators in loops. See Returns and jumps.
40
Returns and Jumps
Kotlin has three structural jump expressions:
return. By default returns from the nearest enclosing function or anonymous function.
break. Terminates the nearest enclosing loop.
continue. Proceeds to the next step of the nearest enclosing loop.
All of these expressions can be used as part of larger expressions:
val s = person.name ?: return
The type of these expressions is the Nothing type.
Break and Continue Labels

Any expression in Kotlin may be marked with a label. Labels have the form of an identier followed by the @ sign, for example:
abc@ , fooBar@ are valid labels (see the grammar). To label an expression, we just put a label in front of it
loop@ for (i in 1..100) {

// ...
}
Now, we can qualify a break or a continue with a label:
loop@ for (i in 1..100) {

for (j in 1..100) {
if (...) break@loop
}
}
A break qualied with a label jumps to the execution point right after the loop marked with that label. A continue proceeds to
the next iteration of that loop.
Return at Labels
With function literals, local functions and object expression, functions can be nested in Kotlin. Qualied returns allow us to
return from an outer function. The most important use case is returning from a lambda expression. Recall that when we write
this:
fun foo() {
ints.forEach {
if (it == 0) return // nonlocal return from inside lambda directly to the caller of foo()
print(it)
}
}
The return-expression returns from the nearest enclosing function, i.e. foo . (Note that such non-local returns are supported
only for lambda expressions passed to inline functions.) If we need to return from a lambda expression, we have to label it and
qualify the return:
fun foo() {
ints.forEach lit@ {
if (it == 0) return@lit
print(it)
}
}
Now, it returns only from the lambda expression. Oftentimes it is more convenient to use implicits labels: such a label has the
same name as the function to which the lambda is passed.
41
fun foo() {
ints.forEach {
if (it == 0) return@forEach
print(it)
}
}
Alternatively, we can replace the lambda expression with an anonymous function. A return statement in an anonymous function
will return from the anonymous function itself.
fun foo() {
ints.forEach(fun(value: Int) {
if (value == 0) return // local return to the caller of the anonymous fun, i.e. the forEach loop
print(value)
})
}
When returning a value, the parser gives preference to the qualied return, i.e.
return@a 1
means "return 1 at label @a " and not "return a labeled expression (@a 1) ".
42
Classes and Objects
Classes and Inheritance
Classes
Classes in Kotlin are declared using the keyword class:
class Invoice {
}
The class declaration consists of the class name, the class header (specifying its type parameters, the primary constructor etc.)
and the class body, surrounded by curly braces. Both the header and the body are optional; if the class has no body, curly
braces can be omitted.
class Empty
Constructors
A class in Kotlin can have a primary constructor and one or more secondary constructors. The primary constructor is part
of the class header: it goes after the class name (and optional type parameters).
class Person constructor(firstName: String) {

}
If the primary constructor does not have any annotations or visibility modiers, the constructor keyword can be omitted:
class Person(firstName: String) {

}
The primary constructor cannot contain any code. Initialization code can be placed in initializer blocks, which are prexed with
the init keyword:
class Customer(name: String) {

init {
logger.info("Customer initialized with value ${name}")
}
}
Note that parameters of the primary constructor can be used in the initializer blocks. They can also be used in property
initializers declared in the class body:
class Customer(name: String) {

val customerKey = name.toUpperCase()
}
In fact, for declaring properties and initializing them from the primary constructor, Kotlin has a concise syntax:
43
class Person(val firstName: String, val lastName: String, var age: Int) {
// ...
}
Much the same way as regular properties, the properties declared in the primary constructor can be mutable (var) or read-only
(val).
If the constructor has annotations or visibility modiers, the constructor keyword is required, and the modiers go before it:
class Customer public @Inject constructor(name: String) { ... }
For more details, see Visibility Modiers.
Secondary Constructors
The class can also declare secondary constructors, which are prexed with constructor:
class Person {
constructor(parent: Person) {
parent.children.add(this)
}
}
If the class has a primary constructor, each secondary constructor needs to delegate to the primary constructor, either directly
or indirectly through another secondary constructor(s). Delegation to another constructor of the same class is done using the
this keyword:
class Person(val name: String) {

constructor(name: String, parent: Person) : this(name) {
parent.children.add(this)
}
}
If a non-abstract class does not declare any constructors (primary or secondary), it will have a generated primary constructor
with no arguments. The visibility of the constructor will be public. If you do not want your class to have a public constructor, you
need to declare an empty primary constructor with non-default visibility:
class DontCreateMe private constructor () {

}
NOTE: On the JVM, if all of the parameters of the primary constructor have default values, the compiler will generate an
additional parameterless constructor which will use the default values. This makes it easier to use Kotlin with libraries such
as Jackson or JPA that create class instances through parameterless constructors.
class Customer(val customerName: String = "")
Creating instances of classes
To create an instance of a class, we call the constructor as if it were a regular function:
val invoice = Invoice()
val customer = Customer("Joe Smith")
Note that Kotlin does not have a new keyword.
Creating instances of nested, inner and anonymous inner classes is described in Nested classes.
44
Class Members
Classes can contain:
Constructors and initializer blocks

Functions
Properties
Nested and Inner Classes
Object Declarations
Inheritance
All classes in Kotlin have a common superclass Any , that is a default super for a class with no supertypes declared:
class Example // Implicitly inherits from Any
Any is not java.lang.Object ; in particular, it does not have any members other than equals() , hashCode() and
toString() . Please consult the Java interoperability section for more details.
To declare an explicit supertype, we place the type after a colon in the class header:
open class Base(p: Int)
class Derived(p: Int) : Base(p)
If the class has a primary constructor, the base type can (and must) be initialized right there, using the parameters of the primary
constructor.
If the class has no primary constructor, then each secondary constructor has to initialize the base type using the super
keyword, or to delegate to another constructor which does that. Note that in this case dierent secondary constructors can call
dierent constructors of the base type:
class MyView : View {

constructor(ctx: Context) : super(ctx)
constructor(ctx: Context, attrs: AttributeSet) : super(ctx, attrs)

}
The open annotation on a class is the opposite of Java's final: it allows others to inherit from this class. By default, all classes in
Kotlin are nal, which corresponds to Eective Java, Item 17: Design and document for inheritance or else prohibit it.
Overriding Methods
As we mentioned before, we stick to making things explicit in Kotlin. And unlike Java, Kotlin requires explicit annotations for
overridable members (we call them open) and for overrides:
open class Base {

open fun v() {}
fun nv() {}
}
class Derived() : Base() {
override fun v() {}
}
The override annotation is required for Derived.v() . If it were missing, the compiler would complain. If there is no open
annotation on a function, like Base.nv() , declaring a method with the same signature in a subclass is illegal, either with
override or without it. In a nal class (e.g. a class with no open annotation), open members are prohibited.
A member marked override is itself open, i.e. it may be overridden in subclasses. If you want to prohibit re-overriding, use
final:
45
open class AnotherDerived() : Base() {
final override fun v() {}
}
Overriding Properties
Overriding properties works in a similar way to overriding methods; properties declared on a superclass that are then redeclared
on a derived class must be prefaced with override, and they must have a compatible type. Each declared property can be
overridden by a property with an initializer or by a property with a getter method.
open class Foo {

open val x: Int get() { ... }
}
class Bar1 : Foo() {

override val x: Int = ...
}
You can also override a val property with a var property, but not vice versa. This is allowed because a val property
essentially declares a getter method, and overriding it as a var additionally declares a setter method in the derived class.
Note that you can use the override keyword as part of the property declaration in a primary constructor.
interface Foo {
val count: Int
}
class Bar1(override val count: Int) : Foo
class Bar2 : Foo {

override var count: Int = 0
}
Calling the superclass implementation
Code in a derived class can call its superclass functions and property accessors implementations using the super keyword:
open class Foo {

open fun f() { println("Foo.f()") }
open val x: Int get() = 1
}
class Bar : Foo() {

override fun f() {
super.f()
println("Bar.f()")
}
override val x: Int get() = super.x + 1

}
Inside an inner class, accessing the superclass of the outer class is done with the super keyword qualied with the outer class
name: super@Outer :
46
class Bar : Foo() {
override fun f() { /* ... */ }
override val x: Int get() = 0
inner class Baz {

fun g() {
super@Bar.f() // Calls Foo's implementation of f()
println(super@Bar.x) // Uses Foo's implementation of x's getter
}
}
}
Overriding Rules
In Kotlin, implementation inheritance is regulated by the following rule: if a class inherits many implementations of the same
member from its immediate superclasses, it must override this member and provide its own implementation (perhaps, using
one of the inherited ones). To denote the supertype from which the inherited implementation is taken, we use super qualied
by the supertype name in angle brackets, e.g. super<Base> :
open class A {
open fun f() { print("A") }
fun a() { print("a") }
}
interface B {
fun f() { print("B") } // interface members are 'open' by default
fun b() { print("b") }
}
class C() : A(), B {

// The compiler requires f() to be overridden:
override fun f() {
super<A>.f() // call to A.f()
super.f() // call to B.f()
}
}
It's ne to inherit from both A and B , and we have no problems with a() and b() since C inherits only one implementation
of each of these functions. But for f() we have two implementations inherited by C , and thus we have to override f() in C
and provide our own implementation that eliminates the ambiguity.
Abstract Classes
A class and some of its members may be declared abstract. An abstract member does not have an implementation in its class.
Note that we do not need to annotate an abstract class or function with open it goes without saying.
We can override a non-abstract open member with an abstract one
open class Base {

open fun f() {}
}
abstract class Derived : Base() {

override abstract fun f()
}
Companion Objects
In Kotlin, unlike Java or C#, classes do not have static methods. In most cases, it's recommended to simply use package-level
functions instead.
47
If you need to write a function that can be called without having a class instance but needs access to the internals of a class (for
example, a factory method), you can write it as a member of an object declaration inside that class.
Even more specically, if you declare a companion object inside your class, you'll be able to call its members with the same
syntax as calling static methods in Java/C#, using only the class name as a qualier.
48
Properties and Fields
Declaring Properties
Classes in Kotlin can have properties. These can be declared as mutable, using the var keyword or read-only using the val
keyword.
class Address {
var name: String = ...
var street: String = ...
var city: String = ...
var state: String? = ...
var zip: String = ...
}
To use a property, we simply refer to it by name, as if it were a eld in Java:
fun copyAddress(address: Address): Address {

val result = Address() // there's no 'new' keyword in Kotlin
result.name = address.name // accessors are called
result.street = address.street
// ...
return result
}
Getters and Setters

The full syntax for declaring a property is
var <propertyName>[: <PropertyType>] [= <property_initializer>]

[<getter>]
[<setter>]
The initializer, getter and setter are optional. Property type is optional if it can be inferred from the initializer (or from the getter
return type, as shown below).
Examples:
var allByDefault: Int? // error: explicit initializer required, default getter and setter implied
var initialized = 1 // has type Int, default getter and setter
The full syntax of a read-only property declaration diers from a mutable one in two ways: it starts with val instead of var and
does not allow a setter:
val simple: Int? // has type Int, default getter, must be initialized in constructor
val inferredType = 1 // has type Int and a default getter
We can write custom accessors, very much like ordinary functions, right inside a property declaration. Here's an example of a
custom getter:
val isEmpty: Boolean

get() = this.size == 0
A custom setter looks like this:
49
var stringRepresentation: String
get() = this.toString()
set(value) {
setDataFromString(value) // parses the string and assigns values to other properties
}
By convention, the name of the setter parameter is value , but you can choose a dierent name if you prefer.
Since Kotlin 1.1, you can omit the property type if it can be inferred from the getter:
val isEmpty get() = this.size == 0 // has type Boolean
If you need to change the visibility of an accessor or to annotate it, but don't need to change the default implementation, you
can dene the accessor without dening its body:
var setterVisibility: String = "abc"

private set // the setter is private and has the default implementation
var setterWithAnnotation: Any? = null

@Inject set // annotate the setter with Inject
Backing Fields
Classes in Kotlin cannot have elds. However, sometimes it is necessary to have a backing eld when using custom accessors.
For these purposes, Kotlin provides an automatic backing eld which can be accessed using the field identier:
var counter = 0 // the initializer value is written directly to the backing field
set(value) {
if (value >= 0) field = value
}
The field identier can only be used in the accessors of the property.
A backing eld will be generated for a property if it uses the default implementation of at least one of the accessors, or if a
custom accessor references it through the field identier.
For example, in the following case there will be no backing eld:
val isEmpty: Boolean

get() = this.size == 0
Backing Properties
If you want to do something that does not t into this "implicit backing eld" scheme, you can always fall back to having a
backing property:
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")
}
In all respects, this is just the same as in Java since access to private properties with default getters and setters is optimized so
that no function call overhead is introduced.
Compile-Time Constants
50
Properties the value of which is known at compile time can be marked as compile time constants using the const modier.
Such properties need to full the following requirements:
Top-level or member of an object

Initialized with a value of type String or a primitive type
No custom getter
Such properties can be used in annotations:
const val SUBSYSTEM_DEPRECATED: String = "This subsystem is deprecated"
@Deprecated(SUBSYSTEM_DEPRECATED) fun foo() { ... }
Late-Initialized Properties
Normally, properties declared as having a non-null type must be initialized in the constructor. However, fairly often this is not
convenient. For example, properties can be initialized through dependency injection, or in the setup method of a unit test. In
this case, you cannot supply a non-null initializer in the constructor, but you still want to avoid null checks when referencing the
property inside the body of a class.
To handle this case, you can mark the property with the lateinit modier:
public class MyTest {

lateinit var subject: TestSubject
@SetUp fun setup() {

subject = TestSubject()
}
@Test fun test() {

subject.method() // dereference directly
}
}
The modier can only be used on var properties declared inside the body of a class (not in the primary constructor), and only
when the property does not have a custom getter or setter. The type of the property must be non-null, and it must not be a
primitive type.
Accessing a lateinit property before it has been initialized throws a special exception that clearly identies the property
being accessed and the fact that it hasn't been initialized.
Overriding Properties
See Overriding Properties
Delegated Properties
The most common kind of properties simply reads from (and maybe writes to) a backing eld. On the other hand, with custom
getters and setters one can implement any behaviour of a property. Somewhere in between, there are certain common patterns
of how a property may work. A few examples: lazy values, reading from a map by a given key, accessing a database, notifying
listener on access, etc.
Such common behaviours can be implemented as libraries using delegated properties .
51
Interfaces
Interfaces in Kotlin are very similar to Java 8. They can contain declarations of abstract methods, as well as method
implementations. What makes them dierent from abstract classes is that interfaces cannot store state. They can have
properties but these need to be abstract or to provide accessor implementations.
An interface is dened using the keyword interface
interface MyInterface {
fun bar()
fun foo() {
// optional body
}
}
Implementing Interfaces
A class or object can implement one or more interfaces
class Child : MyInterface {

override fun bar() {
// body
}
}
Properties in Interfaces
You can declare properties in interfaces. A property declared in an interface can either be abstract, or it can provide
implementations for accessors. Properties declared in interfaces can't have backing elds, and therefore accessors declared in
interfaces can't reference them.
interface MyInterface {
val prop: Int // abstract
val propertyWithImplementation: String

get() = "foo"
fun foo() {
print(prop)
}
}
class Child : MyInterface {

override val prop: Int = 29
}
Resolving overriding con icts

When we declare many types in our supertype list, it may appear that we inherit more than one implementation of the same
method. For example
52
interface A {
fun foo() { print("A") }
fun bar()
}
interface B {
fun foo() { print("B") }
fun bar() { print("bar") }
}
class C : A {
override fun bar() { print("bar") }
}
class D : A, B {
override fun foo() {
super<A>.foo()
super.foo()
}
override fun bar() {

super.bar()
}
}
Interfaces A and B both declare functions foo() and bar(). Both of them implement foo(), but only B implements bar() (bar() is not
marked abstract in A, because this is the default for interfaces, if the function has no body). Now, if we derive a concrete class C
from A, we, obviously, have to override bar() and provide an implementation.
However, if we derive D from A and B , we need to implement all the methods which we have inherited from multiple interfaces,
and to specify how exactly D should implement them. This rule applies both to methods for which we've inherited a single
implementation (bar()) and multiple implementations (foo()).
53
Visibility Modi ers
Classes, objects, interfaces, constructors, functions, properties and their setters can have visibility modiers . (Getters always
have the same visibility as the property.) There are four visibility modiers in Kotlin: private , protected , internal and
public . The default visibility, used if there is no explicit modier, is public .
Below please nd explanations of these for dierent type of declaring scopes.
Packages
Functions, properties and classes, objects and interfaces can be declared on the "top-level", i.e. directly inside a package:
// file name: example.kt

package foo
fun baz() {}
class Bar {}
If you do not specify any visibility modier, public is used by default, which means that your declarations will be visible
everywhere;
If you mark a declaration private , it will only be visible inside the le containing the declaration;
If you mark it internal , it is visible everywhere in the same module;
protected is not available for top-level declarations.
Note: to use a visible top-level declaration from another package, you should still import it.
Examples:
// file name: example.kt

package foo
private fun foo() {} // visible inside example.kt
public var bar: Int = 5 // property is visible everywhere

private set // setter is visible only in example.kt
internal val baz = 6 // visible inside the same module
Classes and Interfaces

For members declared inside a class:
private means visible inside this class only (including all its members);
protected same as private + visible in subclasses too;
internal any client inside this module who sees the declaring class sees its internal members;
public any client who sees the declaring class sees its public members.
NOTE for Java users: outer class does not see private members of its inner classes in Kotlin.
If you override a protected member and do not specify the visibility explicitly, the overriding member will also have protected
visibility.
Examples:
54
open class Outer {
private val a = 1
protected open val b = 2
internal val c = 3
val d = 4 // public by default
protected class Nested {

public val e: Int = 5
}
}
class Subclass : Outer() {

// a is not visible
// b, c and d are visible
// Nested and e are visible
override val b = 5 // 'b' is protected

}
class Unrelated(o: Outer) {

// o.a, o.b are not visible
// o.c and o.d are visible (same module)
// Outer.Nested is not visible, and Nested::e is not visible either
}
Constructors
To specify a visibility of the primary constructor of a class, use the following syntax (note that you need to add an explicit
constructor keyword):
class C private constructor(a: Int) { ... }
Here the constructor is private. By default, all constructors are public , which eectively amounts to them being visible
everywhere where the class is visible (i.e. a constructor of an internal class is only visible within the same module).
Local declarations
Local variables, functions and classes can not have visibility modiers.
Modules
The internal visibility modier means that the member is visible within the same module. More specically, a module is a set
of Kotlin les compiled together:
an IntelliJ IDEA module;

a Maven project;
a Gradle source set;
a set of les compiled with one invocation of the Ant task.
55
Extensions
Kotlin, similar to C# and Gosu, provides the ability to extend a class with new functionality without having to inherit from the class
or use any type of design pattern such as Decorator. This is done via special declarations called extensions . Kotlin supports
extension functions and extension properties .
Extension Functions
To declare an extension function, we need to prex its name with a receiver type , i.e. the type being extended. The following
adds a swap function to MutableList<Int> :
fun MutableList<Int>.swap(index1: Int, index2: Int) {

val tmp = this[index1] // 'this' corresponds to the list
this[index1] = this[index2]
this[index2] = tmp
}
The this keyword inside an extension function corresponds to the receiver object (the one that is passed before the dot). Now,
we can call such a function on any MutableList<Int> :
val l = mutableListOf(1, 2, 3)
l.swap(0, 2) // 'this' inside 'swap()' will hold the value of 'l'
Of course, this function makes sense for any MutableList<T> , and we can make it generic:
fun <T> MutableList<T>.swap(index1: Int, index2: Int) {

val tmp = this[index1] // 'this' corresponds to the list
this[index1] = this[index2]
this[index2] = tmp
}
We declare the generic type parameter before the function name for it to be available in the receiver type expression. See
Generic functions.
Extensions are resolved statically

Extensions do not actually modify classes they extend. By dening an extension, you do not insert new members into a class,
but merely make new functions callable with the dot-notation on variables of this type.
We would like to emphasize that extension functions are dispatched statically, i.e. they are not virtual by receiver type. This
means that the extension function being called is determined by the type of the expression on which the function is invoked,
not by the type of the result of evaluating that expression at runtime. For example:
open class C
class D: C()
fun C.foo() = "c"
fun D.foo() = "d"
fun printFoo(c: C) {
println(c.foo())
}
printFoo(D())
This example will print "c", because the extension function being called depends only on the declared type of the parameter c ,
which is the C class.
56
If a class has a member function, and an extension function is dened which has the same receiver type, the same name and is
applicable to given arguments, the member always wins. For example:
class C {
fun foo() { println("member") }
}
fun C.foo() { println("extension") }
If we call c.foo() of any c of type C , it will print "member", not "extension".
However, it's perfectly OK for extension functions to overload member functions which have the same name but a dierent
signature:
class C {
fun foo() { println("member") }
}
fun C.foo(i: Int) { println("extension") }
The call to C().foo(1) will print "extension".
Nullable Receiver
Note that extensions can be dened with a nullable receiver type. Such extensions can be called on an object variable even if its
value is null, and can check for this == null inside the body. This is what allows you to call toString() in Kotlin without checking
for null: the check happens inside the extension function.
fun Any?.toString(): String {

if (this == null) return "null"
// after the null check, 'this' is autocast to a non-null type, so the toString() below
// resolves to the member function of the Any class
return toString()
}
Extension Properties
Similarly to functions, Kotlin supports extension properties:
val <T> List<T>.lastIndex: Int

get() = size - 1
Note that, since extensions do not actually insert members into classes, there's no ecient way for an extension property to
have a backing eld. This is why initializers are not allowed for extension properties. Their behavior can only be dened
by explicitly providing getters/setters.
Example:
val Foo.bar = 1 // error: initializers are not allowed for extension properties
Companion Object Extensions

If a class has a companion object dened, you can also dene extension functions and properties for the companion object:
57
class MyClass {
companion object { } // will be called "Companion"
}
fun MyClass.Companion.foo() {
// ...
}
Just like regular members of the companion object, they can be called using only the class name as the qualier:
MyClass.foo()
Scope of Extensions
Most of the time we dene extensions on the top level, i.e. directly under packages:
package foo.bar
fun Baz.goo() { ... }
To use such an extension outside its declaring package, we need to import it at the call site:
package com.example.usage
import foo.bar.goo // importing all extensions by name "goo"

// or
import foo.bar.* // importing everything from "foo.bar"
fun usage(baz: Baz) {

baz.goo()
}
See Imports for more information.
Declaring Extensions as Members

Inside a class, you can declare extensions for another class. Inside such an extension, there are multiple implicit receivers -
objects members of which can be accessed without a qualier. The instance of the class in which the extension is declared is
called dispatch receiver, and the instance of the receiver type of the extension method is called extension receiver.
class D {
fun bar() { ... }
}
class C {
fun baz() { ... }
fun D.foo() {
bar() // calls D.bar
baz() // calls C.baz
}
fun caller(d: D) {
d.foo() // call the extension function
}
}
In case of a name conict between the members of the dispatch receiver and the extension receiver, the extension receiver
takes precedence. To refer to the member of the dispatch receiver you can use the qualied this syntax.
58
class C {
fun D.foo() {
toString() // calls D.toString()
this@C.toString() // calls C.toString()
}
Extensions declared as members can be declared as open and overridden in subclasses. This means that the dispatch of such
functions is virtual with regard to the dispatch receiver type, but static with regard to the extension receiver type.
open class D {
}
class D1 : D() {
}
open class C {
open fun D.foo() {
println("D.foo in C")
}
open fun D1.foo() {

println("D1.foo in C")
}
fun caller(d: D) {
d.foo() // call the extension function
}
}
class C1 : C() {
override fun D.foo() {
println("D.foo in C1")
}
override fun D1.foo() {

println("D1.foo in C1")
}
}
C().caller(D()) // prints "D.foo in C"

C1().caller(D()) // prints "D.foo in C1" - dispatch receiver is resolved virtually
C().caller(D1()) // prints "D.foo in C" - extension receiver is resolved statically
Motivation
In Java, we are used to classes named "*Utils": FileUtils , StringUtils and so on. The famous java.util.Collections
belongs to the same breed. And the unpleasant part about these Utils-classes is that the code that uses them looks like this:
// Java
Collections.swap(list, Collections.binarySearch(list, Collections.max(otherList)),
Collections.max(list));
Those class names are always getting in the way. We can use static imports and get this:
// Java
swap(list, binarySearch(list, max(otherList)), max(list));
This is a little better, but we have no or little help from the powerful code completion of the IDE. It would be so much better if we
could say:
59
// Java
list.swap(list.binarySearch(otherList.max()), list.max());
But we don't want to implement all the possible methods inside the class List , right? This is where extensions help us.
60
Data Classes
We frequently create classes whose main purpose is to hold data. In such a class some standard functionality and utility
functions are often mechanically derivable from the data. In Kotlin, this is called a data class and is marked as data :
data class User(val name: String, val age: Int)
The compiler automatically derives the following members from all properties declared in the primary constructor:
equals() / hashCode() pair;

toString() of the form "User(name=John, age=42)" ;
componentN() functions corresponding to the properties in their order of declaration;
copy() function (see below).
To ensure consistency and meaningful behavior of the generated code, data classes have to full the following requirements:
The primary constructor needs to have at least one parameter;

All primary constructor parameters need to be marked as val or var ;
Data classes cannot be abstract, open, sealed or inner;

(before 1.1) Data classes may only implement interfaces.
Additionally, the members generation follows these rules with regard to the members inheritance:
If there are explicit implementations of equals() , hashCode() or toString() in the data class body or final
implementations in a superclass, then these functions are not generated, and the existing implementations are used;
If a supertype has the componentN() functions that are open and return compatible types, the corresponding functions are
generated for the data class and override those of the supertype. If the functions of the supertype cannot be overridden
due to incompatible signatures or being nal, an error is reported;
Providing explicit implementations for the componentN() and copy() functions is not allowed.
Since 1.1, data classes may extend other classes (see Sealed classes for examples).
On the JVM, if the generated class needs to have a parameterless constructor, default values for all properties have to be
specied (see Constructors).
data class User(val name: String = "", val age: Int = 0)
Copying
It's often the case that we need to copy an object altering some of its properties, but keeping the rest unchanged. This is what
copy() function is generated for. For the User class above, its implementation would be as follows:
fun copy(name: String = this.name, age: Int = this.age) = User(name, age)
This allows us to write:
val jack = User(name = "Jack", age = 1)

val olderJack = jack.copy(age = 2)
Data Classes and Destructuring Declarations

Component functions generated for data classes enable their use in destructuring declarations:
val jane = User("Jane", 35)

val (name, age) = jane
println("$name, $age years of age") // prints "Jane, 35 years of age"
61
Standard Data Classes
The standard library provides Pair and Triple . In most cases, though, named data classes are a better design choice,
because they make the code more readable by providing meaningful names for properties.
62
Sealed Classes
Sealed classes are used for representing restricted class hierarchies, when a value can have one of the types from a limited set,
but cannot have any other type. They are, in a sense, an extension of enum classes: the set of values for an enum type is also
restricted, but each enum constant exists only as a single instance, whereas a subclass of a sealed class can have multiple
instances which can contain state.
To declare a sealed class, you put the sealed modier before the name of the class. A sealed class can have subclasses, but
all of them must be declared in the same le as the sealed class itself. (Before Kotlin 1.1, the rules were even more strict:
classes had to be nested inside the declaration of the sealed class).
sealed class Expr

data class Const(val number: Double) : Expr()
data class Sum(val e1: Expr, val e2: Expr) : Expr()
object NotANumber : Expr()
(The example above uses one additional new feature of Kotlin 1.1: the possibility for data classes to extend other classes,
including sealed classes.)
A sealed class is abstract by itself, it cannot be instantiated directly and can have abstract members.
Sealed classes are not allowed to have non-private constructors (their constructors are private by default).
Note that classes which extend subclasses of a sealed class (indirect inheritors) can be placed anywhere, not necessarily in the
same le.
The key benet of using sealed classes comes into play when you use them in a when expression. If it's possible to verify that
the statement covers all cases, you don't need to add an else clause to the statement. However, this works only if you use
when as an expression (using the result) and not as a statement.
fun eval(expr: Expr): Double = when(expr) {

is Const -> expr.number
is Sum -> eval(expr.e1) + eval(expr.e2)
NotANumber -> Double.NaN
// the èlse` clause is not required because we've covered all the cases
}
63
Generics
As in Java, classes in Kotlin may have type parameters:
class Box<T>(t: T) {
var value = t
}
In general, to create an instance of such a class, we need to provide the type arguments:
val box: Box<Int> = Box<Int>(1)
But if the parameters may be inferred, e.g. from the constructor arguments or by some other means, one is allowed to omit the
type arguments:
val box = Box(1) // 1 has type Int, so the compiler figures out that we are talking about Box<Int>
Variance
One of the most tricky parts of Java's type system is wildcard types (see Java Generics FAQ). And Kotlin doesn't have any. Instead,
it has two other things: declaration-site variance and type projections.
First, let's think about why Java needs those mysterious wildcards. The problem is explained in Eective Java, Item 28: Use
bounded wildcards to increase API exibility. First, generic types in Java are invariant, meaning that List<String> is not a
subtype of List<Object> . Why so? If List was not invariant, it would have been no better than Java's arrays, since the following
code would have compiled and caused an exception at runtime:
// Java
List<String> strs = new ArrayList<String>();
List<Object> objs = strs; // !!! The cause of the upcoming problem sits here. Java prohibits this!
objs.add(1); // Here we put an Integer into a list of Strings
String s = strs.get(0); // !!! ClassCastException: Cannot cast Integer to String
So, Java prohibits such things in order to guarantee run-time safety. But this has some implications. For example, consider the
addAll() method from Collection interface. What's the signature of this method? Intuitively, we'd put it this way:
// Java
interface Collection<E> ... {
void addAll(Collection<E> items);
}
But then, we would not be able to do the following simple thing (which is perfectly safe):
// Java
void copyAll(Collection<Object> to, Collection<String> from) {
to.addAll(from); // !!! Would not compile with the naive declaration of addAll:
// Collection<String> is not a subtype of Collection<Object>
}
(In Java, we learned this lesson the hard way, see Eective Java, Item 25: Prefer lists to arrays )
That's why the actual signature of addAll() is the following:
// Java
interface Collection<E> ... {
void addAll(Collection<? extends E> items);
}
64
The wildcard type argument ? extends E indicates that this method accepts a collection of objects of E or some subtype
of E , not just E itself. This means that we can safely read E 's from items (elements of this collection are instances of a
subclass of E), but cannot write to it since we do not know what objects comply to that unknown subtype of E . In return for
this limitation, we have the desired behaviour: Collection<String> is a subtype of Collection<? extends Object> . In "clever
words", the wildcard with an extends-bound (upper bound) makes the type covariant.
The key to understanding why this trick works is rather simple: if you can only take items from a collection, then using a
collection of String s and reading Object s from it is ne. Conversely, if you can only put items into the collection, it's OK to
take a collection of Object s and put String s into it: in Java we have List<? super String> a supertype of List<Object> .
The latter is called contravariance, and you can only call methods that take String as an argument on List<? super String>
(e.g., you can call add(String) or set(int, String) ), while if you call something that returns T in List<T> , you don't get a
String , but an Object .
Joshua Bloch calls those objects you only read from Producers, and those you only write to Consumers. He recommends:
"For maximum exibility, use wildcard types on input parameters that represent producers or consumers ", and proposes the
following mnemonic:
PECS stands for Producer-Extends, Consumer-Super.
NOTE: if you use a producer-object, say, List<? extends Foo> , you are not allowed to call add() or set() on this object, but
this does not mean that this object is immutable: for example, nothing prevents you from calling clear() to remove all items
from the list, since clear() does not take any parameters at all. The only thing guaranteed by wildcards (or other types of
variance) is type safety. Immutability is a completely dierent story.
Declaration-site variance
Suppose we have a generic interface Source<T> that does not have any methods that take T as a parameter, only methods
that return T :
// Java
interface Source<T> {
T nextT();
}
Then, it would be perfectly safe to store a reference to an instance of Source<String> in a variable of type Source<Object>
there are no consumer-methods to call. But Java does not know this, and still prohibits it:
// Java
void demo(Source<String> strs) {
Source<Object> objects = strs; // !!! Not allowed in Java
// ...
}
To x this, we have to declare objects of type Source<? extends Object> , which is sort of meaningless, because we can call all
the same methods on such a variable as before, so there's no value added by the more complex type. But the compiler does
not know that.
In Kotlin, there is a way to explain this sort of thing to the compiler. This is called declaration-site variance: we can annotate
the type parameter T of Source to make sure that it is only returned (produced) from members of Source<T> , and never
consumed. To do this we provide the out modier:
abstract class Source<out T> {

abstract fun nextT(): T
}
fun demo(strs: Source<String>) {

val objects: Source<Any> = strs // This is OK, since T is an out-parameter
// ...
}
65
The general rule is: when a type parameter T of a class C is declared out, it may occur only in out-position in the members of
C , but in return C<Base> can safely be a supertype of C<Derived> .
In "clever words" they say that the class C is covariant in the parameter T , or that T is a covariant type parameter. You can
think of C as being a producer of T 's, and NOT a consumer of T 's.
The out modier is called a variance annotation, and since it is provided at the type parameter declaration site, we talk about
declaration-site variance. This is in contrast with Java's use-site variance where wildcards in the type usages make the
types covariant.
In addition to out, Kotlin provides a complementary variance annotation: in. It makes a type parameter contravariant: it can
only be consumed and never produced. A good example of a contravariant class is Comparable :
abstract class Comparable<in T> {

abstract fun compareTo(other: T): Int
}
fun demo(x: Comparable<Number>) {

x.compareTo(1.0) // 1.0 has type Double, which is a subtype of Number
// Thus, we can assign x to a variable of type Comparable<Double>
val y: Comparable<Double> = x // OK!
}
We believe that the words in and out are self-explaining (as they were successfully used in C# for quite some time already),
thus the mnemonic mentioned above is not really needed, and one can rephrase it for a higher purpose:
The Existential Transformation: Consumer in, Producer out! :-)
Type projections
Use-site variance: Type projections
It is very convenient to declare a type parameter T as out and avoid trouble with subtyping on the use site, but some classes
can't actually be restricted to only return T 's! A good example of this is Array:
class Array<T>(val size: Int) {

fun get(index: Int): T { /* ... */ }
fun set(index: Int, value: T) { /* ... */ }
}
This class cannot be either co- or contravariant in T . And this imposes certain inexibilities. Consider the following function:
fun copy(from: Array<Any>, to: Array<Any>) {

assert(from.size == to.size)
for (i in from.indices)
to[i] = from[i]
}
This function is supposed to copy items from one array to another. Let's try to apply it in practice:
val ints: Array<Int> = arrayOf(1, 2, 3)

val any = Array<Any>(3) { "" }
copy(ints, any) // Error: expects (Array<Any>, Array<Any>)
Here we run into the same familiar problem: Array<T> is invariant in T , thus neither of Array<Int> and Array<Any> is a
subtype of the other. Why? Again, because copy might be doing bad things, i.e. it might attempt to write, say, a String to from ,
and if we actually passed an array of Int there, a ClassCastException would have been thrown sometime later.
Then, the only thing we want to ensure is that copy() does not do any bad things. We want to prohibit it from writing to from ,
and we can:
66
fun copy(from: Array<out Any>, to: Array<Any>) {
// ...
}
What has happened here is called type projection: we said that from is not simply an array, but a restricted (projected) one:
we can only call those methods that return the type parameter T , in this case it means that we can only call get() . This is our
approach to use-site variance, and corresponds to Java's Array<? extends Object> , but in a slightly simpler way.
You can project a type with in as well:
fun fill(dest: Array<in String>, value: String) {

// ...
}
Array<in String> corresponds to Java's Array<? super String> , i.e. you can pass an array of CharSequence or an array of
Object to the fill() function.
Star-projections
Sometimes you want to say that you know nothing about the type argument, but still want to use it in a safe way. The safe way
here is to dene such a projection of the generic type, that every concrete instantiation of that generic type would be a subtype
of that projection.
Kotlin provides so called star-projection syntax for this:
For Foo<out T> , where T is a covariant type parameter with the upper bound TUpper , Foo<*> is equivalent to Foo<out
TUpper> . It means that when the T is unknown you can safely read values of TUpper from Foo<*> .
For Foo<in T> , where T is a contravariant type parameter, Foo<*> is equivalent to Foo<in Nothing> . It means there is
nothing you can write to Foo<*> in a safe way when T is unknown.
For Foo<T> , where T is an invariant type parameter with the upper bound TUpper , Foo<*> is equivalent to Foo<out
TUpper> for reading values and to Foo<in Nothing> for writing values.
If a generic type has several type parameters each of them can be projected independently. For example, if the type is declared
as interface Function<in T, out U> we can imagine the following star-projections:
Function<*, String> means Function<in Nothing, String> ;

Function<Int, *> means Function<Int, out Any?> ;
Function<*, *> means Function<in Nothing, out Any?> .
Note : star-projections are very much like Java's raw types, but safe.
Generic functions
Not only classes can have type parameters. Functions can, too. Type parameters are placed before the name of the function:
fun <T> singletonList(item: T): List<T> {

// ...
}
fun <T> T.basicToString() : String { // extension function

// ...
}
To call a generic function, specify the type arguments at the call site after the name of the function:
val l = singletonList<Int>(1)
Generic constraints
The set of all possible types that can be substituted for a given type parameter may be restricted by generic constraints.
67
Upper bounds
The most common type of constraint is an upper bound that corresponds to Java's extends keyword:
fun <T : Comparable<T>> sort(list: List<T>) {

// ...
}
The type specied after a colon is the upper bound: only a subtype of Comparable<T> may be substituted for T . For
example:
sort(listOf(1, 2, 3)) // OK. Int is a subtype of Comparable<Int>

sort(listOf(HashMap<Int, String>())) // Error: HashMap<Int, String> is not a subtype of
Comparable<HashMap<Int, String>>
The default upper bound (if none specied) is Any? . Only one upper bound can be specied inside the angle brackets. If the
same type parameter needs more than one upper bound, we need a separate where-clause:
fun <T> cloneWhenGreater(list: List<T>, threshold: T): List<T>

where T : Comparable,
T : Cloneable {
return list.filter { it > threshold }.map { it.clone() }
}
68
Nested and Inner Classes
Classes can be nested in other classes:
class Outer {
private val bar: Int = 1
class Nested {
fun foo() = 2
}
}
val demo = Outer.Nested().foo() // == 2
Inner classes
A class may be marked as inner to be able to access members of outer class. Inner classes carry a reference to an object of an
outer class:
class Outer {
private val bar: Int = 1
inner class Inner {
fun foo() = bar
}
}
val demo = Outer().Inner().foo() // == 1
See Qualied this expressions to learn about disambiguation of this in inner classes.
Anonymous inner classes

Anonymous inner class instances are created using an object expression:
window.addMouseListener(object: MouseAdapter() {
override fun mouseClicked(e: MouseEvent) {
// ...
}
override fun mouseEntered(e: MouseEvent) {

// ...
}
})
If the object is an instance of a functional Java interface (i.e. a Java interface with a single abstract method), you can create it
using a lambda expression prexed with the type of the interface:
val listener = ActionListener { println("clicked") }
69
Enum Classes
The most basic usage of enum classes is implementing type-safe enums:
enum class Direction {

NORTH, SOUTH, WEST, EAST
}
Each enum constant is an object. Enum constants are separated with commas.
Initialization
Since each enum is an instance of the enum class, they can be initialized as:
enum class Color(val rgb: Int) {

RED(0xFF0000),
GREEN(0x00FF00),
BLUE(0x0000FF)
}
Anonymous Classes
Enum constants can also declare their own anonymous classes:
enum class ProtocolState {

WAITING {
override fun signal() = TALKING
},
TALKING {
override fun signal() = WAITING
};
abstract fun signal(): ProtocolState

}
with their corresponding methods, as well as overriding base methods. Note that if the enum class denes any members, you
need to separate the enum constant denitions from the member denitions with a semicolon, just like in Java.
Working with Enum Constants

Just like in Java, enum classes in Kotlin have synthetic methods allowing to list the dened enum constants and to get an enum
constant by its name. The signatures of these methods are as follows (assuming the name of the enum class is EnumClass ):
EnumClass.valueOf(value: String): EnumClass

EnumClass.values(): Array<EnumClass>
The valueOf() method throws an IllegalArgumentException if the specied name does not match any of the enum
constants dened in the class.
Since Kotlin 1.1, it's possible to access the constants in an enum class in a generic way, using the enumValues<T>() and
enumValueOf<T>() functions:
enum class RGB { RED, GREEN, BLUE }
inline fun <reified T : Enum<T>> printAllValues() {

print(enumValues<T>().joinToString { it.name })
}
printAllValues<RGB>() // prints RED, GREEN, BLUE
70
Every enum constant has properties to obtain its name and position in the enum class declaration:
val name: String

val ordinal: Int
The enum constants also implement the Comparable interface, with the natural order being the order in which they are dened
in the enum class.
71
Object Expressions and Declarations
Sometimes we need to create an object of a slight modication of some class, without explicitly declaring a new subclass for it.
Java handles this case with anonymous inner classes . Kotlin slightly generalizes this concept with object expressions and object
declarations .
Object expressions
To create an object of an anonymous class that inherits from some type (or types), we write:
window.addMouseListener(object : MouseAdapter() {
// ...
}

// ...
}
})
If a supertype has a constructor, appropriate constructor parameters must be passed to it. Many supertypes may be specied
as a comma-separated list after the colon:
open class A(x: Int) {

public open val y: Int = x
}
interface B {...}
val ab: A = object : A(1), B {

override val y = 15
}
If, by any chance, we need "just an object", with no nontrivial supertypes, we can simply say:
fun foo() {
val adHoc = object {
var x: Int = 0
var y: Int = 0
}
print(adHoc.x + adHoc.y)
}
Note that anonymous objects can be used as types only in local and private declarations. If you use an anonymous object as a
return type of a public function or the type of a public property, the actual type of that function or property will be the declared
supertype of the anonymous object, or Any if you didn't declare any supertype. Members added in the anonymous object will
not be accessible.
72
class C {
// Private function, so the return type is the anonymous object type
private fun foo() = object {
val x: String = "x"
}
// Public function, so the return type is Any

fun publicFoo() = object {
val x: String = "x"
}
fun bar() {
val x1 = foo().x // Works
val x2 = publicFoo().x // ERROR: Unresolved reference 'x'
}
}
Just like Java's anonymous inner classes, code in object expressions can access variables from the enclosing scope. (Unlike Java,
this is not restricted to nal variables.)
fun countClicks(window: JComponent) {

var clickCount = 0
var enterCount = 0
window.addMouseListener(object : MouseAdapter() {
clickCount++
}

enterCount++
}
})
// ...
}
Object declarations
Singleton is a very useful pattern, and Kotlin (after Scala) makes it easy to declare singletons:
object DataProviderManager {
fun registerDataProvider(provider: DataProvider) {
// ...
}
val allDataProviders: Collection<DataProvider>

get() = // ...
}
This is called an object declaration, and it always has a name following the object keyword. Just like a variable declaration, an
object declaration is not an expression, and cannot be used on the right hand side of an assignment statement.
To refer to the object, we use its name directly:
DataProviderManager.registerDataProvider(...)
Such objects can have supertypes:
73
object DefaultListener : MouseAdapter() {
// ...
}

// ...
}
}
NOTE: object declarations can't be local (i.e. be nested directly inside a function), but they can be nested into other object
declarations or non-inner classes.
Companion Objects
An object declaration inside a class can be marked with the companion keyword:
class MyClass {
companion object Factory {
fun create(): MyClass = MyClass()
}
}
Members of the companion object can be called by using simply the class name as the qualier:
val instance = MyClass.create()
The name of the companion object can be omitted, in which case the name Companion will be used:
class MyClass {
companion object {
}
}
val x = MyClass.Companion
Note that, even though the members of companion objects look like static members in other languages, at runtime those are
still instance members of real objects, and can, for example, implement interfaces:
interface Factory<T> {
fun create(): T
}
class MyClass {
companion object : Factory<MyClass> {
override fun create(): MyClass = MyClass()
}
}
However, on the JVM you can have members of companion objects generated as real static methods and elds, if you use the
@JvmStatic annotation. See the Java interoperability section for more details.
Semantic di erence between object expressions and declarations
There is one important semantic dierence between object expressions and object declarations:
object expressions are executed (and initialized) immediately, where they are used;
object declarations are initialized lazily, when accessed for the rst time;
a companion object is initialized when the corresponding class is loaded (resolved), matching the semantics of a Java static
initializer.
74
75
Delegation
Class Delegation
The Delegation pattern has proven to be a good alternative to implementation inheritance, and Kotlin supports it natively
requiring zero boilerplate code. A class Derived can inherit from an interface Base and delegate all of its public methods to a
specied object:
interface Base {
fun print()
}
class BaseImpl(val x: Int) : Base {

override fun print() { print(x) }
}
class Derived(b: Base) : Base by b

val b = BaseImpl(10)
Derived(b).print() // prints 10
}
The by-clause in the supertype list for Derived indicates that b will be stored internally in objects of Derived and the compiler
will generate all the methods of Base that forward to b .
Note that overrides work as you might expect: The compiler will use your override implementations instead of those in the
delegate object. If we were to add override fun print() { print("abc") } to Derived , the program would print "abc"
instead of "10".
76
Delegated Properties
There are certain common kinds of properties, that, though we can implement them manually every time we need them, would
be very nice to implement once and for all, and put into a library. Examples include:
lazy properties: the value gets computed only upon rst access;
observable properties: listeners get notied about changes to this property;
storing properties in a map, instead of a separate eld for each property.
To cover these (and other) cases, Kotlin supports delegated properties :
class Example {
var p: String by Delegate()
}
The syntax is: val/var <property name>: <Type> by <expression> . The expression after by is the delegate , because get()
(and set() ) corresponding to the property will be delegated to its getValue() and setValue() methods. Property delegates
dont have to implement any interface, but they have to provide a getValue() function (and setValue() for var's). For
example:
class Delegate {
operator fun getValue(thisRef: Any?, property: KProperty<*>): String {
return "$thisRef, thank you for delegating '${property.name}' to me!"
}
operator fun setValue(thisRef: Any?, property: KProperty<*>, value: String) {

println("$value has been assigned to '${property.name} in $thisRef.'")
}
}
When we read from p that delegates to an instance of Delegate , the getValue() function from Delegate is called, so that its
rst parameter is the object we read p from and the second parameter holds a description of p itself (e.g. you can take its
name). For example:
val e = Example()
println(e.p)
This prints:
Example@33a17727, thank you for delegating p to me!
Similarly, when we assign to p , the setValue() function is called. The rst two parameters are the same, and the third holds
the value being assigned:
e.p = "NEW"
This prints
NEW has been assigned to p in Example@33a17727.
The specication of the requirements to the delegated object can be found below.
Note that since Kotlin 1.1 you can declare a delegated property inside a function or code block, it shouldn't necessarily be a
member of a class. Below you can nd the example.
Standard Delegates
The Kotlin standard library provides factory methods for several useful kinds of delegates.
77
Lazy
lazy() is a function that takes a lambda and returns an instance of Lazy<T> which can serve as a delegate for implementing a
lazy property: the rst call to get() executes the lambda passed to lazy() and remembers the result, subsequent calls to
get() simply return the remembered result.
val lazyValue: String by lazy {

println("computed!")
"Hello"
}

println(lazyValue)
println(lazyValue)
}
This example prints:
computed!
Hello
Hello
By default, the evaluation of lazy properties is synchronized: the value is computed only in one thread, and all threads will see
the same value. If the synchronization of initialization delegate is not required, so that multiple threads can execute it
simultaneously, pass LazyThreadSafetyMode.PUBLICATION as a parameter to the lazy() function. And if you're sure that the
initialization will always happen on a single thread, you can use LazyThreadSafetyMode.NONE mode, which doesn't incur any
thread-safety guarantees and the related overhead.
Observable
Delegates.observable() takes two arguments: the initial value and a handler for modications. The handler gets called every
time we assign to the property (after the assignment has been performed). It has three parameters: a property being assigned
to, the old value and the new one:
import kotlin.properties.Delegates
class User {
var name: String by Delegates.observable("<no name>") {
prop, old, new ->
println("$old -> $new")
}
}

val user = User()
user.name = "first"
user.name = "second"
}
This example prints:
<no name> -> first

first -> second
If you want to be able to intercept an assignment and "veto" it, use vetoable() instead of observable() . The handler passed
to the vetoable is called before the assignment of a new property value has been performed.
Storing Properties in a Map

One common use case is storing the values of properties in a map. This comes up often in applications like parsing JSON or
doing other dynamic things. In this case, you can use the map instance itself as the delegate for a delegated property.
78
class User(val map: Map<String, Any?>) {
val name: String by map
val age: Int by map
}
In this example, the constructor takes a map:
val user = User(mapOf(

"name" to "John Doe",
"age" to 25
))
Delegated properties take values from this map (by the string keys names of properties):
println(user.name) // Prints "John Doe"

println(user.age) // Prints 25
This works also for vars properties if you use a MutableMap instead of read-only Map :
class MutableUser(val map: MutableMap<String, Any?>) {

var name: String by map
var age: Int by map
}
Local Delegated Properties (since 1.1)

You can declare local variables as delegated properties. For instance, you can make a local variable lazy:
fun example(computeFoo: () -> Foo) {

val memoizedFoo by lazy(computeFoo)
if (someCondition && memoizedFoo.isValid()) {

memoizedFoo.doSomething()
}
}
The memoizedFoo variable will be computed on the rst access only. If someCondition fails, the variable won't be computed at
all.
Property Delegate Requirements

Here we summarize requirements to delegate objects.
For a read-only property (i.e. a val), a delegate has to provide a function named getValue that takes the following
parameters:
thisRef must be the same or a supertype of the property owner (for extension properties the type being extended);
property must be of type KProperty<*> or its supertype.
this function must return the same type as property (or its subtype).
For a mutable property (a var), a delegate has to additionally provide a function named setValue that takes the following
parameters:
thisRef same as for getValue() ;

property same as for getValue() ;
new value must be of the same type as a property or its supertype.
79
getValue() and/or setValue() functions may be provided either as member functions of the delegate class or extension
functions. The latter is handy when you need to delegate property to an object which doesn't originally provide these functions.
Both of the functions need to be marked with the operator keyword.
The delegate class may implement one of the interfaces ReadOnlyProperty and ReadWriteProperty containing the required
operator methods. These interfaces are declared in the Kotlin standard library:
interface ReadOnlyProperty<in R, out T> {

operator fun getValue(thisRef: R, property: KProperty<*>): T
}
interface ReadWriteProperty<in R, T> {

operator fun getValue(thisRef: R, property: KProperty<*>): T
operator fun setValue(thisRef: R, property: KProperty<*>, value: T)
}
Translation Rules
Under the hood for every delegated property the Kotlin compiler generates an auxiliary property and delegates to it. For
instance, for the property prop the hidden property prop$delegate is generated, and the code of the accessors simply
delegates to this additional property:
class C {
var prop: Type by MyDelegate()
}
// this code is generated by the compiler instead:

class C {
private val prop$delegate = MyDelegate()
var prop: Type
get() = prop$delegate.getValue(this, this::prop)
set(value: Type) = prop$delegate.setValue(this, this::prop, value)
}
The Kotlin compiler provides all the necessary information about prop in the arguments: the rst argument this refers to an
instance of the outer class C and this::prop is a reection object of the KProperty type describing prop itself.
Note that the syntax this::prop to refer a bound callable reference in the code directly is available only since Kotlin 1.1.
Providing a delegate (since 1.1)
By dening the provideDelegate operator you can extend the logic of creating the object to which the property
implementation is delegated. If the object used on the right hand side of by denes provideDelegate as a member or
extension function, that function will be called to create the property delegate instance.
One of the possible use cases of provideDelegate is to check property consistency when the property is created, not only in
its getter or setter.
For example, if you want to check the property name before binding, you can write something like this:
80
class ResourceDelegate<T> : ReadOnlyProperty<MyUI, T> {
override fun getValue(thisRef: MyUI, property: KProperty<*>): T { ... }
}
class ResourceLoader<T>(id: ResourceID<T>) {

operator fun provideDelegate(
thisRef: MyUI,
prop: KProperty<*>
): ReadOnlyProperty<MyUI, T> {
checkProperty(thisRef, prop.name)
// create delegate
return ResourceDelegate()
}
private fun checkProperty(thisRef: MyUI, name: String) { ... }

}
class MyUI {
fun <T> bindResource(id: ResourceID<T>): ResourceLoader<T> { ... }
val image by bindResource(ResourceID.image_id)

val text by bindResource(ResourceID.text_id)
}
The parameters of provideDelegate are the same as for getValue :
thisRef must be the same or a supertype of the property owner (for extension properties the type being extended);
property must be of type KProperty<*> or its supertype.
The provideDelegate method is called for each property during the creation of the MyUI instance, and it performs the
necessary validation right away.
Without this ability to intercept the binding between the property and its delegate, to achieve the same functionality you'd have
to pass the property name explicitly, which isn't very convenient:
// Checking the property name without "provideDelegate" functionality

class MyUI {
val image by bindResource(ResourceID.image_id, "image")
val text by bindResource(ResourceID.text_id, "text")
}
fun <T> MyUI.bindResource(

id: ResourceID<T>,
propertyName: String
): ReadOnlyProperty<MyUI, T> {
checkProperty(this, propertyName)
// create delegate
}
In the generated code, the provideDelegate method is called to initialize the auxiliary prop$delegate property. Compare the
generated code for the property declaration val prop: Type by MyDelegate() with the generated code above (when the
provideDelegate method is not present):
81
class C {
var prop: Type by MyDelegate()
}
// this code is generated by the compiler

// when the 'provideDelegate' function is available:
class C {
// calling "provideDelegate" to create the additional "delegate" property
private val prop$delegate = MyDelegate().provideDelegate(this, this::prop)
val prop: Type
get() = prop$delegate.getValue(this, this::prop)
}
Note that the provideDelegate method aects only the creation of the auxiliary property and doesn't aect the code
generated for getter or setter.
82
Functions and Lambdas
Functions
Function Declarations
Functions in Kotlin are declared using the fun keyword:
fun double(x: Int): Int {

return 2 * x
}
Function Usage
Calling functions uses the traditional approach:
val result = double(2)
Calling member functions uses the dot notation:
Sample().foo() // create instance of class Sample and call foo
Parameters
Function parameters are dened using Pascal notation, i.e. name : type . Parameters are separated using commas. Each
parameter must be explicitly typed:
fun powerOf(number: Int, exponent: Int) {

...
}
Default Arguments
Function parameters can have default values, which are used when a corresponding argument is omitted. This allows for a
reduced number of overloads compared to other languages:
fun read(b: Array<Byte>, off: Int = 0, len: Int = b.size) {

...
}
Default values are dened using the = after type along with the value.
Overriding methods always use the same default parameter values as the base method. When overriding a method with default
parameters values, the default parameter values must be omitted from the signature:
83
open class A {
open fun foo(i: Int = 10) { ... }
}
class B : A() {
override fun foo(i: Int) { ... } // no default value allowed
}
If a default parameter precedes a parameter with no default value, the default value can be used only by calling the function with
named arguments:
fun foo(bar: Int = 0, baz: Int) { /* ... */ }
foo(baz = 1) // The default value bar = 0 is used
But if a last argument lambda is passed to a function call outside the parentheses, passing no values for the default parameters
is allowed:
fun foo(bar: Int = 0, baz: Int = 1, qux: () -> Unit) { /* ... */ }
foo(1) { println("hello") } // Uses the default value baz = 1

foo { println("hello") } // Uses both default values bar = 0 and baz = 1
Named Arguments
Function parameters can be named when calling functions. This is very convenient when a function has a high number of
parameters or default ones.
Given the following function:
fun reformat(str: String,

normalizeCase: Boolean = true,
upperCaseFirstLetter: Boolean = true,
divideByCamelHumps: Boolean = false,
wordSeparator: Char = ' ') {
...
}
we could call this using default arguments:
reformat(str)
However, when calling it with non-default, the call would look something like:
reformat(str, true, true, false, '_')
With named arguments we can make the code much more readable:
reformat(str,
normalizeCase = true,
upperCaseFirstLetter = true,
divideByCamelHumps = false,
wordSeparator = '_'
)
and if we do not need all arguments:
reformat(str, wordSeparator = '_')
84
When a function is called with both positional and named arguments, all the positional arguments should be placed before the
rst named one. For example, the call f(1, y = 2) is allowed, but f(x = 1, 2) is not.
Variable number of arguments (vararg) can be passed in the named form by using the spread operator:
fun foo(vararg strings: String) { /* ... */ }
foo(strings = *arrayOf("a", "b", "c"))

foo(strings = "a") // Not required for a single value
Note that the named argument syntax cannot be used when calling Java functions, because Java bytecode does not always
preserve names of function parameters.
Unit-returning functions
If a function does not return any useful value, its return type is Unit . Unit is a type with only one value - Unit . This value does
not have to be returned explicitly:
fun printHello(name: String?): Unit {

if (name != null)
println("Hello ${name}")
else
println("Hi there!")
// `return Unit` or `return` is optional
}
The Unit return type declaration is also optional. The above code is equivalent to:
fun printHello(name: String?) {

...
}
Single-Expression functions
When a function returns a single expression, the curly braces can be omitted and the body is specied after a = symbol:
fun double(x: Int): Int = x * 2
Explicitly declaring the return type is optional when this can be inferred by the compiler:
fun double(x: Int) = x * 2
Explicit return types
Functions with block body must always specify return types explicitly, unless it's intended for them to return Unit , in which case
it is optional. Kotlin does not infer return types for functions with block bodies because such functions may have complex control
ow in the body, and the return type will be non-obvious to the reader (and sometimes even for the compiler).
Variable number of arguments (Varargs)
A parameter of a function (normally the last one) may be marked with vararg modier:
fun <T> asList(vararg ts: T): List<T> {

val result = ArrayList<T>()
for (t in ts) // ts is an Array
result.add(t)
return result
}
allowing a variable number of arguments to be passed to the function:
85
val list = asList(1, 2, 3)
Inside a function a vararg -parameter of type T is visible as an array of T , i.e. the ts variable in the example above has type
Array<out T> .
Only one parameter may be marked as vararg . If a vararg parameter is not the last one in the list, values for the following
parameters can be passed using the named argument syntax, or, if the parameter has a function type, by passing a lambda
outside parentheses.
When we call a vararg -function, we can pass arguments one-by-one, e.g. asList(1, 2, 3) , or, if we already have an array
and want to pass its contents to the function, we use the spread operator (prex the array with * ):
val a = arrayOf(1, 2, 3)
val list = asList(-1, 0, *a, 4)
In x notation
Functions can also be called using inx notations when
They are member functions or extension functions;

They have a single parameter;
They are marked with the infix keyword.
// Define extension to Int

infix fun Int.shl(x: Int): Int {
...
}
// call extension function using infix notation
1 shl 2
// is the same as
1.shl(2)
Function Scope
In Kotlin functions can be declared at top level in a le, meaning you do not need to create a class to hold a function, like
languages such as Java, C# or Scala. In addition to top level functions, Kotlin functions can also be declared local, as member
functions and extension functions.
Local Functions
Kotlin supports local functions, i.e. a function inside another function:
fun dfs(graph: Graph) {

fun dfs(current: Vertex, visited: Set<Vertex>) {
if (!visited.add(current)) return
for (v in current.neighbors)
dfs(v, visited)
}
dfs(graph.vertices[0], HashSet())
}
Local function can access local variables of outer functions (i.e. the closure), so in the case above, the visited can be a local
variable:
86
fun dfs(graph: Graph) {
val visited = HashSet<Vertex>()
fun dfs(current: Vertex) {
if (!visited.add(current)) return
for (v in current.neighbors)
dfs(v)
}
dfs(graph.vertices[0])
}
Member Functions
A member function is a function that is dened inside a class or object:
class Sample() {
fun foo() { print("Foo") }
}
Member functions are called with dot notation:
Sample().foo() // creates instance of class Sample and calls foo
For more information on classes and overriding members see Classes and Inheritance.
Generic Functions
Functions can have generic parameters which are specied using angle brackets before the function name:
fun <T> singletonList(item: T): List<T> {

// ...
}
For more information on generic functions see Generics.
Inline Functions
Inline functions are explained here.
Extension Functions
Extension functions are explained in their own section.
Higher-Order Functions and Lambdas

Higher-Order functions and Lambdas are explained in their own section.
Tail recursive functions

Kotlin supports a style of functional programming known as tail recursion. This allows some algorithms that would normally be
written using loops to instead be written using a recursive function, but without the risk of stack overow. When a function is
marked with the tailrec modier and meets the required form, the compiler optimises out the recursion, leaving behind a fast
and ecient loop based version instead:
tailrec fun findFixPoint(x: Double = 1.0): Double

= if (x == Math.cos(x)) x else findFixPoint(Math.cos(x))
This code calculates the xpoint of cosine, which is a mathematical constant. It simply calls Math.cos repeatedly starting at 1.0
until the result doesn't change any more, yielding a result of 0.7390851332151607. The resulting code is equivalent to this
more traditional style:
87
private fun findFixPoint(): Double {
var x = 1.0
while (true) {
val y = Math.cos(x)
if (x == y) return y
x = y
}
}
To be eligible for the tailrec modier, a function must call itself as the last operation it performs. You cannot use tail recursion
when there is more code after the recursive call, and you cannot use it within try/catch/nally blocks. Currently tail recursion is
only supported in the JVM backend.
88
Higher-Order Functions and Lambdas
Higher-Order Functions
A higher-order function is a function that takes functions as parameters, or returns a function. A good example of such a
function is lock() that takes a lock object and a function, acquires the lock, runs the function and releases the lock:
fun <T> lock(lock: Lock, body: () -> T): T {

lock.lock()
try {
return body()
}
finally {
lock.unlock()
}
}
Let's examine the code above: body has a function type: () -> T , so it's supposed to be a function that takes no parameters
and returns a value of type T . It is invoked inside the try-block, while protected by the lock , and its result is returned by the
lock() function.
If we want to call lock() , we can pass another function to it as an argument (see function references):
fun toBeSynchronized() = sharedResource.operation()
val result = lock(lock, ::toBeSynchronized)
Another, often more convenient way is to pass a lambda expression:
val result = lock(lock, { sharedResource.operation() })
Lambda expressions are described in more detail below, but for purposes of continuing this section, let's see a brief overview:
A lambda expression is always surrounded by curly braces;

Its parameters (if any) are declared before -> (parameter types may be omitted);
The body goes after -> (when present).
In Kotlin, there is a convention that if the last parameter to a function is a function, and you're passing a lambda expression as
the corresponding argument, you can specify it outside of parentheses:
lock (lock) {
sharedResource.operation()
}
Another example of a higher-order function would be map() :
fun <T, R> List<T>.map(transform: (T) -> R): List<R> {

val result = arrayListOf<R>()
for (item in this)
result.add(transform(item))
return result
}
This function can be called as follows:
val doubled = ints.map { value -> value * 2 }
Note that the parentheses in a call can be omitted entirely if the lambda is the only argument to that call.
89
it: implicit name of a single parameter
One other helpful convention is that if a function literal has only one parameter, its declaration may be omitted (along with the -
> ), and its name will be it :
ints.map { it * 2 }
These conventions allow to write LINQ-style code:
strings.filter { it.length == 5 }.sortedBy { it }.map { it.toUpperCase() }
Underscore for unused variables (since 1.1)
If the lambda parameter is unused, you can place an underscore instead of its name:
map.forEach { _, value -> println("$value!") }
Destructuring in Lambdas (since 1.1)
Destructuring in lambdas is described as a part of destructuring declarations.
Inline Functions
Sometimes it is benecial to enhance performance of higher-order functions using inline functions.
Lambda Expressions and Anonymous Functions

A lambda expression or an anonymous function is a "function literal", i.e. a function that is not declared, but passed immediately
as an expression. Consider the following example:
max(strings, { a, b -> a.length < b.length })
Function max is a higher-order function, i.e. it takes a function value as the second argument. This second argument is an
expression that is itself a function, i.e. a function literal. As a function, it is equivalent to:
fun compare(a: String, b: String): Boolean = a.length < b.length
Function Types
For a function to accept another function as a parameter, we have to specify a function type for that parameter. For example the
abovementioned function max is dened as follows:
fun <T> max(collection: Collection<T>, less: (T, T) -> Boolean): T? {

var max: T? = null
for (it in collection)
if (max == null || less(max, it))
max = it
return max
}
The parameter less is of type (T, T) -> Boolean , i.e. a function that takes two parameters of type T and returns a
Boolean : true if the rst one is smaller than the second one.
In the body, line 4, less is used as a function: it is called by passing two arguments of type T .
A function type is written as above, or may have named parameters, if you want to document the meaning of each parameter.
val compare: (x: T, y: T) -> Int = ...
90
To declare a nullable variable of a function type, enclose the entire function type in parentheses and put the question mark after
it:
var sum: ((Int, Int) -> Int)? = null
Lambda Expression Syntax
The full syntactic form of lambda expressions, i.e. literals of function types, is as follows:
val sum = { x: Int, y: Int -> x + y }
A lambda expression is always surrounded by curly braces, parameter declarations in the full syntactic form go inside curly
braces and have optional type annotations, the body goes after an -> sign. If the inferred return type of the lambda is not
Unit , the last (or possibly single) expression inside the lambda body is treated as the return value.
If we leave all the optional annotations out, what's left looks like this:
val sum: (Int, Int) -> Int = { x, y -> x + y }
It's very common that a lambda expression has only one parameter. If Kotlin can gure the signature out itself, it allows us not to
declare the only parameter, and will implicitly declare it for us under the name it :
ints.filter { it > 0 } // this literal is of type '(it: Int) -> Boolean'
We can explicitly return a value from the lambda using the qualied return syntax. Otherwise, the value of the last expression is
implicitly returned. Therefore, the two following snippets are equivalent:
ints.filter {
val shouldFilter = it > 0
shouldFilter
}
ints.filter {
val shouldFilter = it > 0
return@filter shouldFilter
}
Note that if a function takes another function as the last parameter, the lambda expression argument can be passed outside the
parenthesized argument list. See the grammar for callSux.
Anonymous Functions
One thing missing from the lambda expression syntax presented above is the ability to specify the return type of the function. In
most cases, this is unnecessary because the return type can be inferred automatically. However, if you do need to specify it
explicitly, you can use an alternative syntax: an anonymous function.
fun(x: Int, y: Int): Int = x + y
An anonymous function looks very much like a regular function declaration, except that its name is omitted. Its body can be
either an expression (as shown above) or a block:
fun(x: Int, y: Int): Int {

return x + y
}
The parameters and the return type are specied in the same way as for regular functions, except that the parameter types can
be omitted if they can be inferred from context:
91
ints.filter(fun(item) = item > 0)
The return type inference for anonymous functions works just like for normal functions: the return type is inferred automatically
for anonymous functions with an expression body and has to be specied explicitly (or is assumed to be Unit ) for anonymous
functions with a block body.
Note that anonymous function parameters are always passed inside the parentheses. The shorthand syntax allowing to leave
the function outside the parentheses works only for lambda expressions.
One other dierence between lambda expressions and anonymous functions is the behavior of non-local returns. A return
statement without a label always returns from the function declared with the fun keyword. This means that a return inside a
lambda expression will return from the enclosing function, whereas a return inside an anonymous function will return from the
anonymous function itself.
Closures
A lambda expression or anonymous function (as well as a local function and an object expression) can access its closure , i.e.
the variables declared in the outer scope. Unlike Java, the variables captured in the closure can be modied:
var sum = 0
ints.filter { it > 0 }.forEach {
sum += it
}
print(sum)
Function Literals with Receiver
Kotlin provides the ability to call a function literal with a specied receiver object. Inside the body of the function literal, you can
call methods on that receiver object without any additional qualiers. This is similar to extension functions, which allow you to
access members of the receiver object inside the body of the function. One of the most important examples of their usage is
Type-safe Groovy-style builders.
The type of such a function literal is a function type with receiver:
sum : Int.(other: Int) -> Int
The function literal can be called as if it were a method on the receiver object:
1.sum(2)
The anonymous function syntax allows you to specify the receiver type of a function literal directly. This can be useful if you need
to declare a variable of a function type with receiver, and to use it later.
val sum = fun Int.(other: Int): Int = this + other
A non-literal value of a function-with-receiver type can also be assigned or passed as an argument where an ordinary function is
expected that has an additional rst parameter of the receiver type, and vice versa. For example, the types String.(Int) ->
Boolean and (String, Int) -> Boolean are compatible:
val represents: String.(Int) -> Boolean = { other -> toIntOrNull() == other }

println("123".represents(123)) // true
fun testOperation(op: (String, Int) -> Boolean, a: String, b: Int, c: Boolean) =

assert(op(a, b) == c)
testOperation(represents, "100", 100, true) // OK
Lambda expressions can be used as function literals with receiver when the receiver type can be inferred from context.
92
class HTML {
fun body() { ... }
}
fun html(init: HTML.() -> Unit): HTML {

val html = HTML() // create the receiver object
html.init() // pass the receiver object to the lambda
return html
}
html { // lambda with receiver begins here

body() // calling a method on the receiver object
}
93
Inline Functions
Using higher-order functions imposes certain runtime penalties: each function is an object, and it captures a closure, i.e. those
variables that are accessed in the body of the function. Memory allocations (both for function objects and classes) and virtual
calls introduce runtime overhead.
But it appears that in many cases this kind of overhead can be eliminated by inlining the lambda expressions. The functions
shown below are good examples of this situation. I.e., the lock() function could be easily inlined at call-sites. Consider the
following case:
lock(l) { foo() }
Instead of creating a function object for the parameter and generating a call, the compiler could emit the following code:
l.lock()
try {
foo()
}
finally {
l.unlock()
}
Isn't it what we wanted from the very beginning?
To make the compiler do this, we need to mark the lock() function with the inline modier:
inline fun <T> lock(lock: Lock, body: () -> T): T {

// ...
}
The inline modier aects both the function itself and the lambdas passed to it: all of those will be inlined into the call site.
Inlining may cause the generated code to grow; however, if we do it in a reasonable way (i.e. avoiding inlining large functions), it
will pay o in performance, especially at "megamorphic" call-sites inside loops.
noinline
In case you want only some of the lambdas passed to an inline function to be inlined, you can mark some of your function
parameters with the noinline modier:
inline fun foo(inlined: () -> Unit, noinline notInlined: () -> Unit) {

// ...
}
Inlinable lambdas can only be called inside the inline functions or passed as inlinable arguments, but noinline ones can be
manipulated in any way we like: stored in elds, passed around etc.
Note that if an inline function has no inlinable function parameters and no reied type parameters, the compiler will issue a
warning, since inlining such functions is very unlikely to be benecial (you can suppress the warning if you are sure the inlining is
needed using the annotation @Suppress("NOTHING_TO_INLINE") ).
Non-local returns
In Kotlin, we can only use a normal, unqualied return to exit a named function or an anonymous function. This means that to
exit a lambda, we have to use a label, and a bare return is forbidden inside a lambda, because a lambda can not make the
enclosing function return:
94
fun foo() {
ordinaryFunction {
return // ERROR: can not make `foo` return here
}
}
But if the function the lambda is passed to is inlined, the return can be inlined as well, so it is allowed:
fun foo() {
inlineFunction {
return // OK: the lambda is inlined
}
}
Such returns (located in a lambda, but exiting the enclosing function) are called non-local returns. We are used to this sort of
construct in loops, which inline functions often enclose:
fun hasZeros(ints: List<Int>): Boolean {

ints.forEach {
if (it == 0) return true // returns from hasZeros
}
return false
}
Note that some inline functions may call the lambdas passed to them as parameters not directly from the function body, but
from another execution context, such as a local object or a nested function. In such cases, non-local control ow is also not
allowed in the lambdas. To indicate that, the lambda parameter needs to be marked with the crossinline modier:
inline fun f(crossinline body: () -> Unit) {

val f = object: Runnable {
override fun run() = body()
}
// ...
}
break and continue are not yet available in inlined lambdas, but we are planning to support them too.
Rei ed type parameters

Sometimes we need to access a type passed to us as a parameter:
fun <T> TreeNode.findParentOfType(clazz: Class<T>): T? {

var p = parent
while (p != null && !clazz.isInstance(p)) {
p = p.parent
}
@Suppress("UNCHECKED_CAST")
return p as T?
}
Here, we walk up a tree and use reection to check if a node has a certain type. Its all ne, but the call site is not very pretty:
treeNode.findParentOfType(MyTreeNode::class.java)
What we actually want is simply pass a type to this function, i.e. call it like this:
treeNode.findParentOfType<MyTreeNode>()
To enable this, inline functions support reied type parameters , so we can write something like this:
95
inline fun <reified T> TreeNode.findParentOfType(): T? {
var p = parent
while (p != null && p !is T) {
p = p.parent
}
return p as T?
}
We qualied the type parameter with the reified modier, now its accessible inside the function, almost as if it were a normal
class. Since the function is inlined, no reection is needed, normal operators like !is and as are working now. Also, we can
call it as mentioned above: myTree.findParentOfType<MyTreeNodeType>() .
Though reection may not be needed in many cases, we can still use it with a reied type parameter:
inline fun <reified T> membersOf() = T::class.members
fun main(s: Array<String>) {

println(membersOf<StringBuilder>().joinToString("\n"))
}
Normal functions (not marked as inline) can not have reied parameters. A type that does not have a run-time representation
(e.g. a non-reied type parameter or a ctitious type like Nothing ) can not be used as an argument for a reied type parameter.
For a low-level description, see the spec document.
Inline properties (since 1.1)

The inline modier can be used on accessors of properties that don't have a backing eld. You can annotate individual
property accessors:
val foo: Foo

inline get() = Foo()
var bar: Bar

get() = ...
inline set(v) { ... }
You can also annotate an entire property, which marks both of its accessors as inline:
inline var bar: Bar

get() = ...
set(v) { ... }
At the call site, inline accessors are inlined as regular inline functions.
Restrictions for public API inline functions

When an inline function is public or protected and is not a part of a private or internal declaration, it is considered a
module's public API. It can be called in other modules and is inlined at such call sites as well.
This imposes certain risks of binary incompatibility caused by changes in the module that declares an inline function in case the
calling module is not re-compiled after the change.
To eliminate the risk of such incompatibility being introduced by a change in non-public API of a module, the public API inline
functions are not allowed to use non-public-API declarations, i.e. private and internal declarations and their parts, in their
bodies.
An internal declaration can be annotated with @PublishedApi , which allows its use in public API inline functions. When an
internal inline function is marked as @PublishedApi , its body is checked too, as if it were public.
96
Coroutines
Coroutines are experimental in Kotlin 1.1. See details below
Some APIs initiate long-running operations (such as network IO, le IO, CPU- or GPU-intensive work, etc) and require the caller to
block until they complete. Coroutines provide a way to avoid blocking a thread and replace it with a cheaper and more
controllable operation: suspension of a coroutine.
Coroutines simplify asynchronous programming by putting the complications into libraries. The logic of the program can be
expressed sequentially in a coroutine, and the underlying library will gure out the asynchrony for us. The library can wrap
relevant parts of the user code into callbacks, subscribe to relevant events, schedule execution on dierent threads (or even
dierent machines!), and the code remains as simple as if it was sequentially executed.
Many asynchronous mechanisms available in other languages can be implemented as libraries using Kotlin coroutines. This
includes async/await from C# and ECMAScript, channels and select from Go, and generators/yield from C# and Python. See
the description below for libraries providing such constructs.
Blocking vs Suspending
Basically, coroutines are computations that can be suspended without blocking a thread. Blocking threads is often expensive,
especially under high load, because only a relatively small number of threads is practical to keep around, so blocking one of
them leads to some important work being delayed.
Coroutine suspension is almost free, on the other hand. No context switch or any other involvement of the OS is required. And
on top of that, suspension can be controlled by a user library to a large extent: as library authors, we can decide what happens
upon a suspension and optimize/log/intercept according to our needs.
Another dierence is that coroutines can not be suspended at random instructions, but rather only at so called suspension
points , which are calls to specially marked functions.
Suspending functions
A suspension happens when we call a function marked with the special modier, suspend :
suspend fun doSomething(foo: Foo): Bar {

...
}
Such functions are called suspending functions , because calls to them may suspend a coroutine (the library can decide to
proceed without suspension, if the result for the call in question is already available). Suspending functions can take parameters
and return values in the same manner as regular functions, but they can only be called from coroutines and other suspending
functions. In fact, to start a coroutine, there must be at least one suspending function, and it is usually anonymous (i.e. it is a
suspending lambda). Let's look at an example, a simplied async() function (from the kotlinx.coroutines library):
fun <T> async(block: suspend () -> T)
Here, async() is a regular function (not a suspending function), but the block parameter has a function type with the
suspend modier: suspend () -> T . So, when we pass a lambda to async() , it is a suspending lambda, and we can call a
suspending function from it:
async {
doSomething(foo)
...
}
Note: currently, suspending function types cannot be used as supertypes, and anonymous suspending functions are
currently not supported.
97
To continue the analogy, await() can be a suspending function (hence also callable from within an async {} block) that
suspends a coroutine until some computation is done and returns its result:
async {
...
val result = computation.await()
...
}
More information on how actual async/await functions work in kotlinx.coroutines can be found here.
Note that suspending functions await() and doSomething() can not be called from a regular function like main() :

doSomething() // ERROR: Suspending function called from a non-coroutine context
}
Also note that suspending functions can be virtual, and when overriding them, the suspend modier has to be specied:
interface Base {
suspend fun foo()
}
class Derived: Base {

override suspend fun foo() { ... }
}
@RestrictsSuspension annotation
Extension functions (and lambdas) can also be marked suspend , just like regular ones. This enables creation of DSLs and other
APIs that users can extend. In some cases the library author needs to prevent the user from adding new ways of suspending a
coroutine.
To achieve this, the @RestrictsSuspension annotation may be used. When a receiver class or interface R is annotated with it,
all suspending extensions are required to delegate to either members of R or other extensions to it. Since extensions can't
delegate to each other indenitely (the program would not terminate), this guarantees that all suspensions happen through
calling members of R that the author of the library can fully control.
This is relevant in the rare cases when every suspension is handled in a special way in the library. For example, when
implementing generators through the buildSequence() function described below, we need to make sure that any suspending
call in the coroutine ends up calling either yield() or yieldAll() and not any other function. This is why SequenceBuilder is
annotated with @RestrictsSuspension :
@RestrictsSuspension
public abstract class SequenceBuilder<in T> {
...
}
See the sources on Github.
The inner workings of coroutines

We are not trying here to give a complete explanation of how coroutines work under the hood, but a rough sense of what's
going on is rather important.
Coroutines are completely implemented through a compilation technique (no support from the VM or OS side is required), and
suspension works through code transformation. Basically, every suspending function (optimizations may apply, but we'll not go
into this here) is transformed to a state machine where states correspond to suspending calls. Right before a suspension, the
next state is stored in a eld of a compiler-generated class along with relevant local variables, etc. Upon resumption of that
coroutine, local variables are restored and the state machine proceeds from the state right after suspension.
98
A suspended coroutine can be stored and passed around as an object that keeps its suspended state and locals. The type of
such objects is Continuation , and the overall code transformation described here corresponds to the classical Continuation-
passing style. Consequently, suspending functions take an extra parameter of type Continuation under the hood.
More details on how coroutines work may be found in this design document. Similar descriptions of async/await in other
languages (such as C# or ECMAScript 2016) are relevant here, although the language features they implement may not be as
general as Kotlin coroutines.
Experimental status of coroutines

The design of coroutines is experimental, which means that it will be changed in the upcoming releases. When compiling
coroutines in Kotlin 1.1, a warning is reported by default: The feature "coroutines" is experimental. To remove the warning, you
need to specify an opt-in ag.
Due to its experimental status, the coroutine-related API in the Standard Library is put under the
kotlin.coroutines.experimental package. When the design is nalized and the experimental status lifted, the nal API will
be moved to kotlin.coroutines , and the experimental package will be kept around (probably in a separate artifact) for
backward compatibility.
IMPORTANT NOTE: We advise library authors to follow the same convention: add the "experimental" (e.g.
com.example.experimental ) sux to your packages exposing coroutine-based APIs so that your library remains binary
compatible. When the nal API is released, follow these steps:
copy all the APIs to com.example (without the experimental sux),

keep the experimental package around for backward compatibility.
This will minimize migration issues for your users.
Standard APIs
Coroutines come in three main ingredients:
language support (i.s. suspending functions, as described above);

low-level core API in the Kotlin Standard Library;
high-level APIs that can be used directly in the user code.
Low-level API: kotlin.coroutines
Low-level API is relatively small and should never be used other than for creating higher-level libraries. It consists of two main
packages:
kotlin.coroutines.experimental with main types and primitives such as:

createCoroutine(),
startCoroutine(),
suspendCoroutine();
kotlin.coroutines.experimental.intrinsics with even lower-level intrinsics such as suspendCoroutineOrReturn.
More details about the usage of these APIs can be found here.
Generators API in kotlin.coroutines
The only "application-level" functions in kotlin.coroutines.experimental are
buildSequence()
buildIterator()
These are shipped within kotlin-stdlib because they are related to sequences. In fact, these functions (and we can limit
ourselves to buildSequence() alone here) implement generators , i.e. provide a way to cheaply build a lazy sequence:
99
val fibonacciSeq = buildSequence {
var a = 0
var b = 1
yield(1)
while (true) {
yield(a + b)
val tmp = a + b
a = b
b = tmp
}
}
This generates a lazy, potentially innite Fibonacci sequence by creating a coroutine that yields consecutive Fibonacci numbers
by calling the yield() function. When iterating over such a sequence every step of the iterator executes another portion of the
coroutine that generates the next number. So, we can take any nite list of numbers out of this sequence, e.g.
fibonacciSeq.take(8).toList() results in [1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21] . And coroutines are cheap enough to make this
practical.
To demonstrate the real laziness of such a sequence, let's print some debug output inside a call to buildSequence() :
val lazySeq = buildSequence {

print("START ")
for (i in 1..5) {
yield(i)
print("STEP ")
}
print("END")
}
// Print the first three elements of the sequence

lazySeq.take(3).forEach { print("$it ") }
Running the code above prints the rst three elements. The numbers are interleaved with STEP s in the generating loop. This
means that the computation is lazy indeed. To print 1 we only execute until the rst yield(i) , and print START along the way.
Then, to print 2 we need to proceed to the next yield(i) , and this prints STEP . Same for 3 . And the next STEP never gets
printed (as well as END ), because we never requested further elements of the sequence.
To yield a collection (or sequence) of values at once, the yieldAll() function is available:

yield(0)
yieldAll(1..10)
}
lazySeq.forEach { print("$it ") }
The buildIterator() works similarly to buildSequence() , but returns a lazy iterator.
One can add custom yielding logic to buildSequence() by writing suspending extensions to the SequenceBuilder class (that
bears the @RestrictsSuspension annotation described above):
suspend fun SequenceBuilder<Int>.yieldIfOdd(x: Int) {

if (x % 2 != 0) yield(x)
}

for (i in 1..10) yieldIfOdd(i)
}
100
Other high-level APIs: kotlinx.coroutines
Only core APIs related to coroutines are available from the Kotlin Standard Library. This mostly consists of core primitives and
interfaces that all coroutine-based libraries are likely to use.
Most application-level APIs based on coroutines are released as a separate library: kotlinx.coroutines. This library covers
Platform-agnostic asynchronous programming with kotlinx-coroutines-core :
this module includes Go-like channels that support select and other convenient primitives,
a comprehensive guide to this library is available here;
APIs based on CompletableFuture from JDK 8: kotlinx-coroutines-jdk8 ;

Non-blocking IO (NIO) based on APIs from JDK 7 and higher: kotlinx-coroutines-nio ;
Support for Swing ( kotlinx-coroutines-swing ) and JavaFx ( kotlinx-coroutines-javafx );

Support for RxJava: kotlinx-coroutines-rx .
These libraries serve as both convenient APIs that make common tasks easy and end-to-end examples of how to build
coroutine-based libraries.
101
Other
Destructuring Declarations
Sometimes it is convenient to destructure an object into a number of variables, for example:
val (name, age) = person
This syntax is called a destructuring declaration. A destructuring declaration creates multiple variables at once. We have
declared two new variables: name and age , and can use them independently:
println(name)
println(age)
A destructuring declaration is compiled down to the following code:
val name = person.component1()

val age = person.component2()
The component1() and component2() functions are another example of the principle of conventions widely used in Kotlin (see
operators like + and * , for-loops etc.). Anything can be on the right-hand side of a destructuring declaration, as long as the
required number of component functions can be called on it. And, of course, there can be component3() and component4()
and so on.
Note that the componentN() functions need to be marked with the operator keyword to allow using them in a destructuring
declaration.
Destructuring declarations also work in for-loops: when you say:
for ((a, b) in collection) { ... }
Variables a and b get the values returned by component1() and component2() called on elements of the collection.
Example: Returning Two Values from a Function

Let's say we need to return two things from a function. For example, a result object and a status of some sort. A compact way of
doing this in Kotlin is to declare a data class and return its instance:
data class Result(val result: Int, val status: Status)

fun function(...): Result {
// computations
return Result(result, status)

}
// Now, to use this function:

val (result, status) = function(...)
Since data classes automatically declare componentN() functions, destructuring declarations work here.
NOTE: we could also use the standard class Pair and have function() return Pair<Int, Status> , but it's often better to
have your data named properly.
102
Example: Destructuring Declarations and Maps
Probably the nicest way to traverse a map is this:
for ((key, value) in map) {

// do something with the key and the value
}
To make this work, we should
present the map as a sequence of values by providing an iterator() function;
present each of the elements as a pair by providing functions component1() and component2() .
And indeed, the standard library provides such extensions:
operator fun <K, V> Map<K, V>.iterator(): Iterator<Map.Entry<K, V>> = entrySet().iterator()

operator fun <K, V> Map.Entry<K, V>.component1() = getKey()
operator fun <K, V> Map.Entry<K, V>.component2() = getValue()
So you can freely use destructuring declarations in for-loops with maps (as well as collections of data class instances etc).
Underscore for unused variables (since 1.1)

If you don't need a variable in the destructuring declaration, you can place an underscore instead of its name:
val (_, status) = getResult()
The componentN() operator functions are not called for the components that are skipped in this way.
Destructuring in Lambdas (since 1.1)

You can use the destructuring declarations syntax for lambda parameters. If a lambda has a parameter of the Pair type (or
Map.Entry , or any other type that has the appropriate componentN functions), you can introduce several new parameters
instead of one by putting them in parentheses:
map.mapValues { entry -> "${entry.value}!" }

map.mapValues { (key, value) -> "$value!" }
Note the dierence between declaring two parameters and declaring a destructuring pair instead of a parameter:
{ a -> ... } // one parameter

{ a, b -> ... } // two parameters
{ (a, b) -> ... } // a destructured pair
{ (a, b), c -> ... } // a destructured pair and another parameter
If a component of the destructured parameter is unused, you can replace it with the underscore to avoid inventing its name:
map.mapValues { (_, value) -> "$value!" }
You can specify the type for the whole destructured parameter or for a specic component separately:
map.mapValues { (_, value): Map.Entry<Int, String> -> "$value!" }
map.mapValues { (_, value: String) -> "$value!" }
103
Collections: List, Set, Map
Unlike many languages, Kotlin distinguishes between mutable and immutable collections (lists, sets, maps, etc). Precise control
over exactly when collections can be edited is useful for eliminating bugs, and for designing good APIs.
It is important to understand up front the dierence between a read-only view of a mutable collection, and an actually immutable
collection. Both are easy to create, but the type system doesn't express the dierence, so keeping track of that (if it's relevant)
is up to you.
The Kotlin List<out T> type is an interface that provides read-only operations like size , get and so on. Like in Java, it inherits
from Collection<T> and that in turn inherits from Iterable<T> . Methods that change the list are added by the
MutableList<T> interface. This pattern holds also for Set<out T>/MutableSet<T> and Map<K, out V>/MutableMap<K, V> .
We can see basic usage of the list and set types below:
val numbers: MutableList<Int> = mutableListOf(1, 2, 3)

val readOnlyView: List<Int> = numbers
println(numbers) // prints "[1, 2, 3]"
numbers.add(4)
println(readOnlyView) // prints "[1, 2, 3, 4]"
readOnlyView.clear() // -> does not compile
val strings = hashSetOf("a", "b", "c", "c")

assert(strings.size == 3)
Kotlin does not have dedicated syntax constructs for creating lists or sets. Use methods from the standard library, such as
listOf() , mutableListOf() , setOf() , mutableSetOf() . Map creation in NOT performance-critical code can be
accomplished with a simple idiom: mapOf(a to b, c to d) .
Note that the readOnlyView variable points to the same list and changes as the underlying list changes. If the only references
that exist to a list are of the read-only variety, we can consider the collection fully immutable. A simple way to create such a
collection is like this:
val items = listOf(1, 2, 3)
Currently, the listOf method is implemented using an array list, but in future more memory-ecient fully immutable collection
types could be returned that exploit the fact that they know they can't change.
Note that the read-only types are covariant. That means, you can take a List<Rectangle> and assign it to List<Shape>
assuming Rectangle inherits from Shape. This wouldn't be allowed with the mutable collection types because it would allow for
failures at runtime.
Sometimes you want to return to the caller a snapshot of a collection at a particular point in time, one that's guaranteed to not
change:
class Controller {
private val _items = mutableListOf<String>()
val items: List<String> get() = _items.toList()
}
The toList extension method just duplicates the lists items, thus, the returned list is guaranteed to never change.
There are various useful extension methods on lists and sets that are worth being familiar with:
104
val items = listOf(1, 2, 3, 4)
items.first() == 1
items.last() == 4
items.filter { it % 2 == 0 } // returns [2, 4]
val rwList = mutableListOf(1, 2, 3)

rwList.requireNoNulls() // returns [1, 2, 3]
if (rwList.none { it > 6 }) println("No items above 6") // prints "No items above 6"
val item = rwList.firstOrNull()
as well as all the utilities you would expect such as sort, zip, fold, reduce and so on.
Maps follow the same pattern. They can be easily instantiated and accessed like this:
val readWriteMap = hashMapOf("foo" to 1, "bar" to 2)

println(readWriteMap["foo"]) // prints "1"
val snapshot: Map<String, Int> = HashMap(readWriteMap)
105
Ranges
Range expressions are formed with rangeTo functions that have the operator form .. which is complemented by in and !in.
Range is dened for any comparable type, but for integral primitive types it has an optimized implementation. Here are some
examples of using ranges:
if (i in 1..10) { // equivalent of 1 <= i && i <= 10

println(i)
}
Integral type ranges ( IntRange , LongRange , CharRange ) have an extra feature: they can be iterated over. The compiler takes
care of converting this analogously to Java's indexed for-loop, without extra overhead:
for (i in 1..4) print(i) // prints "1234"
for (i in 4..1) print(i) // prints nothing
What if you want to iterate over numbers in reverse order? It's simple. You can use the downTo() function dened in the
standard library:
for (i in 4 downTo 1) print(i) // prints "4321"
Is it possible to iterate over numbers with arbitrary step, not equal to 1? Sure, the step() function will help you:
for (i in 1..4 step 2) print(i) // prints "13"
for (i in 4 downTo 1 step 2) print(i) // prints "42"
To create a range which does not include its end element, you can use the until function:
for (i in 1 until 10) { // i in [1, 10), 10 is excluded

println(i)
}
How it works
Ranges implement a common interface in the library: ClosedRange<T> .
ClosedRange<T> denotes a closed interval in the mathematical sense, dened for comparable types. It has two endpoints:
start and endInclusive , which are included in the range. The main operation is contains , usually used in the form of in/!in
operators.
Integral type progressions ( IntProgression , LongProgression , CharProgression ) denote an arithmetic progression.

Progressions are dened by the first element, the last element and a non-zero step . The rst element is first ,
subsequent elements are the previous element plus step . The last element is always hit by iteration unless the progression
is empty.
A progression is a subtype of Iterable<N> , where N is Int , Long or Char respectively, so it can be used in for-loops and
functions like map , filter , etc. Iteration over Progression is equivalent to an indexed for-loop in Java/JavaScript:
for (int i = first; i != last; i += step) {

// ...
}
For integral types, the .. operator creates an object which implements both ClosedRange<T> and *Progression . For
example, IntRange implements ClosedRange<Int> and extends IntProgression , thus all operations dened for
IntProgression are available for IntRange as well. The result of the downTo() and step() functions is always a
*Progression .
106
Progressions are constructed with the fromClosedRange function dened in their companion objects:
IntProgression.fromClosedRange(start, end, step)
The last element of the progression is calculated to nd maximum value not greater than the end value for positive step or
minimum value not less than the end value for negative step such that (last - first) % step == 0 .
Utility functions
rangeTo()
The rangeTo() operators on integral types simply call the constructors of *Range classes, e.g.:
class Int {
//...
operator fun rangeTo(other: Long): LongRange = LongRange(this, other)
//...
operator fun rangeTo(other: Int): IntRange = IntRange(this, other)
//...
}
Floating point numbers ( Double , Float ) do not dene their rangeTo operator, and the one provided by the standard library
for generic Comparable types is used instead:
public operator fun <T: Comparable<T>> T.rangeTo(that: T): ClosedRange<T>
The range returned by this function cannot be used for iteration.
downTo()
The downTo() extension function is dened for any pair of integral types, here are two examples:
fun Long.downTo(other: Int): LongProgression {

return LongProgression.fromClosedRange(this, other.toLong(), -1L)
}
fun Byte.downTo(other: Int): IntProgression {

return IntProgression.fromClosedRange(this.toInt(), other, -1)
}
reversed()
The reversed() extension functions are dened for each *Progression classes, and all of them return reversed
progressions:
fun IntProgression.reversed(): IntProgression {

return IntProgression.fromClosedRange(last, first, -step)
}
step()
step() extension functions are dened for *Progression classes, all of them return progressions with modied step values
(function parameter). The step value is required to be always positive, therefore this function never changes the direction of
iteration:
107
fun IntProgression.step(step: Int): IntProgression {
if (step <= 0) throw IllegalArgumentException("Step must be positive, was: $step")
return IntProgression.fromClosedRange(first, last, if (this.step > 0) step else -step)
}
fun CharProgression.step(step: Int): CharProgression {

if (step <= 0) throw IllegalArgumentException("Step must be positive, was: $step")
return CharProgression.fromClosedRange(first, last, if (this.step > 0) step else -step)
}
Note that the last value of the returned progression may become dierent from the last value of the original progression in
order to preserve the invariant (last - first) % step == 0 . Here is an example:
(1..12 step 2).last == 11 // progression with values [1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11]

(1..12 step 3).last == 10 // progression with values [1, 4, 7, 10]
(1..12 step 4).last == 9 // progression with values [1, 5, 9]
108
Type Checks and Casts: 'is' and 'as'
is and !is Operators

We can check whether an object conforms to a given type at runtime by using the is operator or its negated form !is :
if (obj is String) {
print(obj.length)
}
if (obj !is String) { // same as !(obj is String)

print("Not a String")
}
else {
print(obj.length)
}
Smart Casts
In many cases, one does not need to use explicit cast operators in Kotlin, because the compiler tracks the is -checks and
explicit casts for immutable values and inserts (safe) casts automatically when needed:
fun demo(x: Any) {

if (x is String) {
print(x.length) // x is automatically cast to String
}
}
The compiler is smart enough to know a cast to be safe if a negative check leads to a return:
if (x !is String) return

or in the right-hand side of && and || :
// x is automatically cast to string on the right-hand side of `||`

if (x !is String || x.length == 0) return
// x is automatically cast to string on the right-hand side of `&&`

if (x is String && x.length > 0) {
}
Such smart casts work for when-expressions and while-loops as well:
when (x) {
is Int -> print(x + 1)
is String -> print(x.length + 1)
is IntArray -> print(x.sum())
}
Note that smart casts do not work when the compiler cannot guarantee that the variable cannot change between the check
and the usage. More specically, smart casts are applicable according to the following rules:
val local variables - always;

val properties - if the property is private or internal or the check is performed in the same module where the property is
declared. Smart casts aren't applicable to open properties or properties that have custom getters;
var local variables - if the variable is not modied between the check and the usage and is not captured in a lambda that
modies it;
109
var properties - never (because the variable can be modied at any time by other code).
"Unsafe" cast operator

Usually, the cast operator throws an exception if the cast is not possible. Thus, we call it unsafe . The unsafe cast in Kotlin is
done by the inx operator as (see operator precedence):
val x: String = y as String
Note that null cannot be cast to String as this type is not nullable, i.e. if y is null, the code above throws an exception. In
order to match Java cast semantics we have to have nullable type at cast right hand side, like:
val x: String? = y as String?
"Safe" (nullable) cast operator

To avoid an exception being thrown, one can use a safe cast operator as? that returns null on failure:
val x: String? = y as? String
Note that despite the fact that the right-hand side of as? is a non-null type String the result of the cast is nullable.
110
This Expression
To denote the current receiver, we use this expressions:
In a member of a class, this refers to the current object of that class.
In an extension function or a function literal with receiver this denotes the receiver parameter that is passed on the left-
hand side of a dot.
If this has no qualiers, it refers to the innermost enclosing scope . To refer to this in other scopes, label qualiers are used:
Quali ed this
To access this from an outer scope (a class, or extension function, or labeled function literal with receiver) we write
this@label where @label is a label on the scope this is meant to be from:
class A { // implicit label @A

inner class B { // implicit label @B
fun Int.foo() { // implicit label @foo
val a = this@A // A's this
val b = this@B // B's this
val c = this // foo()'s receiver, an Int

val c1 = this@foo // foo()'s receiver, an Int
val funLit = lambda@ fun String.() {

val d = this // funLit's receiver
}
val funLit2 = { s: String ->

// foo()'s receiver, since enclosing lambda expression
// doesn't have any receiver
val d1 = this
}
}
}
}
111
Equality
In Kotlin there are two types of equality:
Referential equality (two references point to the same object);

Structural equality (a check for equals() ).
Referential equality
Referential equality is checked by the === operation (and its negated counterpart !== ). a === b evaluates to true if and only if
a and b point to the same object.
Structural equality
Structural equality is checked by the == operation (and its negated counterpart != ). By convention, an expression like a == b
is translated to:
a?.equals(b) ?: (b === null)
I.e. if a is not null , it calls the equals(Any?) function, otherwise (i.e. a is null ) it checks that b is referentially equal to
null .
Note that there's no point in optimizing your code when comparing to null explicitly: a == null will be automatically
translated to a === null .
Floating point numbers equality

When an equality check operands are statically known to be Float or Double (nullable or not), the check follows the IEEE 754
Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic.
Otherwise, the structural equality is used, which disagrees with the standard so that NaN is equal to itself, and -0.0 is not
equal to 0.0 .
See: Floating Point Numbers Comparison.
112
Operator overloading
Kotlin allows us to provide implementations for a predened set of operators on our types. These operators have xed symbolic
representation (like + or * ) and xed precedence. To implement an operator, we provide a member function or an extension
function with a xed name, for the corresponding type, i.e. left-hand side type for binary operations and argument type for unary
ones. Functions that overload operators need to be marked with the operator modier.
Further we describe the conventions that regulate operator overloading for dierent operators.
Unary operations
Unary pre x operators
Expression Translated to
+a a.unaryPlus()
-a a.unaryMinus()
!a a.not()
This table says that when the compiler processes, for example, an expression +a , it performs the following steps:
Determines the type of a , let it be T ;
Looks up a function unaryPlus() with the operator modier and no parameters for the receiver T , i.e. a member
function or an extension function;
If the function is absent or ambiguous, it is a compilation error;
If the function is present and its return type is R , the expression +a has type R ;
Note that these operations, as well as all the others, are optimized for Basic types and do not introduce overhead of function
calls for them.
As an example, here's how you can overload the unary minus operator:
data class Point(val x: Int, val y: Int)
operator fun Point.unaryMinus() = Point(-x, -y)
val point = Point(10, 20)

println(-point) // prints "(-10, -20)"
Increments and decrements
a++ a.inc() + see below
a-- a.dec() + see below
The inc() and dec() functions must return a value, which will be assigned to the variable on which the ++ or -- operation
was used. They shouldn't mutate the object on which the inc or dec was invoked.
The compiler performs the following steps for resolution of an operator in the postx form, e.g. a++ :
Determines the type of a , let it be T ;
Looks up a function inc() with the operator modier and no parameters, applicable to the receiver of type T ;
Checks that the return type of the function is a subtype of T .
The eect of computing the expression is:
Store the initial value of a to a temporary storage a0 ;
Assign the result of a.inc() to a ;
Return a0 as a result of the expression.
113
For a-- the steps are completely analogous.
For the prex forms ++a and --a resolution works the same way, and the eect is:
Assign the result of a.inc() to a ;

Return the new value of a as a result of the expression.
Binary operations
Arithmetic operators
a + b a.plus(b)
a - b a.minus(b)
a * b a.times(b)
a / b a.div(b)
a % b a.rem(b), a.mod(b) (deprecated)
a..b a.rangeTo(b)
For the operations in this table, the compiler just resolves the expression in the Translated to column.
Note that the rem operator is supported since Kotlin 1.1. Kotlin 1.0 uses the mod operator, which is deprecated in Kotlin 1.1.
Example
Below is an example Counter class that starts at a given value and can be incremented using the overloaded + operator:
data class Counter(val dayIndex: Int) {

operator fun plus(increment: Int): Counter {
return Counter(dayIndex + increment)
}
}
'In' operator
a in b b.contains(a)
a !in b !b.contains(a)
For in and !in the procedure is the same, but the order of arguments is reversed.
Indexed access operator
a[i] a.get(i)
a[i, j] a.get(i, j)
a[i_1, ..., i_n] a.get(i_1, ..., i_n)
a[i] = b a.set(i, b)
a[i, j] = b a.set(i, j, b)
a[i_1, ..., i_n] = b a.set(i_1, ..., i_n, b)
Square brackets are translated to calls to get and set with appropriate numbers of arguments.
Invoke operator
114
a()
Expression a.invoke()
Translated to
a(i) a.invoke(i)
a(i, j) a.invoke(i, j)
a(i_1, ..., i_n) a.invoke(i_1, ..., i_n)
Parentheses are translated to calls to invoke with appropriate number of arguments.
Augmented assignments
a += b a.plusAssign(b)
a -= b a.minusAssign(b)
a *= b a.timesAssign(b)
a /= b a.divAssign(b)
a %= b a.remAssign(b), a.modAssign(b) (deprecated)
For the assignment operations, e.g. a += b , the compiler performs the following steps:
If the function from the right column is available

If the corresponding binary function (i.e. plus() for plusAssign() ) is available too, report error (ambiguity),
Make sure its return type is Unit , and report an error otherwise,
Generate code for a.plusAssign(b) ;
Otherwise, try to generate code for a = a + b (this includes a type check: the type of a + b must be a subtype of a ).
Note : assignments are NOT expressions in Kotlin.
Equality and inequality operators
a == b a?.equals(b) ?: (b === null)
a != b !(a?.equals(b) ?: (b === null))
Note : === and !== (identity checks) are not overloadable, so no conventions exist for them.
The == operation is special: it is translated to a complex expression that screens for null 's. null == null is always true, and
x == null for a non-null x is always false and won't invoke x.equals() .
Comparison operators
a > b a.compareTo(b) > 0
a = b a.compareTo(b) >= 0

a <= b a.compareTo(b) <= 0
All comparisons are translated into calls to compareTo , that is required to return Int .
Property delegation operators
provideDelegate , getValue and setValue operator functions are described in Delegated properties.
In x calls for named functions

We can simulate custom inx operations by using inx function calls.
115
Null Safety
Nullable types and Non-Null Types

Kotlin's type system is aimed at eliminating the danger of null references from code, also known as the The Billion Dollar Mistake.
One of the most common pitfalls in many programming languages, including Java, is that of accessing a member of a null
reference, resulting in a null reference exception. In Java this would be the equivalent of a NullPointerException or NPE for
short.
Kotlin's type system is aimed to eliminate NullPointerException 's from our code. The only possible causes of NPE's may be
An explicit call to throw NullPointerException() ;
Usage of the !! operator that is described below;
External Java code has caused it;

There's some data inconsistency with regard to initialization (an uninitialized this available in a constructor is used
somewhere).
In Kotlin, the type system distinguishes between references that can hold null (nullable references) and those that can not
(non-null references). For example, a regular variable of type String can not hold null:
var a: String = "abc"

a = null // compilation error
To allow nulls, we can declare a variable as nullable string, written String? :
var b: String? = "abc"

b = null // ok
Now, if you call a method or access a property on a , it's guaranteed not to cause an NPE, so you can safely say:
val l = a.length
But if you want to access the same property on b , that would not be safe, and the compiler reports an error:
val l = b.length // error: variable 'b' can be null
But we still need to access that property, right? There are a few ways of doing that.
Checking for null in conditions

First, you can explicitly check if b is null, and handle the two options separately:
val l = if (b != null) b.length else -1
The compiler tracks the information about the check you performed, and allows the call to length inside the if. More complex
conditions are supported as well:
if (b != null && b.length > 0) {

print("String of length ${b.length}")
} else {
print("Empty string")
}
Note that this only works where b is immutable (i.e. a local variable which is not modied between the check and the usage or
a member val which has a backing eld and is not overridable), because otherwise it might happen that b changes to null
after the check.
116
Safe Calls
Your second option is the safe call operator, written ?. :
b?.length
This returns b.length if b is not null, and null otherwise. The type of this expression is Int? .
Safe calls are useful in chains. For example, if Bob, an Employee, may be assigned to a Department (or not), that in turn may
have another Employee as a department head, then to obtain the name of Bob's department head (if any), we write the
following:
bob?.department?.head?.name
Such a chain returns null if any of the properties in it is null.
To perform a certain operation only for non-null values, you can use the safe call operator together with let:
val listWithNulls: List<String?> = listOf("A", null)

for (item in listWithNulls) {
item?.let { println(it) } // prints A and ignores null
}
Elvis Operator
When we have a nullable reference r , we can say "if r is not null, use it, otherwise use some non-null value x ":
val l: Int = if (b != null) b.length else -1
Along with the complete if-expression, this can be expressed with the Elvis operator, written ?: :
val l = b?.length ?: -1
If the expression to the left of ?: is not null, the elvis operator returns it, otherwise it returns the expression to the right. Note
that the right-hand side expression is evaluated only if the left-hand side is null.
Note that, since throw and return are expressions in Kotlin, they can also be used on the right hand side of the elvis operator.
This can be very handy, for example, for checking function arguments:
fun foo(node: Node): String? {

val parent = node.getParent() ?: return null
val name = node.getName() ?: throw IllegalArgumentException("name expected")
// ...
}
The !! Operator
The third option is for NPE-lovers. We can write b!! , and this will return a non-null value of b (e.g., a String in our example) or
throw an NPE if b is null:
val l = b!!.length
Thus, if you want an NPE, you can have it, but you have to ask for it explicitly, and it does not appear out of the blue.
Safe Casts
Regular casts may result into a ClassCastException if the object is not of the target type. Another option is to use safe casts
that return null if the attempt was not successful:
117
val aInt: Int? = a as? Int
Collections of Nullable Type

If you have a collection of elements of a nullable type and want to lter non-null elements, you can do so by using
filterNotNull :
val nullableList: List<Int?> = listOf(1, 2, null, 4)

val intList: List<Int> = nullableList.filterNotNull()
118
Exceptions
Exception Classes
All exception classes in Kotlin are descendants of the class Throwable . Every exception has a message, stack trace and an
optional cause.
To throw an exception object, use the throw-expression:
throw MyException("Hi There!")
To catch an exception, use the try-expression:
try {
// some code
}
catch (e: SomeException) {
// handler
}
finally {
// optional finally block
}
There may be zero or more catch blocks. finally blocks may be omitted. However at least one catch or finally block should
be present.
Try is an expression
try is an expression, i.e. it may have a return value:
val a: Int? = try { parseInt(input) } catch (e: NumberFormatException) { null }
The returned value of a try-expression is either the last expression in the try block or the last expression in the catch block (or
blocks). Contents of the finally block do not aect the result of the expression.
Checked Exceptions
Kotlin does not have checked exceptions. There are many reasons for this, but we will provide a simple example.
The following is an example interface of the JDK implemented by StringBuilder class:
Appendable append(CharSequence csq) throws IOException;
What does this signature say? It says that every time I append a string to something (a StringBuilder , some kind of a log, a
console, etc.) I have to catch those IOExceptions . Why? Because it might be performing IO ( Writer also implements
Appendable ) So it results into this kind of code all over the place:
try {
log.append(message)
}
catch (IOException e) {
// Must be safe
}
And this is no good, see Eective Java, Item 65: Don't ignore exceptions .
Bruce Eckel says in Does Java need Checked Exceptions?:
119
Examination of small programs leads to the conclusion that requiring exception specications could both enhance
developer productivity and enhance code quality, but experience with large software projects suggests a dierent result
decreased productivity and little or no increase in code quality.
Other citations of this sort:
Java's checked exceptions were a mistake (Rod Waldho)

The Trouble with Checked Exceptions (Anders Hejlsberg)
The Nothing type

throw is an expression in Kotlin, so you can use it, for example, as part of an Elvis expression:
val s = person.name ?: throw IllegalArgumentException("Name required")
The type of the throw expression is the special type Nothing . The type has no values and is used to mark code locations that
can never be reached. In your own code, you can use Nothing to mark a function that never returns:
fun fail(message: String): Nothing {

throw IllegalArgumentException(message)
}
When you call this function, the compiler will know that the execution doesn't continue beyond the call:
val s = person.name ?: fail("Name required")

println(s) // 's' is known to be initialized at this point
Another case where you may encounter this type is type inference. The nullable variant of this type, Nothing? , has exactly one
possible value, which is null . If you use null to initialize a value of an inferred type and there's no other information that can
be used to determine a more specic type, the compiler will infer the Nothing? type:
val x = null // 'x' has type `Nothing?`

val l = listOf(null) // 'l' has type `List<Nothing?>
Java Interoperability
Please see the section on exceptions in the Java Interoperability section for information about Java interoperability.
120
Annotations
Annotation Declaration
Annotations are means of attaching metadata to code. To declare an annotation, put the annotation modier in front of a class:
annotation class Fancy
Additional attributes of the annotation can be specied by annotating the annotation class with meta-annotations:
@Target species the possible kinds of elements which can be annotated with the annotation (classes, functions,
properties, expressions etc.);
@Retention species whether the annotation is stored in the compiled class les and whether it's visible through reection
at runtime (by default, both are true);
@Repeatable allows using the same annotation on a single element multiple times;
@MustBeDocumented species that the annotation is part of the public API and should be included in the class or method
signature shown in the generated API documentation.
@Target(AnnotationTarget.CLASS, AnnotationTarget.FUNCTION,
AnnotationTarget.VALUE_PARAMETER, AnnotationTarget.EXPRESSION)
@Retention(AnnotationRetention.SOURCE)
@MustBeDocumented
annotation class Fancy
Usage
@Fancy class Foo {

@Fancy fun baz(@Fancy foo: Int): Int {
return (@Fancy 1)
}
}
If you need to annotate the primary constructor of a class, you need to add the constructor keyword to the constructor
declaration, and add the annotations before it:
class Foo @Inject constructor(dependency: MyDependency) {

// ...
}
You can also annotate property accessors:
class Foo {
var x: MyDependency? = null
@Inject set
}
Constructors
Annotations may have constructors that take parameters.
annotation class Special(val why: String)
@Special("example") class Foo {}
Allowed parameter types are:
types that correspond to Java primitive types (Int, Long etc.);

strings;
121
classes ( Foo::class );
enums;
other annotations;
arrays of the types listed above.
Annotation parameters cannot have nullable types, because the JVM does not support storing null as a value of an annotation
attribute.
If an annotation is used as a parameter of another annotation, its name is not prexed with the @ character:
annotation class ReplaceWith(val expression: String)
annotation class Deprecated(

val message: String,
val replaceWith: ReplaceWith = ReplaceWith(""))
@Deprecated("This function is deprecated, use === instead", ReplaceWith("this === other"))
If you need to specify a class as an argument of an annotation, use a Kotlin class (KClass). The Kotlin compiler will automatically
convert it to a Java class, so that the Java code will be able to see the annotations and arguments normally.
import kotlin.reflect.KClass
annotation class Ann(val arg1: KClass<*>, val arg2: KClass<out Any?>)
@Ann(String::class, Int::class) class MyClass
Lambdas
Annotations can also be used on lambdas. They will be applied to the invoke() method into which the body of the lambda is
generated. This is useful for frameworks like Quasar, which uses annotations for concurrency control.
annotation class Suspendable
val f = @Suspendable { Fiber.sleep(10) }
Annotation Use-site Targets

When you're annotating a property or a primary constructor parameter, there are multiple Java elements which are generated
from the corresponding Kotlin element, and therefore multiple possible locations for the annotation in the generated Java
bytecode. To specify how exactly the annotation should be generated, use the following syntax:
class Example(@field:Ann val foo, // annotate Java field

@get:Ann val bar, // annotate Java getter
@param:Ann val quux) // annotate Java constructor parameter
The same syntax can be used to annotate the entire le. To do this, put an annotation with the target file at the top level of a
le, before the package directive or before all imports if the le is in the default package:
@file:JvmName("Foo")
package org.jetbrains.demo
If you have multiple annotations with the same target, you can avoid repeating the target by adding brackets after the target and
putting all the annotations inside the brackets:
122
class Example {
@set:[Inject VisibleForTesting]
var collaborator: Collaborator
}
The full list of supported use-site targets is:
file ;
property (annotations with this target are not visible to Java);

field ;
get (property getter);

set (property setter);
receiver (receiver parameter of an extension function or property);

param (constructor parameter);
setparam (property setter parameter);
delegate (the eld storing the delegate instance for a delegated property).
To annotate the receiver parameter of an extension function, use the following syntax:
fun @receiver:Fancy String.myExtension() { }
If you don't specify a use-site target, the target is chosen according to the @Target annotation of the annotation being used. If
there are multiple applicable targets, the rst applicable target from the following list is used:
param ;
property ;
field .
Java Annotations
Java annotations are 100% compatible with Kotlin:
import org.junit.Test
import org.junit.Assert.*
import org.junit.Rule
import org.junit.rules.*
class Tests {
// apply @Rule annotation to property getter
@get:Rule val tempFolder = TemporaryFolder()
@Test fun simple() {

val f = tempFolder.newFile()
assertEquals(42, getTheAnswer())
}
}
Since the order of parameters for an annotation written in Java is not dened, you can't use a regular function call syntax for
passing the arguments. Instead, you need to use the named argument syntax:
// Java
public @interface Ann {
int intValue();
String stringValue();
}
123
// Kotlin
@Ann(intValue = 1, stringValue = "abc") class C
Just like in Java, a special case is the value parameter; its value can be specied without an explicit name:
// Java
public @interface AnnWithValue {
String value();
}
// Kotlin
@AnnWithValue("abc") class C
If the value argument in Java has an array type, it becomes a vararg parameter in Kotlin:
// Java
public @interface AnnWithArrayValue {
String[] value();
}
// Kotlin
@AnnWithArrayValue("abc", "foo", "bar") class C
For other arguments that have an array type, you need to use arrayOf explicitly:
// Java
public @interface AnnWithArrayMethod {
String[] names();
}
// Kotlin
@AnnWithArrayMethod(names = arrayOf("abc", "foo", "bar")) class C
Values of an annotation instance are exposed as properties to Kotlin code:
// Java
public @interface Ann {
int value();
}
// Kotlin
fun foo(ann: Ann) {
val i = ann.value
}
124
Re ection
Reection is a set of language and library features that allows for introspecting the structure of your own program at runtime.
Kotlin makes functions and properties rst-class citizens in the language, and introspecting them (i.e. learning a name or a type
of a property or function at runtime) is closely intertwined with simply using a functional or reactive style.
On the Java platform, the runtime component required for using the re ection features is distributed as a separate JAR
le (kotlin-reflect.jar). This is done to reduce the required size of the runtime library for applications that do not
use re ection features. If you do use re ection, please make sure that the .jar le is added to the classpath of your
project.
Class References
The most basic reection feature is getting the runtime reference to a Kotlin class. To obtain the reference to a statically known
Kotlin class, you can use the class literal syntax:
val c = MyClass::class
The reference is a value of type KClass.
Note that a Kotlin class reference is not the same as a Java class reference. To obtain a Java class reference, use the .java
property on a KClass instance.
Bound Class References (since 1.1)

You can get the reference to a class of a specic object with the same ::class syntax by using the object as a receiver:
val widget: Widget = ...

assert(widget is GoodWidget) { "Bad widget: ${widget::class.qualifiedName}" }
You obtain the reference to an exact class of an object, for instance GoodWidget or BadWidget , despite the type of the receiver
expression ( Widget ).
Function References
When we have a named function declared like this:
fun isOdd(x: Int) = x % 2 != 0
We can easily call it directly ( isOdd(5) ), but we can also pass it as a value, e.g. to another function. To do this, we use the ::
operator:
val numbers = listOf(1, 2, 3)

println(numbers.filter(::isOdd)) // prints [1, 3]
Here ::isOdd is a value of function type (Int) -> Boolean .
:: can be used with overloaded functions when the expected type is known from the context. For example:
fun isOdd(x: Int) = x % 2 != 0

fun isOdd(s: String) = s == "brillig" || s == "slithy" || s == "tove"
val numbers = listOf(1, 2, 3)

println(numbers.filter(::isOdd)) // refers to isOdd(x: Int)
Alternatively, you can provide the necessary context by storing the method reference in a variable with an explicitly specied
type:
125
val predicate: (String) -> Boolean = ::isOdd // refers to isOdd(x: String)
If we need to use a member of a class, or an extension function, it needs to be qualied. e.g. String::toCharArray gives us
an extension function for type String : String.() -> CharArray .
Example: Function Composition
Consider the following function:
fun <A, B, C> compose(f: (B) -> C, g: (A) -> B): (A) -> C {
return { x -> f(g(x)) }
}
It returns a composition of two functions passed to it: compose(f, g) = f(g(*)) . Now, you can apply it to callable references:
fun length(s: String) = s.length
val oddLength = compose(::isOdd, ::length)

val strings = listOf("a", "ab", "abc")
println(strings.filter(oddLength)) // Prints "[a, abc]"
Property References
To access properties as rst-class objects in Kotlin, we can also use the :: operator:
val x = 1

println(::x.get()) // prints "1"
println(::x.name) // prints "x"
}
The expression ::x evaluates to a property object of type KProperty<Int> , which allows us to read its value using get() or
retrieve the property name using the name property. For more information, please refer to the docs on the KProperty class.
For a mutable property, e.g. var y = 1 , ::y returns a value of type KMutableProperty<Int>, which has a set() method:
var y = 1

::y.set(2)
println(y) // prints "2"
}
A property reference can be used where a function with no parameters is expected:
val strs = listOf("a", "bc", "def")

println(strs.map(String::length)) // prints [1, 2, 3]
To access a property that is a member of a class, we qualify it:
class A(val p: Int)

val prop = A::p
println(prop.get(A(1))) // prints "1"
}
126
For an extension property:
val String.lastChar: Char

get() = this[length - 1]

println(String::lastChar.get("abc")) // prints "c"
}
Interoperability With Java Re ection
On the Java platform, standard library contains extensions for reection classes that provide a mapping to and from Java
reection objects (see package kotlin.reflect.jvm ). For example, to nd a backing eld or a Java method that serves as a
getter for a Kotlin property, you can say something like this:
import kotlin.reflect.jvm.*
class A(val p: Int)

println(A::p.javaGetter) // prints "public final int A.getP()"
println(A::p.javaField) // prints "private final int A.p"
}
To get the Kotlin class corresponding to a Java class, use the .kotlin extension property:
fun getKClass(o: Any): KClass<Any> = o.javaClass.kotlin
Constructor References
Constructors can be referenced just like methods and properties. They can be used wherever an object of function type is
expected that takes the same parameters as the constructor and returns an object of the appropriate type. Constructors are
referenced by using the :: operator and adding the class name. Consider the following function that expects a function
parameter with no parameters and return type Foo :
class Foo
fun function(factory: () -> Foo) {

val x: Foo = factory()
}
Using ::Foo , the zero-argument constructor of the class Foo, we can simply call it like this:
function(::Foo)
Bound Function and Property References (since 1.1)

You can refer to an instance method of a particular object:
val numberRegex = "\\d+".toRegex()

println(numberRegex.matches("29")) // prints "true"
val isNumber = numberRegex::matches

println(isNumber("29")) // prints "true"
Instead of calling the method matches directly we are storing a reference to it. Such reference is bound to its receiver. It can be
called directly (like in the example above) or used whenever an expression of function type is expected:
127
val strings = listOf("abc", "124", "a70")
println(strings.filter(numberRegex::matches)) // prints "[124]"
Compare the types of bound and the corresponding unbound references. Bound callable reference has its receiver "attached"
to it, so the type of the receiver is no longer a parameter:
val isNumber: (CharSequence) -> Boolean = numberRegex::matches
val matches: (Regex, CharSequence) -> Boolean = Regex::matches
Property reference can be bound as well:
val prop = "abc"::length

println(prop.get()) // prints "3"
128
Type-Safe Builders
The concept of builders is rather popular in the Groovy community. Builders allow for dening data in a semi-declarative way.
Builders are good for generating XML, laying out UI components, describing 3D scenes and more
For many use cases, Kotlin allows to type-check builders, which makes them even more attractive than the dynamically-typed
implementation made in Groovy itself.
For the rest of the cases, Kotlin supports Dynamic types builders.
A type-safe builder example

Consider the following code:
import com.example.html.* // see declarations below
fun result(args: Array<String>) =

html {
head {
title {+"XML encoding with Kotlin"}
}
body {
h1 {+"XML encoding with Kotlin"}
p {+"this format can be used as an alternative markup to XML"}
// an element with attributes and text content

a(href = "http://kotlinlang.org") {+"Kotlin"}
// mixed content
p {
+"This is some"
b {+"mixed"}
+"text. For more see the"
a(href = "http://kotlinlang.org") {+"Kotlin"}
+"project"
}
p {+"some text"}
// content generated by
p {
for (arg in args)
+arg
}
}
}
This is completely legitimate Kotlin code. You can play with this code online (modify it and run in the browser) here.
How it works
Let's walk through the mechanisms of implementing type-safe builders in Kotlin. First of all we need to dene the model we want
to build, in this case we need to model HTML tags. It is easily done with a bunch of classes. For example, HTML is a class that
describes the <html> tag, i.e. it denes children like <head> and <body> . (See its declaration below.)
Now, let's recall why we can say something like this in the code:
html {
// ...
}
html is actually a function call that takes a lambda expression as an argument. This function is dened as follows:
129
val html = HTML()
html.init()
return html
}
This function takes one parameter named init , which is itself a function. The type of the function is HTML.() -> Unit , which
is a function type with receiver. This means that we need to pass an instance of type HTML (a receiver) to the function, and we
can call members of that instance inside the function. The receiver can be accessed through the this keyword:
html {
this.head { /* ... */ }
this.body { /* ... */ }
}
( head and body are member functions of HTML .)
Now, this can be omitted, as usual, and we get something that looks very much like a builder already:
html {
head { /* ... */ }
body { /* ... */ }
}
So, what does this call do? Let's look at the body of html function as dened above. It creates a new instance of HTML , then it
initializes it by calling the function that is passed as an argument (in our example this boils down to calling head and body on
the HTML instance), and then it returns this instance. This is exactly what a builder should do.
The head and body functions in the HTML class are dened similarly to html . The only dierence is that they add the built
instances to the children collection of the enclosing HTML instance:
fun head(init: Head.() -> Unit) : Head {

val head = Head()
head.init()
children.add(head)
return head
}
fun body(init: Body.() -> Unit) : Body {

val body = Body()
body.init()
children.add(body)
return body
}
Actually these two functions do just the same thing, so we can have a generic version, initTag :
protected fun <T : Element> initTag(tag: T, init: T.() -> Unit): T {

tag.init()
children.add(tag)
return tag
}
So, now our functions are very simple:
fun head(init: Head.() -> Unit) = initTag(Head(), init)
fun body(init: Body.() -> Unit) = initTag(Body(), init)
And we can use them to build <head> and <body> tags.
130
One other thing to be discussed here is how we add text to tag bodies. In the example above we say something like:
html {
head {
title {+"XML encoding with Kotlin"}
}
// ...
}
So basically, we just put a string inside a tag body, but there is this little + in front of it, so it is a function call that invokes a prex
unaryPlus() operation. That operation is actually dened by an extension function unaryPlus() that is a member of the
TagWithText abstract class (a parent of Title ):
fun String.unaryPlus() {
children.add(TextElement(this))
}
So, what the prex + does here is it wraps a string into an instance of TextElement and adds it to the children collection, so
that it becomes a proper part of the tag tree.
All this is dened in a package com.example.html that is imported at the top of the builder example above. In the last section
you can read through the full denition of this package.
Scope control: @DslMarker (since 1.1)

When using DSLs, one might have come across the problem that too many functions can be called in the context. We can call
methods of every available implicit receiver inside a lambda and therefore get an inconsistent result, like the tag head inside
another head :
html {
head {
head {} // should be forbidden
}
// ...
}
In this example only members of the nearest implicit receiver this@head must be available; head() is a member of the outer
receiver this@html , so it must be illegal to call it.
To address this problem, in Kotlin 1.1 a special mechanism to control receiver scope was introduced.
To make the compiler start controlling scopes we only have to annotate the types of all receivers used in the DSL with the same
marker annotation. For instance, for HTML Builders we declare an annotation @HTMLTagMarker :
@DslMarker
annotation class HtmlTagMarker
An annotation class is called a DSL marker if it is annotated with the @DslMarker annotation.
In our DSL all the tag classes extend the same superclass Tag . It's enough to annotate only the superclass with
@HtmlTagMarker and after that the Kotlin compiler will treat all the inherited classes as annotated:
@HtmlTagMarker
abstract class Tag(val name: String) { ... }
We don't have to annotate the HTML or Head classes with @HtmlTagMarker because their superclass is already annotated:
class HTML() : Tag("html") { ... }

class Head() : Tag("head") { ... }
131
After we've added this annotation, the Kotlin compiler knows which implicit receivers are part of the same DSL and allows to call
members of the nearest receivers only:
html {
head {
head { } // error: a member of outer receiver
}
// ...
}
Note that it's still possible to call the members of the outer receiver, but to do that you have to specify this receiver explicitly:
html {
head {
this@html.head { } // possible
}
// ...
}
Full de nition of the com.example.html package

This is how the package com.example.html is dened (only the elements used in the example above). It builds an HTML tree. It
makes heavy use of extension functions and lambdas with receiver.
Note that the @DslMarker annotation is available only since Kotlin 1.1.
package com.example.html
interface Element {
fun render(builder: StringBuilder, indent: String)
}
class TextElement(val text: String) : Element {

override fun render(builder: StringBuilder, indent: String) {
builder.append("$indent$text\n")
}
}
@DslMarker
annotation class HtmlTagMarker
@HtmlTagMarker
abstract class Tag(val name: String) : Element {
val children = arrayListOf<Element>()
val attributes = hashMapOf<String, String>()
protected fun <T : Element> initTag(tag: T, init: T.() -> Unit): T {

tag.init()
children.add(tag)
return tag
}
override fun render(builder: StringBuilder, indent: String) {

builder.append("$indent<$name${renderAttributes()}>\n")
for (c in children) {
c.render(builder, indent + " ")
}
builder.append("$indent</$name>\n")
}
private fun renderAttributes(): String {

val builder = StringBuilder()
for ((attr, value) in attributes) {
builder.append(" $attr=\"$value\"")
132
}
return builder.toString()
}
override fun toString(): String {

val builder = StringBuilder()
render(builder, "")
return builder.toString()
}
}
abstract class TagWithText(name: String) : Tag(name) {

operator fun String.unaryPlus() {
children.add(TextElement(this))
}
}
class HTML : TagWithText("html") {

fun head(init: Head.() -> Unit) = initTag(Head(), init)
fun body(init: Body.() -> Unit) = initTag(Body(), init)

}
class Head : TagWithText("head") {

fun title(init: Title.() -> Unit) = initTag(Title(), init)
}
class Title : TagWithText("title")
abstract class BodyTag(name: String) : TagWithText(name) {

fun b(init: B.() -> Unit) = initTag(B(), init)
fun p(init: P.() -> Unit) = initTag(P(), init)
fun h1(init: H1.() -> Unit) = initTag(H1(), init)
fun a(href: String, init: A.() -> Unit) {
val a = initTag(A(), init)
a.href = href
}
}
class Body : BodyTag("body")

class B : BodyTag("b")
class P : BodyTag("p")
class H1 : BodyTag("h1")
class A : BodyTag("a") {
var href: String
get() = attributes["href"]!!
set(value) {
attributes["href"] = value
}
}

val html = HTML()
html.init()
return html
}
133
Type aliases
Type aliases provide alternative names for existing types. If the type name is too long you can introduce a dierent shorter name
and use the new one instead.
It's useful to shorten long generic types. For instance, it's often tempting to shrink collection types:
typealias NodeSet = Set<Network.Node>
typealias FileTable<K> = MutableMap<K, MutableList<File>>
You can provide dierent aliases for function types:
typealias MyHandler = (Int, String, Any) -> Unit
typealias Predicate<T> = (T) -> Boolean
You can have new names for inner and nested classes:
class A {
inner class Inner
}
class B {
inner class Inner
}
typealias AInner = A.Inner

typealias BInner = B.Inner
Type aliases do not introduce new types. They are equivalent to the corresponding underlying types. When you add typealias
Predicate<T> and use Predicate<Int> in your code, the Kotlin compiler always expand it to (Int) -> Boolean . Thus you
can pass a variable of your type whenever a general function type is required and vice versa:
typealias Predicate<T> = (T) -> Boolean
fun foo(p: Predicate<Int>) = p(42)

val f: (Int) -> Boolean = { it > 0 }
println(foo(f)) // prints "true"
val p: Predicate<Int> = { it > 0 }

println(listOf(1, -2).filter(p)) // prints "[1]"
}
134
Multiplatform Projects (Preview)
Multiplatform projects are a new experimental feature in Kotlin 1.2. All of the language and tooling features described
in this document are subject to change in future Kotlin versions.
A Kotlin multiplatform project allows you to compile the same code to multiple target platforms. At this time supported target
platforms are the JVM and JS, with Native to be added later.
Multiplatform Project Structure

A multiplatform project consists of three types of modules:
A common module contains code that is not specic to any platform, as well as declarations without implementation of
platform-dependent APIs. Those declarations allow common code to depend on platform-specic implementations.
A platform module contains implementations of platform-dependent declarations in the common module for a specic
platform, as well as other platform-dependent code. A platform module is always an implementation of a single common
module.
A regular module. Such modules target a specic platform and can either be dependencies of platform modules or depend
on platform modules.
A common module can depend only on other common modules and libraries, including the common version of the Kotlin
standard library ( kotlin-stdlib-common ). Common modules contain only Kotlin code, and not code in any other languages.
A platform module can depend on any modules and libraries available on the given platform (including Java libraries in case of
Kotlin/JVM and JS libraries for Kotlin/JS). Platform modules targeting Kotlin/JVM can also contain code in Java and other JVM
languages.
Compiling a common module produces a special metadata le containing all the declarations in the module. Compiling a
platform module produces target-specic code (JVM bytecode or JS source code) for the code in the platform module as well as
the common module that it implements.
Therefore, each multiplatform library needs to be distributed as a set of artifacts - a common .jar containing the metadata for
common code, as well as platform specic .jars containing the compiled implementation code for each platform.
Setting Up a Multiplatform Project

As of Kotlin 1.2, multiplatform projects have to be built with Gradle; other build systems are not supported.
To create a new multiplatform project in the IDE, select the "Kotlin (Multiplatform)" option under "Kotlin" in the New Project dialog.
This will create a project with three modules, a common one and two platform ones for JVM and JS. To add additional modules,
select one of the "Kotlin (Multiplatform)" options under "Gradle" in the New Module dialog.
If you need to congure the project manually, use the following steps:
Add the Kotlin Gradle plugin to the buildscript classpath: classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-
plugin:$kotlin_version"
Apply the kotlin-platform-common plugin to the common module
Add the kotlin-stdlib-common dependency to the common module

Apply the kotlin-platform-jvm and kotlin-platform-js plugins to the platform modules for JVM and JS
Add dependencies with implement scope from the platform modules to the common module
The following example demonstrates a complete build.gradle le for a common module with Kotlin 1.2-Beta:
135
buildscript {
ext.kotlin_version = '1.2-Beta'
repositories {
maven { url 'http://dl.bintray.com/kotlin/kotlin-eap-1.2' }
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:$kotlin_version"
}
}
apply plugin: 'kotlin-platform-common'
repositories {
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
compile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-common:$kotlin_version"
testCompile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-test-common:$kotlin_version"
}
And the example below shows a complete build.gradle for a JVM module. Pay special attention to the implement line in the
dependencies block:
buildscript {
ext.kotlin_version = '1.2-Beta'
repositories {
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
}
}
apply plugin: 'kotlin-platform-jvm'
repositories {
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
compile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:$kotlin_version"
implement project(":")
testCompile "junit:junit:4.12"
testCompile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-test-junit:$kotlin_version"
testCompile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-test:$kotlin_version"
}
Platform-Speci c Declarations
One of the key capabilities of Kotlin's multiplatform code is a way for common code to depend on platform-specic declarations.
In other languages, this can often be accomplished by building a set of interfaces in the common code and implementing these
interfaces in platform-specic modules. However, this approach is not ideal in cases when you have a library on one of the
platforms that implements the functionality you need, and you'd like to use the API of this library directly without extra wrappers.
Also, it requires common declarations to be expressed as interfaces, which doesn't cover all possible cases.
136
As an alternative, Kotlin provides a mechanism of expected and actual declarations . With this mechanism, a common module
can dene expected declarations , and a platform module can provide actual declarations corresponding to the expected ones.
To see how this works, let's look at an example rst. This code is part of a common module:
package org.jetbrains.foo
expect class Foo(bar: String) {

fun frob()
}

Foo("Hello").frob()
}
And this is the corresponding JVM module:
package org.jetbrains.foo
actual class Foo actual constructor(val bar: String) {

actual fun frob() {
println("Frobbing the $bar")
}
}
This illustrates several important points:
An expected declaration in the common module and its actual counterparts always have exactly the same fully qualied
name.
An expected declaration is marked with the expect keyword; the actual declaration is marked with the actual keyword.
All actual declarations that match any part of an expected declaration need to be marked as actual .
Expected declarations never contain any implementation code.
Note that expected declarations are not restricted to interfaces and interface members. In this example, the expected class has
a constructor and can be created directly from common code. You can apply the expect modier to other declarations as well,
including top-level declarations and annotations:
// Common
expect fun formatString(source: String, vararg args: Any): String
expect annotation class Test
// JVM
actual fun formatString(source: String, vararg args: Any) =
String.format(source, args)
actual typealias Test = org.junit.Test
The compiler ensures that every expected declaration has actual declarations in all platform modules that implement the
corresponding common module, and reports an error if any actual declarations are missing. The IDE provides tools that help you
create the missing actual declarations.
If you have a platform-specic library that you want to use in common code while providing your own implementation for another
platform, you can provide a typealias to an existing class as the actual declaration:
137
expect class AtomicRef<V>(value: V) {
fun get(): V
fun set(value: V)
fun getAndSet(value: V): V
fun compareAndSet(expect: V, update: V): Boolean
}
actual typealias AtomicRef<V> = java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference<V>
138
Reference
Keywords and Operators
Hard Keywords
The following tokens are always interpreted as keywords and cannot be used as identiers:
as
is used for type casts

species an alias for an import
as? is used for safe type casts

break terminates the execution of a loop
class declares a class

continue proceeds to the next step of the nearest enclosing loop
do begins a do/while loop (loop with postcondition)

else denes the branch of an if expression which is executed when the condition is false
false species the 'false' value of the Boolean type
for begins a for loop

fun declares a function
if begins an if expression
in
species the object being iterated in a for loop

is used as an inx operator to check that a value belongs to a range, a collection or another entity that denes the
'contains' method
is used in when expressions for the same purpose
marks a type parameter as contravariant
!in
is used as an operator to check that a value does NOT belong to a range, a collection or another entity that denes the
'contains' method
interface declares an interface
is
checks that a value has a certain type

!is
checks that a value does NOT have a certain type
null is a constant representing an object reference that doesn't point to any object
object declares a class and its instance at the same time

package species the package for the current le
139
return returns from the nearest enclosing function or anonymous function
super
refers to the superclass implementation of a method or property

calls the superclass constructor from a secondary constructor
this
refers to the current receiver
calls another constructor of the same class from a secondary constructor
throw throws an exception
true species the 'true' value of the Boolean type

try begins an exception handling block
typealias declares a type alias

val declares a read-only property or local variable
var declares a mutable property or local variable
when begins a when expression (executes one of the given branches)

while begins a while loop (loop with precondition)
Soft Keywords
The following tokens act as keywords in the context when they are applicable and can be used as identiers in other contexts:
by
delegates the implementation of an interface to another object
delegates the implementation of accessors for a property to another object
catch begins a block that handles a specic exception type
constructor declares a primary or secondary constructor

delegate is used as an annotation use-site target
dynamic references a dynamic type in Kotlin/JS code
field is used as an annotation use-site target

file is used as an annotation use-site target
finally begins a block that is always executed when a try block exits
get
declares the getter of a property

is used as an annotation use-site target
import imports a declaration from another package into the current le

init begins an initializer block
param is used as an annotation use-site target
property is used as an annotation use-site target

receiver is used as an annotation use-site target
set
declares the setter of a property
is used as an annotation use-site target
setparam is used as an annotation use-site target
where species constraints for a generic type parameter
Modi er Keywords
The following tokens act as keywords in modier lists of declarations and can be used as identiers in other contexts:
140
abstract marks a class or member as abstract
annotation declares an annotation class
companion declares a companion object

const marks a property as a compile-time constant
crossinline forbids non-local returns in a lambda passed to an inline function

data instructs the compiler to generate canonical members for a class
enum declares an enumeration
external marks a declaration as implemented not in Kotlin (accessible through JNI or in JavaScript)
final forbids overriding a member
infix allows calling a function in inx notation

inline tells the compiler to inline the function and the lambdas passed to it at the call site
inner allows referring to the outer class instance from a nested class
internal marks a declaration as visible in the current module
lateinit allows initializing a non-null property outside of a constructor
noinline turns o inlining of a lambda passed to an inline function

open allows subclassing a class or overriding a member
operator marks a function as overloading an operator or implementing a convention

out marks a type parameter as covariant
override marks a member as an override of a superclass member

private marks a declaration as visible in the current class or le
protected marks a declaration as visible in the current class and its subclasses
public marks a declaration as visible anywhere

reified marks a type parameter of an inline function as accessible at runtime
sealed declares a sealed class (a class with restricted subclassing)

suspend marks a function or lambda as suspending (usable as a coroutine)
tailrec marks a function as tail-recursive (allowing the compiler to replace recursion with iteration)
vararg allows passing a variable number of arguments for a parameter
Special Identi ers

The following identiers are dened by the compiler in specic contexts and can be used as regular identiers in other
contexts:
field is used inside a property accessor to refer to the backing eld of the property
it is used inside a lambda to refer to its parameter implicitly
Operators and Special Symbols

Kotlin supports the following operators and special symbols:
+ , - , * , / , % - mathematical operators
* is also used to pass an array to a vararg parameter
=
assignment operator
is used to specify default values for parameters
+= , -= , *= , /= , %= - augmented assignment operators
++ , -- - increment and decrement operators

&& , || , ! - logical 'and', 'or', 'not' operators (for bitwise operations, use corresponding inx functions)
== , != - equality operators (translated to calls of equals() for non-primitive types)

141

=== , !== - referential equality operators
< , > , <= , >= - comparison operators (translated to calls of compareTo() for non-primitive types)
[ , ] - indexed access operator (translated to calls of get and set )

!! asserts that an expression is non-null
?. performs a safe call (calls a method or accesses a property if the receiver is non-null)
?: takes the right-hand value if the left-hand value is null (the elvis operator)
:: creates a member reference or a class reference
.. creates a range
: separates a name from a type in declarations
? marks a type as nullable

->
separates the parameters and body of a lambda expression

separates the parameters and return type declaration in a function type
separates the condition and body of a when expression branch
@
introduces an annotation
introduces or references a loop label
introduces or references a lambda label
references a 'this' expression from an outer scope
references an outer superclass
; separates multiple statements on the same line

$ references a variable or expression in a string template
_
substitutes an unused parameter in a lambda expression
substitutes an unused parameter in a destructuring declaration
142
Grammar
Notation
This section informally explains the grammar notation used below.
Symbols and naming

Terminal symbol names start with an uppercase letter, e.g. SimpleName.
Nonterminal symbol names start with lowercase letter, e.g. kotlinFile.
Each production starts with a colon (:).
Symbol denitions may have many productions and are terminated by a semicolon (;).
Symbol denitions may be prepended with attributes , e.g. start attribute denotes a start symbol.
EBNF expressions
Operator | denotes alternative .
Operator * denotes iteration (zero or more).
Operator + denotes iteration (one or more).
Operator ? denotes option (zero or one).
alpha { beta } denotes a nonempty beta-separated list of alpha's.
Operator ``++'' means that no space or comment allowed between operands.
Semicolons
Kotlin provides "semicolon inference": syntactically, subsentences (e.g., statements, declarations etc) are separated by the
pseudo-token SEMI, which stands for "semicolon or newline". In most cases, there's no need for semicolons in Kotlin code.
Syntax
Relevant pages: Packages
start
kotlinFile
: preamble topLevelObject*
;
start
script
: preamble expression*
;
preamble
(used by script, kotlinFile)
: leAnnotations? packageHeader? import*
;
leAnnotations
(used by preamble)
: leAnnotation*
;
leAnnotation
(used by leAnnotations)
: "@" "le" ":" ("[" unescapedAnnotation+ "]" | unescapedAnnotation)
;
packageHeader
(used by preamble)
: modiers "package" SimpleName{"."} SEMI?
;
See Packages
import
(used by preamble)
: "import" SimpleName{"."} ("." "*" | "as" SimpleName)? SEMI?
;
See Imports
topLevelObject
(used by kotlinFile)
: class
: object
: function
: property
: typeAlias
;
typeAlias
(used by memberDeclaration, declaration, topLevelObject)
: modiers "typealias" SimpleName typeParameters? "=" type
143
;
Classes
See Classes and Inheritance
class
: modiers ("class" | "interface") SimpleName
typeParameters?
primaryConstructor?
(":" annotations delegationSpecier{","})?
typeConstraints
(classBody? | enumClassBody)
;
primaryConstructor
(used by class, object)
: (modiers "constructor")? ("(" functionParameter{","} ")")
;
classBody
(used by objectLiteral, enumEntry, class, companionObject, object)
: ("{" members "}")?
;
members
(used by enumClassBody, classBody)
: memberDeclaration*
;
delegationSpecier
(used by objectLiteral, class, companionObject, object)
: constructorInvocation
: userType
: explicitDelegation
;
explicitDelegation
(used by delegationSpecier)
: userType "by" expression
;
typeParameters
(used by typeAlias, class, property, function)
: "<" typeParameter{","} ">"
;
typeParameter
(used by typeParameters)
: modiers SimpleName (":" userType)?
;
See Generic classes
typeConstraints
(used by class, property, function)
: ("where" typeConstraint{","})?
;
typeConstraint
(used by typeConstraints)
: annotations SimpleName ":" type
;
See Generic constraints
Class members
memberDeclaration
(used by members)
: companionObject
: object
: function
: property
: class
: typeAlias
: anonymousInitializer
: secondaryConstructor
;
anonymousInitializer
(used by memberDeclaration)
: "init" block
;
companionObject
: modiers "companion" "object" SimpleName? (":" delegationSpecier{","})? classBody?
;
valueParameters
(used by secondaryConstructor, function)
: "(" functionParameter{","}? ")"
;
functionParameter
(used by valueParameters, primaryConstructor)
: modiers ("val" | "var")? parameter ("=" expression)?
;
144
block
(used by catchBlock, anonymousInitializer, secondaryConstructor, functionBody, controlStructureBody, try, nallyBlock)
: "{" statements "}"
;
function
: modiers "fun"
typeParameters?
(type ".")?
SimpleName
typeParameters? valueParameters (":" type)?
typeConstraints
functionBody?
;
functionBody
(used by getter, setter, function)
: block
: "=" expression
;
variableDeclarationEntry
(used by for, lambdaParameter, property, multipleVariableDeclarations)
: SimpleName (":" type)?
;
multipleVariableDeclarations
(used by for, lambdaParameter, property)
: "(" variableDeclarationEntry{","} ")"
;
property
: modiers ("val" | "var")
typeParameters?
(type ".")?
(multipleVariableDeclarations | variableDeclarationEntry)
typeConstraints
("by" | "=" expression SEMI?)?
(getter? setter? | setter? getter?) SEMI?
;
See Properties and Fields
getter
(used by property)
: modiers "get"
: modiers "get" "(" ")" (":" type)? functionBody
;
setter
(used by property)
: modiers "set"
: modiers "set" "(" modiers (SimpleName | parameter) ")" functionBody
;
parameter
(used by functionType, setter, functionParameter)
: SimpleName ":" type
;
object
: "object" SimpleName primaryConstructor? (":" delegationSpecier{","})? classBody?
secondaryConstructor
: modiers "constructor" valueParameters (":" constructorDelegationCall)? block
;
constructorDelegationCall
(used by secondaryConstructor)
: "this" valueArguments
: "super" valueArguments
;
See Object expressions and Declarations
Enum classes
See Enum classes
enumClassBody
(used by class)
: "{" enumEntries (";" members)? "}"
;
enumEntries
(used by enumClassBody)
: (enumEntry{","} ","? ";"?)?
;
enumEntry
(used by enumEntries)
: modiers SimpleName ("(" arguments ")")? classBody?
;
Types
145
See Types
type
(used by namedInx, simpleUserType, getter, atomicExpression, whenCondition, property, typeArguments, function, typeAlias,
parameter, functionType, variableDeclarationEntry, lambdaParameter, typeConstraint)
: typeModiers typeReference
;
typeReference
(used by typeReference, nullableType, type)
: "(" typeReference ")"
: functionType
: userType
: nullableType
: "dynamic"
;
nullableType
(used by typeReference)
: typeReference "?"
;
userType
(used by typeParameter, catchBlock, callableReference, typeReference, delegationSpecier, constructorInvocation,
explicitDelegation)
: simpleUserType{"."}
;
simpleUserType
(used by userType)
: SimpleName ("<" (optionalProjection type | "*"){","} ">")?
;
optionalProjection
(used by simpleUserType)
: varianceAnnotation
;
functionType
(used by typeReference)
: (type ".")? "(" parameter{","}? ")" "->" type?
;
Control structures
See Control structures
controlStructureBody
(used by whenEntry, for, if, doWhile, while)
: block
: blockLevelExpression
;
if
(used by atomicExpression)
: "if" "(" expression ")" controlStructureBody SEMI? ("else" controlStructureBody)?
;
try
: "try" block catchBlock* nallyBlock?
;
catchBlock
(used by try)
: "catch" "(" annotations SimpleName ":" userType ")" block
;
nallyBlock
(used by try)
: "nally" block
;
loop
: for
: while
: doWhile
;
for
(used by loop)
: "for" "(" annotations (multipleVariableDeclarations | variableDeclarationEntry) "in" expression ")" controlStructureBody
;
while
(used by loop)
: "while" "(" expression ")" controlStructureBody
;
doWhile
(used by loop)
: "do" controlStructureBody "while" "(" expression ")"
;
Expressions
Precedence
146
Precedence Title Symbols
Highest Postx ++, --, ., ?., ?
Prex -, +, ++, --, !, labelDefinition@
Type RHS :, as, as?
Multiplicative *, /, %
Additive +, -
Range ..
Inx function SimpleName
Elvis ?:
Named checks in, !in, is, !is
Comparison <, >, <=, >=
Equality ==, \!==
Conjunction &&
Disjunction ||
Lowest Assignment =, +=, -=, *=, /=, %=
Rules
expression
(used by for, atomicExpression, longTemplate, whenCondition, functionBody, doWhile, property, script, explicitDelegation, jump,
while, arrayAccess, blockLevelExpression, if, when, valueArguments, functionParameter)
: disjunction (assignmentOperator disjunction)*
;
disjunction
(used by expression)
: conjunction ("||" conjunction)*
;
conjunction
(used by disjunction)
: equalityComparison ("&&" equalityComparison)*
;
equalityComparison
(used by conjunction)
: comparison (equalityOperation comparison)*
;
comparison
(used by equalityComparison)
: namedInx (comparisonOperation namedInx)*
;
namedInx
(used by comparison)
: elvisExpression (inOperation elvisExpression)*
: elvisExpression (isOperation type)?
;
elvisExpression
(used by namedInx)
: inxFunctionCall ("?:" inxFunctionCall)*
;
inxFunctionCall
(used by elvisExpression)
: rangeExpression (SimpleName rangeExpression)*
;
rangeExpression
(used by inxFunctionCall)
: additiveExpression (".." additiveExpression)*
;
additiveExpression
(used by rangeExpression)
: multiplicativeExpression (additiveOperation multiplicativeExpression)*
;
multiplicativeExpression
(used by additiveExpression)
: typeRHS (multiplicativeOperation typeRHS)*
;
typeRHS
(used by multiplicativeExpression)
: prexUnaryExpression (typeOperation prexUnaryExpression)*
;
prexUnaryExpression
(used by typeRHS)
: prexUnaryOperation* postxUnaryExpression
;
postxUnaryExpression
(used by prexUnaryExpression, postxUnaryOperation)
: atomicExpression postxUnaryOperation*
: callableReference postxUnaryOperation*
147
;
callableReference
(used by postxUnaryExpression)
: (userType "?"*)? "::" SimpleName typeArguments?
;
atomicExpression
: "(" expression ")"
: literalConstant
: functionLiteral
: "this" labelReference?
: "super" ("<" type ">")? labelReference?
: if
: when
: try
: objectLiteral
: jump
: loop
: SimpleName
;
labelReference
(used by atomicExpression, jump)
: "@" ++ LabelName
;
labelDenition
(used by prexUnaryOperation, annotatedLambda)
: LabelName ++ "@"
;
literalConstant
: "true" | "false"
: stringTemplate
: NoEscapeString
: IntegerLiteral
: HexadecimalLiteral
: CharacterLiteral
: FloatLiteral
: "null"
;
stringTemplate
(used by literalConstant)
: "\"" stringTemplateElement* "\""
;
stringTemplateElement
(used by stringTemplate)
: RegularStringPart
: ShortTemplateEntryStart (SimpleName | "this")
: EscapeSequence
: longTemplate
;
longTemplate
(used by stringTemplateElement)
: "${" expression "}"
;
declaration
(used by statement)
: function
: property
: class
: typeAlias
: object
;
statement
(used by statements)
: declaration
: blockLevelExpression
;
blockLevelExpression
(used by statement, controlStructureBody)
: annotations ("\n")+ expression
;
multiplicativeOperation
(used by multiplicativeExpression)
: "*" : "/" : "%"
;
additiveOperation
(used by additiveExpression)
: "+" : "-"
;
inOperation
(used by namedInx)
: "in" : "!in"
;
typeOperation
(used by typeRHS)
: "as" : "as?" : ":"
;
isOperation
(used by namedInx)
: "is" : "!is"
148
;
comparisonOperation
(used by comparison)
: "<" : ">" : ">=" : "<="
;
equalityOperation
(used by equalityComparison)
: "!=" : "=="
;
assignmentOperator
(used by expression)
: "="
: "+=" : "-=" : "*=" : "/=" : "%="
;
prexUnaryOperation
(used by prexUnaryExpression)
: "-" : "+"
: "++" : "--"
: "!"
: annotations
: labelDenition
;
postxUnaryOperation
: "++" : "--" : "!!"
: callSux
: arrayAccess
: memberAccessOperation postxUnaryExpression
;
callSux
(used by constructorInvocation, postxUnaryOperation)
: typeArguments? valueArguments annotatedLambda
: typeArguments annotatedLambda
;
annotatedLambda
(used by callSux)
: ("@" unescapedAnnotation)* labelDenition? functionLiteral
memberAccessOperation
(used by postxUnaryOperation)
: "." : "?." : "?"
;
typeArguments
(used by callSux, callableReference, unescapedAnnotation)
: "<" type{","} ">"
;
valueArguments
(used by callSux, constructorDelegationCall, unescapedAnnotation)
: "(" (SimpleName "=")? "*"? expression{","} ")"
;
jump
: "throw" expression
: "return" ++ labelReference? expression?
: "continue" ++ labelReference?
: "break" ++ labelReference?
;
functionLiteral
(used by atomicExpression, annotatedLambda)
: "{" statements "}"
: "{" lambdaParameter{","} "->" statements "}"
;
lambdaParameter
(used by functionLiteral)
: variableDeclarationEntry
: multipleVariableDeclarations (":" type)?
;
statements
(used by block, functionLiteral)
: SEMI* statement{SEMI+} SEMI*
;
constructorInvocation
(used by delegationSpecier)
: userType callSux
;
arrayAccess
(used by postxUnaryOperation)
: "[" expression{","} "]"
;
objectLiteral
: "object" (":" delegationSpecier{","})? classBody
;
When-expression
See When-expression
when
149
: "when" ("(" expression ")")? "{"
whenEntry*
"}"
;
whenEntry
(used by when)
: whenCondition{","} "->" controlStructureBody SEMI
: "else" "->" controlStructureBody SEMI
;
whenCondition
(used by whenEntry)
: expression
: ("in" | "!in") expression
: ("is" | "!is") type
;
Modi ers
modiers
(used by typeParameter, getter, packageHeader, class, property, function, typeAlias, secondaryConstructor, enumEntry, setter,
companionObject, primaryConstructor, functionParameter)
: (modier | annotations)*
;
typeModiers
(used by type)
: (suspendModier | annotations)*
;
modier
(used by modiers)
: classModier
: accessModier
: varianceAnnotation
: memberModier
: parameterModier
: typeParameterModier
: functionModier
: propertyModier
;
classModier
(used by modier)
: "abstract"
: "nal"
: "enum"
: "open"
: "annotation"
: "sealed"
: "data"
;
memberModier
(used by modier)
: "override"
: "open"
: "nal"
: "abstract"
: "lateinit"
;
accessModier
(used by modier)
: "private"
: "protected"
: "public"
: "internal"
;
varianceAnnotation
(used by modier, optionalProjection)
: "in"
: "out"
;
parameterModier
(used by modier)
: "noinline"
: "crossinline"
: "vararg"
;
typeParameterModier
(used by modier)
: "reied"
;
functionModier
(used by modier)
: "tailrec"
: "operator"
: "inx"
: "inline"
: "external"
: suspendModier
;
propertyModier
(used by modier)
150
: "const"
;
suspendModier
(used by typeModiers, functionModier)
: "suspend"
;
Annotations
annotations
(used by catchBlock, prexUnaryOperation, blockLevelExpression, for, typeModiers, class, modiers, typeConstraint)
: (annotation | annotationList)*
;
annotation
(used by annotations)
: "@" (annotationUseSiteTarget ":")? unescapedAnnotation
;
annotationList
(used by annotations)
: "@" (annotationUseSiteTarget ":")? "[" unescapedAnnotation+ "]"
;
annotationUseSiteTarget
(used by annotation, annotationList)
: "eld"
: "le"
: "property"
: "get"
: "set"
: "receiver"
: "param"
: "setparam"
: "delegate"
;
unescapedAnnotation
(used by annotation, leAnnotation, annotatedLambda, annotationList)
: SimpleName{"."} typeArguments? valueArguments?
;
Lexical structure
helper
Digit
(used by IntegerLiteral, HexDigit)
: ["0".."9"];
IntegerLiteral
: Digit (Digit | "_")*
FloatLiteral
: <Java double literal>;
helper
HexDigit
(used by RegularStringPart, HexadecimalLiteral)
: Digit | ["A".."F", "a".."f"];
HexadecimalLiteral
: "0x" HexDigit (HexDigit | "_")*;
CharacterLiteral
: <character as in Java>;
See Basic types
NoEscapeString
: <"""-quoted string>;
RegularStringPart
(used by stringTemplateElement)
: <any character other than backslash, quote, $ or newline>
ShortTemplateEntryStart:
: "$"
EscapeSequence:
: UnicodeEscapeSequence | RegularEscapeSequence
UnicodeEscapeSequence:
: "\u" HexDigit{4}
RegularEscapeSequence:
: "\" <any character other than newline>
See String templates
SEMI
(used by whenEntry, if, statements, packageHeader, property, import)
: <semicolon or newline>;
SimpleName
(used by typeParameter, catchBlock, simpleUserType, atomicExpression, LabelName, packageHeader, class, object,
inxFunctionCall, function, typeAlias, parameter, callableReference, variableDeclarationEntry, stringTemplateElement, enumEntry,
setter, import, companionObject, valueArguments, unescapedAnnotation, typeConstraint)
: <java identier>
: "`" <java identier> "`"
;
151
See Java interoperability
LabelName
(used by labelReference, labelDenition)
: "@" SimpleName;
See Returns and jumps
152
Compatibility
This page describes compatibility guarantees for dierent versions and subsystems of Kotlin.
Compatibility glossary
Compatibility means answering the question: for given two versions of Kotlin (for example, 1.2 and 1.1.5), can the code written
for one version be used with another version? The list below explains the compatibility modes of dierent pairs of versions. Note
that a version is older if it has a smaller version number (even if it was released later than the version with a larger version
number). We use OV for "Older Version", and NV for "Newer Version".
C - Full Compatibility
Language
no syntax changes (modulo bugs *)
new warnings/hints may be added or removed
API ( kotlin-stdlib-* , kotlin-reflect-* )
no API changes
deprecations with level WARNING may be added/removed
Binaries (ABI)
runtime: binaries can be used interchangeably
compilation: binaries can be used interchangeably
BCLA - Backward Compatibility for the Language and API

Language
syntax deprecated in OV may be removed in NV
other than that, all code compilable in OV is compilable by in NV (modulo bugs*)
new syntax may be added in NV
some restrictions of OV may be lifted in NV
new warnings/hints may be added or removed
API ( kotlin-stdlib-* , kotlin-reflect-* )
new APIs may be added

deprecations with level WARNING may be added/removed
deprecations with level WARNING may be elevated to level ERROR or HIDDEN in NV
BCB - Backward Compatibility for Binaries

Binaries (ABI)
runtime: NV-binaries can be used everywhere where OV binaries worked
NV compiler: code compilable against OV binaries is compilable against NV binaries
OV compiler may not accept NV binaries (e.g. those that exhibit newer language features or APIs)
BC - Full Backward Compatibility

BC = BCLA & BCB
EXP - Experimental feature

see below
NO - No compatibility guarantees
we'll do our best to oer smooth migration, but can give no guarantees
migration is planned individually for every incompatible subsystem
* No changes modulo bugs means that if an important bug is found (e.g. in the compiler diagnostics or elsewhere), a x for it
may introduce a breaking change, but we are always very careful with such changes.
153
Compatibility guarantees for Kotlin releases
Kotlin for JVM:
patch version updates (e.g. 1.1.X) are fully compatible;

minor version updates (e.g. 1.X) are backwards compatible.
Kotlin 1.0 1.0.X 1.1 1.1.X 2.0

1.0 - C BC BC ?
1.0.X C - BC BC ?
1.1 BC BC - C ?
1.1.X BC BC C - ?

2.0 ? ? ? ? -
Kotlin for JS: starting with Kotlin 1.1, both patch and minor version updates provide backward compatibility for the language
and API (BCLA), but no BCB.
Kotlin 1.0.X 1.1 1.1.X 2.0

1.0.X - EXP EXP EXP
1.1 EXP - BCLA ?
1.1.X EXP BCLA - ?

2.0 EXP ? ? -
Kotlin Scripts: both patch and minor version updates provide backward compatibility for the language and API (BCLA), but no
BCB.
Compatibility across platforms

Kotlin is available for several platforms (JVM/Android, JavaScript and the upcoming native platforms). Every platform has its own
peculiarities (e.g. JavaScript has no proper integers), so we have to adapt the language accordingly. Our goal is to provide
reasonable code portability without sacricing too much.
Every platform may feature specic language extensions (such as platform types for JVM and dynamic types for JavaScript) or
restrictions (e.g. some overloading-related restrictions on the JVM), but the core language remains the same.
The Standard Library provides a core API available on all platforms, and we strive to make these APIs work in the same way on
every platform. Along with these, the Standard Library provides platform-specic extensions (e.g. java.io for JVM, or js() for
JavaScript), plus some APIs that can be called uniformly, but work dierently (such as regular expressions for JVM and JavaScript).
Experimental features
Experimental features, such as coroutines in Kotlin 1.1, have exemption from the compatibility modes listed above. Such
features require an opt-in to use without compiler warning. Experimental features are at least backwards compatible for patch
version updates, but we do not guarantee any compatibility for minor version updates (migration aids will be provided where
possible).
Kotlin 1.1 1.1.X 1.2 1.2.X

1.1 - BC NO NO
1.1.X BC - NO NO
1.2 NO NO - BC
1.2.X NO NO BC -
EAP builds
154
We publish Early Access Preview (EAP) builds to special channels where early adopters from the community can try them out
and give us feedback. Such builds provide no compatibility guarantees whatsoever (although we do our best to keep them
reasonably compatible with releases and with each other). Quality expectations for such builds are also much lower than for
releases. Beta builds also fall under this category.
IMPORTANT NOTE: all binaries compiled by EAP builds for 1.X (e.g. 1.1.0-eap-X) are rejected by release builds of the
compiler. We don't want any code compiled by pre-release versions to be kept around after a stable version is released. This
does not concern EAPs of patch versions (e.g. 1.1.3-eap-X), these EAPs produce builds with stable ABI.
Compatibility modes
When a big team is migrating onto a new version, it may appear in a "inconsistent state" at some point, when some developers
have already updated, and others haven't. To prevent the former from writing and committing code that others may not be able
to compile, we provide the following command line switches (also available in the IDE and Gradle/Maven):
-language-version X.Y - compatibility mode for Kotlin language version X.Y, reports errors for all language features that
came out later.
-api-version X.Y - compatibility mode for Kotlin API version X.Y, reports errors for all code using newer APIs from the Kotlin
Standard Library (including the code generated by the compiler).
Binary compatibility warnings

If you use the NV Kotlin compiler and have the OV standard library or the OV reection library in the classpath, it can be a sign
that the project is miscongured. To prevent unexpected problems during compilation or at runtime, we suggest either
updating the dependencies to NV, or specifying the API version / language version arguments explicitly. Otherwise the compiler
detects that something can go wrong and reports a warning.
For example, if OV = 1.0 and NV = 1.1, you can observe one of the following warnings:
Runtime JAR files in the classpath have the version 1.0, which is older than the API version 1.1.
Consider using the runtime of version 1.1, or pass '-api-version 1.0' explicitly to restrict the
available APIs to the runtime of version 1.0.
This means that you're using the Kotlin compiler 1.1 against the standard or reection library of version 1.0. This can be handled
in dierent ways:
If you intend to use the APIs from the 1.1 Standard Library, or language features that depend on those APIs, you should
upgrade the dependency to the version 1.1.
If you want to keep your code compatible with the 1.0 standard library, you can pass -api-version 1.0 .
If you've just upgraded to Kotlin 1.1 but can not use new language features yet (e.g. because some of your teammates may
not have upgraded), you can pass -language-version 1.0 , which will restrict all APIs and language features to 1.0.
Runtime JAR files in the classpath should have the same version. These files were found in the classpath:
kotlin-reflect.jar (version 1.0)
kotlin-stdlib.jar (version 1.1)
Consider providing an explicit dependency on kotlin-reflect 1.1 to prevent strange errors
Some runtime JAR files in the classpath have an incompatible version. Consider removing them from the
classpath
This means that you have a dependency on libraries of dierent versions, for example the 1.1 standard library and the 1.0
reection library. To prevent subtle errors at runtime, we recommend you to use the same version of all Kotlin libraries. In this
case, consider adding an explicit dependency on the 1.1 reection library.
Some JAR files in the classpath have the Kotlin Runtime library bundled into them.
This may cause difficult to debug problems if there's a different version of the Kotlin Runtime library in the
classpath.
Consider removing these libraries from the classpath
This means that there's a library in the classpath which does not depend on the Kotlin standard library as a Gradle/Maven
dependency, but is distributed in the same artifact with it (i.e. has it bundled). Such a library may cause issues because standard
build tools do not consider it an instance of the Kotlin standard library, thus it's not subject to the dependency version resolution
mechanisms, and you can end up with several versions of the same library in the classpath. Consider contacting the authors of
such a library and suggesting to use the Gradle/Maven dependency instead.
155
Java Interop
Calling Java code from Kotlin
Kotlin is designed with Java Interoperability in mind. Existing Java code can be called from Kotlin in a natural way, and Kotlin code
can be used from Java rather smoothly as well. In this section we describe some details about calling Java code from Kotlin.
Pretty much all Java code can be used without any issues:
import java.util.*
fun demo(source: List<Int>) {

val list = ArrayList<Int>()
// 'for'-loops work for Java collections:
for (item in source) {
list.add(item)
}
// Operator conventions work as well:
for (i in 0..source.size - 1) {
list[i] = source[i] // get and set are called
}
}
Getters and Setters

Methods that follow the Java conventions for getters and setters (no-argument methods with names starting with get and
single-argument methods with names starting with set ) are represented as properties in Kotlin. Boolean accessor methods
(where the name of the getter starts with is and the name of the setter starts with set ) are represented as properties which
have the same name as the getter method.
For example:
import java.util.Calendar
fun calendarDemo() {
val calendar = Calendar.getInstance()
if (calendar.firstDayOfWeek == Calendar.SUNDAY) { // call getFirstDayOfWeek()
calendar.firstDayOfWeek = Calendar.MONDAY // call setFirstDayOfWeek()
}
if (!calendar.isLenient) { // call isLenient()
calendar.isLenient = true // call setLenient()
}
}
Note that, if the Java class only has a setter, it will not be visible as a property in Kotlin, because Kotlin does not support set-only
properties at this time.
Methods returning void

If a Java method returns void, it will return Unit when called from Kotlin. If, by any chance, someone uses that return value, it will
be assigned at the call site by the Kotlin compiler, since the value itself is known in advance (being Unit ).
Escaping for Java identi ers that are keywords in Kotlin
156
Some of the Kotlin keywords are valid identiers in Java: in, object, is, etc. If a Java library uses a Kotlin keyword for a method,
you can still call the method escaping it with the backtick (`) character:
foo.ìs`(bar)
Null-Safety and Platform Types

Any reference in Java may be null, which makes Kotlin's requirements of strict null-safety impractical for objects coming from
Java. Types of Java declarations are treated specially in Kotlin and called platform types . Null-checks are relaxed for such types, so
that safety guarantees for them are the same as in Java (see more below).
Consider the following examples:
val list = ArrayList<String>() // non-null (constructor result)

list.add("Item")
val size = list.size // non-null (primitive int)
val item = list[0] // platform type inferred (ordinary Java object)
When we call methods on variables of platform types, Kotlin does not issue nullability errors at compile time, but the call may fail
at runtime, because of a null-pointer exception or an assertion that Kotlin generates to prevent nulls from propagating:
item.substring(1) // allowed, may throw an exception if item == null
Platform types are non-denotable , meaning that one can not write them down explicitly in the language. When a platform value is
assigned to a Kotlin variable, we can rely on type inference (the variable will have an inferred platform type then, as item has in
the example above), or we can choose the type that we expect (both nullable and non-null types are allowed):
val nullable: String? = item // allowed, always works

val notNull: String = item // allowed, may fail at runtime
If we choose a non-null type, the compiler will emit an assertion upon assignment. This prevents Kotlin's non-null variables from
holding nulls. Assertions are also emitted when we pass platform values to Kotlin functions expecting non-null values etc.
Overall, the compiler does its best to prevent nulls from propagating far through the program (although sometimes this is
impossible to eliminate entirely, because of generics).
Notation for Platform Types
As mentioned above, platform types cannot be mentioned explicitly in the program, so there's no syntax for them in the
language. Nevertheless, the compiler and IDE need to display them sometimes (in error messages, parameter info etc), so we
have a mnemonic notation for them:
T! means " T or T? ",

(Mutable)Collection<T>! means "Java collection of T may be mutable or not, may be nullable or not",
Array<(out) T>! means "Java array of T (or a subtype of T ), nullable or not"
Nullability annotations
Java types which have nullability annotations are represented not as platform types, but as actual nullable or non-null Kotlin
types. The compiler supports several avors of nullability annotations, including:
JetBrains ( @Nullable and @NotNull from the org.jetbrains.annotations package)

Android ( com.android.annotations and android.support.annotations )
JSR-305 ( javax.annotation , more details below)
FindBugs ( edu.umd.cs.findbugs.annotations )
Eclipse ( org.eclipse.jdt.annotation )
Lombok ( lombok.NonNull ).
You can nd the full list in the Kotlin compiler source code.
157
JSR-305 Support
The @Nonnull annotation dened in JSR-305 is supported for denoting nullability of Java types.
If the @Nonnull(when = ...) value is When.ALWAYS , the annotated type is treated as non-null; When.MAYBE and When.NEVER
denote a nullable type; and When.UNKNOWN forces the type to be platform one.
A library can be compiled against the JSR-305 annotations, but there's no need to make the annotations artifact (e.g.
jsr305.jar ) a compile dependency for the library consumers. The Kotlin compiler can read the JSR-305 annotations from a
library without the annotations present on the classpath.
Since Kotlin 1.1.50, custom nullability qualiers (KEEP-79) are also supported (see below).
Type quali er nicknames (since 1.1.50)
If an annotation type is annotated with both @TypeQualifierNickname and JSR-305 @Nonnull (or its another nickname, such as
@CheckForNull ), then the annotation type is itself used for retrieving precise nullability and has the same meaning as that
nullability annotation:
@TypeQualifierNickname
@Nonnull(when = When.ALWAYS)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public @interface MyNonnull {
}
@TypeQualifierNickname
@CheckForNull // a nickname to another type qualifier nickname
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public @interface MyNullable {
}
interface A {
@MyNullable String foo(@MyNonnull String x); // seen as `fun foo(x: String): String?`
String bar(List<@MyNonnull String> x); // seen as `fun bar(x: List<String>!): String!`
}
Type quali er defaults (since 1.1.50)
@TypeQualifierDefault allows introducing annotations that, when being applied, dene the default nullability within the scope
of the annotated element.
Such annotation type should itself be annotated with both @Nonnull (or its nickname) and @TypeQualifierDefault(...) with
one or more ElementType values:
ElementType.METHOD for return types of methods;

ElementType.PARAMETER for value parameters;
ElementType.FIELD for elds; and

ElementType.TYPE_USE (since 1.1.60) for any type including type arguments, upper bounds of type parameters and
wildcard types.
The default nullability is used when a type itself is not annotated by a nullability annotation, and the default is determined by the
innermost enclosing element annotated with a type qualier default annotation with the ElementType matching the type usage.
158
@Nonnull
@TypeQualifierDefault({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.PARAMETER})
public @interface NonNullApi {
}
@Nonnull(when = When.MAYBE)
@TypeQualifierDefault({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.PARAMETER, ElementType.TYPE_USE})
public @interface NullableApi {
}
@NullableApi
interface A {
String foo(String x); // fun foo(x: String?): String?
@NotNullApi // overriding default from the interface

String bar(String x, @Nullable String y); // fun bar(x: String, y: String?): String
// The List<String> type argument is seen as nullable because of `@NullableApi`

// having the `TYPE_USE` element type:
String baz(List<String> x); // fun baz(List<String?>?): String?
// The type of `x` parameter remains platform because there's explicit UNKNOWN-marked
// nullability annotation:
String qux(@Nonnull(when = When.UNKNOWN) String x); // fun baz(x: String!): String?
}
Package-level default nullability is also supported:
// FILE: test/package-info.java
@NonNullApi // declaring all types in package 'test' as non-nullable by default
package test;
@UnderMigration annotation (since 1.1.60)
The @UnderMigration annotation (provided in a separate artifact kotlin-annotations-jvm ) can be used by library maintainers
to dene the migration status for the nullability type qualiers.
The status value in @UnderMigration(status = ...) species how the compiler treats inappropriate usages of the annotated
types in Kotlin (e.g. using a @MyNullable -annotated type value as non-null):
MigrationStatus.STRICT makes annotation work as any plain nullability annotation, i.e. reporting error for the inappropriate
usages;
with MigrationStatus.WARN , the inappropriate usages are reported as compilation warnings instead of errors; and
MigrationStatus.IGNORE makes the compiler ignore the nullability annotation completely.
A library maintainer can add @UnderMigration status to both type qualier nicknames and type qualier defaults:
@Nonnull(when = When.ALWAYS)
@TypeQualifierDefault({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.PARAMETER})
@UnderMigration(status = MigrationStatus.WARN)
public @interface NonNullApi {
}
// The types in the class are non-null, but only warnings are reported
// because `@NonNullApi` is annotated `@UnderMigration(status = MigrationStatus.WARN)`
@NonNullApi
public class Test {}
Note: the migration status of a nullability annotation is not inherited by its type qualier nicknames but is applied to its usages in
default type qualiers.
159
If a default type qualier uses a type qualier nickname and they are both @UnderMigration , the status from the default type
qualier is used.
Compiler con guration
The JSR-305 checks can be congured by adding the -Xjsr305 compiler ag with the following options (and their
combination):
-Xjsr305={strict|warn|ignore} to set up the behavior for non- @UnderMigration annotations. Custom nullability
qualiers, especially @TypeQualifierDefault , are already spread among many well-known libraries, and users may need to
migrate smoothly when updating to the Kotlin version containing JSR-305 support. Since Kotlin 1.1.60, this ag only aects
non- @UnderMigration annotations.
-Xjsr305=under-migration:{strict|warn|ignore} (since 1.1.60) to override the behavior for the @UnderMigration

annotations. Users may have dierent view on the migration status for the libraries: they may want to have errors while the
ocial migration status is WARN , or vice versa, they may wish to postpone errors reporting for some until they complete their
migration.
-Xjsr305=@<fq.name>:{strict|warn|ignore} (since 1.1.60) to override the behavior for a single annotation, where
<fq.name> is the fully qualied class name of the annotation. May appear several times for dierent annotations. This is
useful for managing the migration state for a particular library.
The strict , warn and ignore values have the same meaning as those of MigrationStatus .
For example, adding -Xjsr305=ignore -Xjsr305=under-migration:ignore -Xjsr305=@org.library.MyNullable:warn to the

compiler arguments makes the compiler generate warnings for inappropriate usages of types annotated by
@org.library.MyNullable and ignore all other JSR-305 annotations.
For kotlin versions 1.1.50+/1.2, the default behavior is the same to -Xjsr305=warn . The strict value should be considered
experimental (more checks may be added to it in the future).
Mapped types
Kotlin treats some Java types specially. Such types are not loaded from Java "as is", but are mapped to corresponding Kotlin
types. The mapping only matters at compile time, the runtime representation remains unchanged. Java's primitive types are
mapped to corresponding Kotlin types (keeping platform types in mind):
Java type Kotlin type

byte kotlin.Byte
short kotlin.Short
int kotlin.Int
long kotlin.Long
char kotlin.Char
float kotlin.Float
double kotlin.Double
boolean kotlin.Boolean
Some non-primitive built-in classes are also mapped:

java.lang.Object kotlin.Any!
java.lang.Cloneable kotlin.Cloneable!
java.lang.Comparable kotlin.Comparable!
java.lang.Enum kotlin.Enum!
java.lang.Annotation kotlin.Annotation!
java.lang.Deprecated kotlin.Deprecated!
java.lang.CharSequence kotlin.CharSequence!
java.lang.String kotlin.String!
160
java.lang.Number
Java type kotlin.Number!
Kotlin type
java.lang.Throwable kotlin.Throwable!
Java's boxed primitive types are mapped to nullable Kotlin types:

java.lang.Byte kotlin.Byte?
java.lang.Short kotlin.Short?
java.lang.Integer kotlin.Int?
java.lang.Long kotlin.Long?
java.lang.Character kotlin.Char?
java.lang.Float kotlin.Float?
java.lang.Double kotlin.Double?
java.lang.Boolean kotlin.Boolean?
Note that a boxed primitive type used as a type parameter is mapped to a platform type: for example,
List<java.lang.Integer> becomes a List<Int!> in Kotlin.
Collection types may be read-only or mutable in Kotlin, so Java's collections are mapped as follows (all Kotlin types in this table
reside in the package kotlin.collections ):
Java type Kotlin read-only type Kotlin mutable type Loaded platform type
Iterator<T> Iterator<T> MutableIterator<T> (Mutable)Iterator<T>!
Iterable<T> Iterable<T> MutableIterable<T> (Mutable)Iterable<T>!
Collection<T> Collection<T> MutableCollection<T> (Mutable)Collection<T>!
Set<T> Set<T> MutableSet<T> (Mutable)Set<T>!
List<T> List<T> MutableList<T> (Mutable)List<T>!
ListIterator<T> ListIterator<T> MutableListIterator<T> (Mutable)ListIterator<T>!
Map<K, V> Map<K, V> MutableMap<K, V> (Mutable)Map<K, V>!
Map.Entry<K, V> Map.Entry<K, V> MutableMap.MutableEntry<K,V> (Mutable)Map.(Mutable)Entry<K, V>!
Java's arrays are mapped as mentioned below:

int[] kotlin.IntArray!
String[] kotlin.Array<(out) String>!
Java generics in Kotlin

Kotlin's generics are a little dierent from Java's (see Generics). When importing Java types to Kotlin we perform some
conversions:
Java's wildcards are converted into type projections,

Foo<? extends Bar> becomes Foo<out Bar!>! ,
Foo<? super Bar> becomes Foo<in Bar!>! ;
Java's raw types are converted into star projections,

List becomes List<*>! , i.e. List<out Any?>! .
Like Java's, Kotlin's generics are not retained at runtime, i.e. objects do not carry information about actual type arguments
passed to their constructors, i.e. ArrayList<Integer>() is indistinguishable from ArrayList<Character>() . This makes it
impossible to perform is-checks that take generics into account. Kotlin only allows is-checks for star-projected generic types:
if (a is List<Int>) // Error: cannot check if it is really a List of Ints

// but
if (a is List<*>) // OK: no guarantees about the contents of the list
161
Java Arrays
Arrays in Kotlin are invariant, unlike Java. This means that Kotlin does not let us assign an Array<String> to an Array<Any> ,
which prevents a possible runtime failure. Passing an array of a subclass as an array of superclass to a Kotlin method is also
prohibited, but for Java methods this is allowed (through platform types of the form Array<(out) String>! ).
Arrays are used with primitive datatypes on the Java platform to avoid the cost of boxing/unboxing operations. As Kotlin hides
those implementation details, a workaround is required to interface with Java code. There are specialized classes for every type
of primitive array ( IntArray , DoubleArray , CharArray , and so on) to handle this case. They are not related to the Array
class and are compiled down to Java's primitive arrays for maximum performance.
Suppose there is a Java method that accepts an int array of indices:
public class JavaArrayExample {
public void removeIndices(int[] indices) {

// code here...
}
}
To pass an array of primitive values you can do the following in Kotlin:
val javaObj = JavaArrayExample()

val array = intArrayOf(0, 1, 2, 3)
javaObj.removeIndices(array) // passes int[] to method
When compiling to JVM byte codes, the compiler optimizes access to arrays so that there's no overhead introduced:
val array = arrayOf(1, 2, 3, 4)

array[x] = array[x] * 2 // no actual calls to get() and set() generated
for (x in array) { // no iterator created
print(x)
}
Even when we navigate with an index, it does not introduce any overhead:
for (i in array.indices) { // no iterator created

array[i] += 2
}
Finally, in-checks have no overhead either:
if (i in array.indices) { // same as (i >= 0 && i < array.size)

print(array[i])
}
Java Varargs
Java classes sometimes use a method declaration for the indices with a variable number of arguments (varargs):
public class JavaArrayExample {
public void removeIndicesVarArg(int... indices) {

// code here...
}
}
In that case you need to use the spread operator * to pass the IntArray :
162
val javaObj = JavaArrayExample()
val array = intArrayOf(0, 1, 2, 3)
javaObj.removeIndicesVarArg(*array)
It's currently not possible to pass null to a method that is declared as varargs.
Operators
Since Java has no way of marking methods for which it makes sense to use the operator syntax, Kotlin allows using any Java
methods with the right name and signature as operator overloads and other conventions ( invoke() etc.) Calling Java methods
using the inx call syntax is not allowed.
Checked Exceptions
In Kotlin, all exceptions are unchecked, meaning that the compiler does not force you to catch any of them. So, when you call a
Java method that declares a checked exception, Kotlin does not force you to do anything:
fun render(list: List<*>, to: Appendable) {

for (item in list) {
to.append(item.toString()) // Java would require us to catch IOException here
}
}
Object Methods
When Java types are imported into Kotlin, all the references of the type java.lang.Object are turned into Any . Since Any is
not platform-specic, it only declares toString() , hashCode() and equals() as its members, so to make other members of
java.lang.Object available, Kotlin uses extension functions.
wait()/notify()
Eective Java Item 69 kindly suggests to prefer concurrency utilities to wait() and notify() . Thus, these methods are not
available on references of type Any . If you really need to call them, you can cast to java.lang.Object :
(foo as java.lang.Object).wait()
getClass()
To retrieve the Java class of an object, use the java extension property on a class reference:
val fooClass = foo::class.java
The code above uses a bound class reference, which is supported since Kotlin 1.1. You can also use the javaClass extension
property:
val fooClass = foo.javaClass
clone()
To override clone() , your class needs to extend kotlin.Cloneable :
class Example : Cloneable {

override fun clone(): Any { ... }
}
Do not forget about Eective Java, Item 11: Override clone judiciously.
163
nalize()
To override finalize() , all you need to do is simply declare it, without using the override keyword:
class C {
protected fun finalize() {
// finalization logic
}
}
According to Java's rules, finalize() must not be private.
Inheritance from Java classes

At most one Java class (and as many Java interfaces as you like) can be a supertype for a class in Kotlin.
Accessing static members

Static members of Java classes form "companion objects" for these classes. We cannot pass such a "companion object" around
as a value, but can access the members explicitly, for example:
if (Character.isLetter(a)) {
// ...
}
Java Re ection
Java reection works on Kotlin classes and vice versa. As mentioned above, you can use instance::class.java ,
ClassName::class.java or instance.javaClass to enter Java reection through java.lang.Class .
Other supported cases include acquiring a Java getter/setter method or a backing eld for a Kotlin property, a KProperty for a
Java eld, a Java method or constructor for a KFunction and vice versa.
SAM Conversions
Just like Java 8, Kotlin supports SAM conversions. This means that Kotlin function literals can be automatically converted into
implementations of Java interfaces with a single non-default method, as long as the parameter types of the interface method
match the parameter types of the Kotlin function.
You can use this for creating instances of SAM interfaces:
val runnable = Runnable { println("This runs in a runnable") }
and in method calls:
val executor = ThreadPoolExecutor()

// Java signature: void execute(Runnable command)
executor.execute { println("This runs in a thread pool") }
If the Java class has multiple methods taking functional interfaces, you can choose the one you need to call by using an adapter
function that converts a lambda to a specic SAM type. Those adapter functions are also generated by the compiler when
needed:
executor.execute(Runnable { println("This runs in a thread pool") })
Note that SAM conversions only work for interfaces, not for abstract classes, even if those also have just a single abstract
method.
Also note that this feature works only for Java interop; since Kotlin has proper function types, automatic conversion of functions
into implementations of Kotlin interfaces is unnecessary and therefore unsupported.
164
Using JNI with Kotlin
To declare a function that is implemented in native (C or C++) code, you need to mark it with the external modier:
external fun foo(x: Int): Double
The rest of the procedure works in exactly the same way as in Java.
165
Calling Kotlin from Java
Kotlin code can be called from Java easily.
Properties
A Kotlin property is compiled to the following Java elements:
A getter method, with the name calculated by prepending the get prex;
A setter method, with the name calculated by prepending the set prex (only for var properties);
A private eld, with the same name as the property name (only for properties with backing elds).
For example, var firstName: String gets compiled to the following Java declarations:
private String firstName;
public String getFirstName() {

return firstName;
}
public void setFirstName(String firstName) {

this.firstName = firstName;
}
If the name of the property starts with is , a dierent name mapping rule is used: the name of the getter will be the same as
the property name, and the name of the setter will be obtained by replacing is with set . For example, for a property isOpen ,
the getter will be called isOpen() and the setter will be called setOpen() . This rule applies for properties of any type, not just
Boolean .
Package-Level Functions
All the functions and properties declared in a le example.kt inside a package org.foo.bar , including extension functions,
are compiled into static methods of a Java class named org.foo.bar.ExampleKt .
// example.kt
package demo
class Foo
fun bar() {
}
// Java
new demo.Foo();
demo.ExampleKt.bar();
The name of the generated Java class can be changed using the @JvmName annotation:
@file:JvmName("DemoUtils")
package demo
class Foo
fun bar() {
}
166
// Java
new demo.Foo();
demo.DemoUtils.bar();
Having multiple les which have the same generated Java class name (the same package and the same name or the same
@JvmName annotation) is normally an error. However, the compiler has the ability to generate a single Java facade class which
has the specied name and contains all the declarations from all the les which have that name. To enable the generation of
such a facade, use the @JvmMultileClass annotation in all of the les.
// oldutils.kt
@file:JvmName("Utils")
@file:JvmMultifileClass
package demo
fun foo() {
}
// newutils.kt
@file:JvmName("Utils")
@file:JvmMultifileClass
package demo
fun bar() {
}
// Java
demo.Utils.foo();
demo.Utils.bar();
Instance Fields
If you need to expose a Kotlin property as a eld in Java, you need to annotate it with the @JvmField annotation. The eld will
have the same visibility as the underlying property. You can annotate a property with @JvmField if it has a backing eld, is not
private, does not have open , override or const modiers, and is not a delegated property.
class C(id: String) {

@JvmField val ID = id
}
// Java
class JavaClient {
public String getID(C c) {
return c.ID;
}
}
Late-Initialized properties are also exposed as elds. The visibility of the eld will be the same as the visibility of lateinit
property setter.
Static Fields
Kotlin properties declared in a named object or a companion object will have static backing elds either in that named object or
in the class containing the companion object.
Usually these elds are private but they can be exposed in one of the following ways:
@JvmField annotation;
167
lateinit modier;
const modier.
Annotating such a property with @JvmField makes it a static eld with the same visibility as the property itself.
class Key(val value: Int) {

companion object {
@JvmField
val COMPARATOR: Comparator<Key> = compareBy<Key> { it.value }
}
}
// Java
Key.COMPARATOR.compare(key1, key2);
// public static final field in Key class
A late-initialized property in an object or a companion object has a static backing eld with the same visibility as the property
setter.
object Singleton {
lateinit var provider: Provider
}
// Java
Singleton.provider = new Provider();
// public static non-final field in Singleton class
Properties annotated with const (in classes as well as at the top level) are turned into static elds in Java:
// file example.kt
object Obj {
const val CONST = 1
}
class C {
companion object {
const val VERSION = 9
}
}
const val MAX = 239
In Java:
int c = Obj.CONST;
int d = ExampleKt.MAX;
int v = C.VERSION;
Static Methods
As mentioned above, Kotlin represents package-level functions as static methods. Kotlin can also generate static methods for
functions dened in named objects or companion objects if you annotate those functions as @JvmStatic . If you use this
annotation, the compiler will generate both a static method in the enclosing class of the object and an instance method in the
object itself. For example:
168
class C {
companion object {
@JvmStatic fun foo() {}
fun bar() {}
}
}
Now, foo() is static in Java, while bar() is not:
C.foo(); // works fine

C.bar(); // error: not a static method
C.Companion.foo(); // instance method remains
C.Companion.bar(); // the only way it works
Same for named objects:
object Obj {
@JvmStatic fun foo() {}
fun bar() {}
}
In Java:
Obj.foo(); // works fine

Obj.bar(); // error
Obj.INSTANCE.bar(); // works, a call through the singleton instance
Obj.INSTANCE.foo(); // works too
@JvmStatic annotation can also be applied on a property of an object or a companion object making its getter and setter
methods be static members in that object or the class containing the companion object.
Visibility
The Kotlin visibilities are mapped to Java in the following way:
private members are compiled to private members;
private top-level declarations are compiled to package-local declarations;

protected remains protected (note that Java allows accessing protected members from other classes in the same
package and Kotlin doesn't, so Java classes will have broader access to the code);
internal declarations become public in Java. Members of internal classes go through name mangling, to make it
harder to accidentally use them from Java and to allow overloading for members with the same signature that don't see each
other according to Kotlin rules;
public remains public .
KClass
Sometimes you need to call a Kotlin method with a parameter of type KClass . There is no automatic conversion from Class to
KClass , so you have to do it manually by invoking the equivalent of the Class<T>.kotlin extension property:
kotlin.jvm.JvmClassMappingKt.getKotlinClass(MainView.class)
Handling signature clashes with @JvmName

Sometimes we have a named function in Kotlin, for which we need a dierent JVM name the byte code. The most prominent
example happens due to type erasure :
169
fun List<String>.filterValid(): List<String>
fun List<Int>.filterValid(): List<Int>
These two functions can not be dened side-by-side, because their JVM signatures are the same:
filterValid(Ljava/util/List;)Ljava/util/List; . If we really want them to have the same name in Kotlin, we can annotate
one (or both) of them with @JvmName and specify a dierent name as an argument:
fun List<String>.filterValid(): List<String>
@JvmName("filterValidInt")
fun List<Int>.filterValid(): List<Int>
From Kotlin they will be accessible by the same name filterValid , but from Java it will be filterValid and filterValidInt .
The same trick applies when we need to have a property x alongside with a function getX() :
val x: Int
@JvmName("getX_prop")
get() = 15
fun getX() = 10
Overloads Generation
Normally, if you write a Kotlin function with default parameter values, it will be visible in Java only as a full signature, with all
parameters present. If you wish to expose multiple overloads to Java callers, you can use the @JvmOverloads annotation.
The annotation also works for constructors, static methods etc. It can't be used on abstract methods, including methods
dened in interfaces.
class Foo @JvmOverloads constructor(x: Int, y: Double = 0.0) {

@JvmOverloads fun f(a: String, b: Int = 0, c: String = "abc") {
...
}
}
For every parameter with a default value, this will generate one additional overload, which has this parameter and all parameters
to the right of it in the parameter list removed. In this example, the following will be generated:
// Constructors:
Foo(int x, double y)
Foo(int x)
// Methods
void f(String a, int b, String c) { }
void f(String a, int b) { }
void f(String a) { }
Note that, as described in Secondary Constructors, if a class has default values for all constructor parameters, a public no-
argument constructor will be generated for it. This works even if the @JvmOverloads annotation is not specied.
Checked Exceptions
As we mentioned above, Kotlin does not have checked exceptions. So, normally, the Java signatures of Kotlin functions do not
declare exceptions thrown. Thus if we have a function in Kotlin like this:
170
// example.kt
package demo
fun foo() {
throw IOException()
}
And we want to call it from Java and catch the exception:
// Java
try {
demo.Example.foo();
}
catch (IOException e) { // error: foo() does not declare IOException in the throws list
// ...
}
we get an error message from the Java compiler, because foo() does not declare IOException . To work around this problem,
use the @Throws annotation in Kotlin:
@Throws(IOException::class)
fun foo() {
throw IOException()
}
Null-safety
When calling Kotlin functions from Java, nobody prevents us from passing null as a non-null parameter. That's why Kotlin
generates runtime checks for all public functions that expect non-nulls. This way we get a NullPointerException in the Java
code immediately.
Variant generics
When Kotlin classes make use of declaration-site variance, there are two options of how their usages are seen from the Java
code. Let's say we have the following class and two functions that use it:
class Box<out T>(val value: T)
interface Base
class Derived : Base
fun boxDerived(value: Derived): Box<Derived> = Box(value)

fun unboxBase(box: Box<Base>): Base = box.value
A naive way of translating these functions into Java would be this:
Box<Derived> boxDerived(Derived value) { ... }

Base unboxBase(Box<Base> box) { ... }
The problem is that in Kotlin we can say unboxBase(boxDerived("s")) , but in Java that would be impossible, because in Java
the class Box is invariant in its parameter T , and thus Box<Derived> is not a subtype of Box<Base> . To make it work in Java
we'd have to dene unboxBase as follows:
Base unboxBase(Box<? extends Base> box) { ... }
Here we make use of Java's wildcards types ( ? extends Base ) to emulate declaration-site variance through use-site variance,
because it is all Java has.
171
To make Kotlin APIs work in Java we generate Box<Super> as Box<? extends Super> for covariantly dened Box (or Foo<?
super Bar> for contravariantly dened Foo ) when it appears as a parameter. When it's a return value, we don't generate
wildcards, because otherwise Java clients will have to deal with them (and it's against the common Java coding style). Therefore,
the functions from our example are actually translated as follows:
// return type - no wildcards

Box<Derived> boxDerived(Derived value) { ... }
// parameter - wildcards
Base unboxBase(Box<? extends Base> box) { ... }
NOTE: when the argument type is nal, there's usually no point in generating the wildcard, so Box<String> is always
Box<String> , no matter what position it takes.
If we need wildcards where they are not generated by default, we can use the @JvmWildcard annotation:
fun boxDerived(value: Derived): Box<@JvmWildcard Derived> = Box(value)

// is translated to
// Box<? extends Derived> boxDerived(Derived value) { ... }
On the other hand, if we don't need wildcards where they are generated, we can use @JvmSuppressWildcards :
fun unboxBase(box: Box<@JvmSuppressWildcards Base>): Base = box.value

// is translated to
// Base unboxBase(Box<Base> box) { ... }
NOTE: @JvmSuppressWildcards can be used not only on individual type arguments, but on entire declarations, such as
functions or classes, causing all wildcards inside them to be suppressed.
Translation of type Nothing
The type Nothing is special, because it has no natural counterpart in Java. Indeed, every Java reference type, including
java.lang.Void , accepts null as a value, and Nothing doesn't accept even that. So, this type cannot be accurately
represented in the Java world. This is why Kotlin generates a raw type where an argument of type Nothing is used:
fun emptyList(): List<Nothing> = listOf()

// is translated to
// List emptyList() { ... }
172
JavaScript
Dynamic Type
The dynamic type is not supported in code targeting the JVM
Being a statically typed language, Kotlin still has to interoperate with untyped or loosely typed environments, such as the
JavaScript ecosystem. To facilitate these use cases, the dynamic type is available in the language:
val dyn: dynamic = ...
The dynamic type basically turns o Kotlin's type checker:
a value of this type can be assigned to any variable or passed anywhere as a parameter;
any value can be assigned to a variable of type dynamic or passed to a function that takes dynamic as a parameter;
null -checks are disabled for such values.
The most peculiar feature of dynamic is that we are allowed to call any property or function with any parameters on a dynamic
variable:
dyn.whatever(1, "foo", dyn) // 'whatever' is not defined anywhere

dyn.whatever(*arrayOf(1, 2, 3))
On the JavaScript platform this code will be compiled "as is": dyn.whatever(1) in Kotlin becomes dyn.whatever(1) in the
generated JavaScript code.
When calling functions written in Kotlin on values of dynamic type, keep in mind the name mangling performed by the Kotlin to
JavaScript compiler. You may need to use the @JsName annotation to assign well-dened names to the functions that you need
to call.
A dynamic call always returns dynamic as a result, so we can chain such calls freely:
dyn.foo().bar.baz()
When we pass a lambda to a dynamic call, all of its parameters by default have the type dynamic :
dyn.foo {
x -> x.bar() // x is dynamic
}
Expressions using values of dynamic type are translated to JavaScript "as is", and do not use the Kotlin operator conventions.
The following operators are supported:
binary: + , - , * , / , % , > , < >= , <= , == , != , === , !== , && , ||

unary
prex: - , + , !
prex and postx: ++ , --
assignments: += , -= , *= , /= , %=
indexed access:
173
read: d[a] , more than one argument is an error
write: d[a1] = a2 , more than one argument in [] is an error
in , !in and .. operations with values of type dynamic are forbidden.
For a more technical description, see the spec document.
174
Calling JavaScript from Kotlin
Kotlin was designed for easy interoperation with Java platform. It sees Java classes as Kotlin classes, and Java sees Kotlin classes
as Java classes. However, JavaScript is a dynamically-typed language, which means it does not check types in compile-time. You
can freely talk to JavaScript from Kotlin via dynamic types, but if you want the full power of Kotlin type system, you can create
Kotlin headers for JavaScript libraries.
Inline JavaScript
You can inline some JavaScript code into your Kotlin code using the js("") function. For example:
fun jsTypeOf(o: Any): String {

return js("typeof o")
}
The parameter of js is required to be a string constant. So, the following code is incorrect:
fun jsTypeOf(o: Any): String {

return js(getTypeof() + " o") // error reported here
}
fun getTypeof() = "typeof"
external modi er
To tell Kotlin that a certain declaration is written in pure JavaScript, you should mark it with external modier. When the compiler
sees such a declaration, it assumes that the implementation for the corresponding class, function or property is provided by the
developer, and therefore does not try to generate any JavaScript code from the declaration. This means that you should omit
bodies of external declarations. For example:
external fun alert(message: Any?): Unit
external class Node {

val firstChild: Node
fun append(child: Node): Node
fun removeChild(child: Node): Node
// etc
}
external val window: Window
Note that external modier is inherited by nested declarations, i.e. in Node class we do not put external before member
functions and properties.
The external modier is only allowed on package-level declarations. You can't declare an external member of a
non- external class.
Declaring (static) members of a class
In JavaScript you can dene members either on a prototype or a class itself. I.e.:
function MyClass() {
}
MyClass.sharedMember = function() { /* implementation */ };
MyClass.prototype.ownMember = function() { /* implementation */ };
There's no such syntax in Kotlin. However, in Kotlin we have companion objects. Kotlin treats companion objects of external
class in a special way: instead of expecting an object, it assumes members of companion objects to be members of the class
itself. To describe MyClass from the example above, you can write:
175
external class MyClass {
companion object {
fun sharedMember()
}
fun ownMember()
}
Declaring optional parameters
An external function can have optional parameters. How the JavaScript implementation actually computes default values for
these parameters, is unknown to Kotlin, thus it's impossible to use the usual syntax to declare such parameters in Kotlin. You
should use the following syntax:
external fun myFunWithOptionalArgs(x: Int,

y: String = definedExternally,
z: Long = definedExternally)
This means you can call myFunWithOptionalArgs with one required argument and two optional arguments (their default values
are calculated by some JavaScript code).
Extending JavaScript classes
You can easily extend JavaScript classes as they were Kotlin classes. Just dene an external class and extend it by
non- external class. For example:
external open class HTMLElement : Element() {

/* members */
}
class CustomElement : HTMLElement() {

fun foo() {
alert("bar")
}
}
There are some limitations:
1. When a function of external base class is overloaded by signature, you can't override it in a derived class.
2. You can't override a function with default arguments.
Note that you can't extend a non-external class by external classes.
external interfaces
JavaScript does not have the concept of interfaces. When a function expects its parameter to support foo and bar methods,
you just pass objects that actually have these methods. You can use interfaces to express this for statically-typed Kotlin, for
example:
external interface HasFooAndBar {

fun foo()
fun bar()
}
external fun myFunction(p: HasFooAndBar)
Another use case for external interfaces is to describe settings objects. For example:
176
external interface JQueryAjaxSettings {
var async: Boolean
var cache: Boolean
var complete: (JQueryXHR, String) -> Unit
// etc
}
fun JQueryAjaxSettings(): JQueryAjaxSettings = js("{}")
external class JQuery {

companion object {
fun get(settings: JQueryAjaxSettings): JQueryXHR
}
}
fun sendQuery() {
JQuery.get(JQueryAjaxSettings().apply {
complete = { (xhr, data) ->
window.alert("Request complete")
}
})
}
External interfaces have some restrictions:
1. They can't be used on the right hand side of is checks.
2. as cast to external interface always succeeds (and produces a warning in compile-time).

3. They can't be passed as reied type arguments.
4. Then can't be used in class literal expression (i.e. I::class ).
177
Calling Kotlin from JavaScript
Kotlin compiler generates normal JavaScript classes, functions and properties you can freely use from JavaScript code.
Nevertheless, there are some subtle things you should remember.
Isolating declarations in a separate JavaScript object

To prevent spoiling the global object, Kotlin creates an object that contains all Kotlin declarations from the current module. So if
you name your module as myModule , all declarations are available to JavaScript via myModule object. For example:
fun foo() = "Hello"
Can be called from JavaScript like this:
alert(myModule.foo());
This is not applicable when you compile your Kotlin module to JavaScript module (see JavaScript Modules for more information on
this). In this case there won't be a wrapper object, instead, declarations will be exposed as a JavaScript module of a
corresponding kind. For example, in case of CommonJS you should write:
alert(require('myModule').foo());
Package structure
Kotlin exposes its package structure to JavaScript, so unless you dene your declarations in the root package, you have to use
fully-qualied names in JavaScript. For example:
package my.qualified.packagename
fun foo() = "Hello"
Can be called from JavaScript like this:
alert(myModule.my.qualified.packagename.foo());
@JsName annotation
In some cases (for example, to support overloads), Kotlin compiler mangles names of generated functions and attributes in
JavaScript code. To control the generated names, you can use the @JsName annotation:
// Module 'kjs'
class Person(val name: String) {
fun hello() {
println("Hello $name!")
}
@JsName("helloWithGreeting")
fun hello(greeting: String) {
println("$greeting $name!")
}
}
Now you can use this class from JavaScript in the following way:
var person = new kjs.Person("Dmitry"); // refers to module 'kjs'

person.hello(); // prints "Hello Dmitry!"
person.helloWithGreeting("Servus"); // prints "Servus Dmitry!"
178
If we didn't specify the @JsName annotation, the name of the corresponding function would contain a sux calculated from the
function signature, for example hello_61zpoe$ .
Note that Kotlin compiler does not apply such mangling to external declarations, so you don't have to use @JsName on them.
Another case worth noticing is inheriting non-external classes from external classes. In this case any overridden functions won't
be mangled as well.
The parameter of @JsName is required to be a constant string literal which is a valid identier. The compiler will report an error on
any attempt to pass non-identier string to @JsName . The following example produces a compile-time error:
@JsName("new C()") // error here

external fun newC()
Representing Kotlin types in JavaScript

Kotlin numeric types, except for kotlin.Long are mapped to JavaScript Number.
kotlin.Char is mapped to JavaScript Number representing character code.

Kotlin can't distinguish between numeric types at run time (except for kotlin.Long ), i.e. the following code works:
fun f() {
val x: Int = 23
val y: Any = x
println(y as Float)
}
Kotlin preserves overow semantics for kotlin.Int , kotlin.Byte , kotlin.Short , kotlin.Char and kotlin.Long .
There's no 64 bit integer number in JavaScript, so kotlin.Long is not mapped to any JavaScript object, it's emulated by a
Kotlin class.
kotlin.String is mapped to JavaScript String.
kotlin.Any is mapped to JavaScript Object (i.e. new Object() , {} , etc).
kotlin.Array is mapped to JavaScript Array.
Kotlin collections (i.e. List , Set , Map , etc) are not mapped to any specic JavaScript type.
kotlin.Throwable is mapped to JavaScript Error.
Kotlin preserves lazy object initialization in JavaScript.

Kotlin does not implement lazy initialization of top-level properties in JavaScript.
Starting with version 1.1.50 primitive array translation utilizes JavaScript TypedArray:
kotlin.ByteArray , -.ShortArray , -.IntArray , -.FloatArray , and -.DoubleArray are mapped to JavaScript Int8Array,
Int16Array, Int32Array, Float32Array, and Float64Array correspondingly.
kotlin.BooleanArray is mapped to JavaScript Int8Array with a property $type$ == "BooleanArray"
kotlin.CharArray is mapped to JavaScript UInt16Array with a property $type$ == "CharArray"
kotlin.LongArray is mapped to JavaScript Array of kotlin.Long with a property $type$ == "LongArray" .
179
JavaScript Modules
Kotlin allows you to compile your Kotlin projects to JavaScript modules for popular module systems. Here is the list of available
options:
1. Plain. Don't compile for any module system. As usual, you can access a module by its name in the global scope. This option
is used by default.
2. Asynchronous Module Denition (AMD), which is in particular used by require.js library.
3. CommonJS convention, widely used by node.js/npm ( require function and module.exports object)
4. Unied Module Denitions (UMD), which is compatible with both AMD and CommonJS, and works as "plain" when neither
AMD nor CommonJS is available at runtime.
Choosing the Target Module System

Choosing the target module system depends on your build environment:
From IntelliJ IDEA
Setup per module: Open File -> Project Structure, nd your module in Modules and select "Kotlin" facet under it. Choose
appropriate module system in "Module kind" eld.
Setup for the whole project: Open File -> Settings, select "Build, Execution, Deployment" -> "Compiler" -> "Kotlin compiler".
Choose appropriate module system in "Module kind" eld.
From Maven
To select module system when compiling via Maven, you should set moduleKind conguration property, i.e. your pom.xml
should look like this:
<plugin>
<artifactId>kotlin-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
<version>${kotlin.version}</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>compile</id>
<goals>
<goal>js</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>

<configuration>
<moduleKind>commonjs</moduleKind>
</configuration>

</plugin>
Available values are: plain , amd , commonjs , umd .
From Gradle
To select module system when compiling via Gradle, you should set moduleKind property, i.e.
compileKotlin2Js.kotlinOptions.moduleKind = "commonjs"
Available values are similar to Maven.
@JsModule annotation
To tell Kotlin that an external class, package, function or property is a JavaScript module, you can use @JsModule annotation.
Consider you have the following CommonJS module called "hello":
180
module.exports.sayHello = function(name) { alert("Hello, " + name); }
You should declare it like this in Kotlin:
@JsModule("hello")
external fun sayHello(name: String)
Applying @JsModule to packages
Some JavaScript libraries export packages (namespaces) instead of functions and classes. In terms of JavaScript is's an object
that has members that are classes, functions and properties. Importing these packages as Kotlin objects often looks unnatural.
The compiler allows to map imported JavaScript packages to Kotlin packages, using the following notation:
@file:JsModule("extModule")
package ext.jspackage.name
external fun foo()
external class C
where the corresponding JavaScript module is declared like this:
module.exports = {
foo: { /* some code here */ },
C: { /* some code here */ }
}
Important: les marked with @file:JsModule annotation can't declare non-external members. The example below produces
compile-time error:
package ext.jspackage.name
external fun foo()
fun bar() = "!" + foo() + "!" // error here
Importing deeper package hierarchies
In the previous example the JavaScript module exports a single package. However, some JavaScript libraries export multiple
packages from within a module. This case is also supported by Kotlin, though you have to declare a new .kt le for each
package you import.
For example, let's make our example a bit more complicated:
module.exports = {
mylib: {
pkg1: {
foo: function() { /* some code here */ },
bar: function() { /* some code here */ }
},
pkg2: {
baz: function() { /* some code here */ }
}
}
}
To import this module in Kotlin, you have to write two Kotlin source les:
181
@file:JsQualifier("mylib.pkg1")
package extlib.pkg1
external fun foo()
external fun bar()
and
@file:JsQualifier("mylib.pkg2")
package extlib.pkg2
external fun baz()
@JsNonModule annotation
When a declaration has @JsModule , you can't use it from Kotlin code when you don't compile it to a JavaScript module. Usually,
developers distribute their libraries both as JavaScript modules and downloadable .js les that you can copy to project's static
resources and include via <script> element. To tell Kotlin that it's ok to use a @JsModule declaration from non-module
environment, you should put @JsNonModule declaration. For example, given JavaScript code:
function topLevelSayHello(name) { alert("Hello, " + name); }

if (module && module.exports) {
module.exports = topLevelSayHello;
}
can be described like this:
@JsModule("hello")
@JsNonModule
@JsName("topLevelSayHello")
external fun sayHello(name: String)
Notes
Kotlin is distributed with kotlin.js standard library as a single le, which is itself compiled as an UMD module, so you can use it
with any module system described above. Also it is available on NPM as kotlin package
182
JavaScript Re ection
At this time, JavaScript does not support the full Kotlin reection API. The only supported part of the API is the ::class syntax
which allows you to refer to the class of an instance, or the class corresponding to the given type. The value of a ::class
expression is a stripped-down KClass implementation that only supports the simpleName and isInstance members.
In addition to that, you can use KClass.js to access the JsClass instance corresponding to the class. The JsClass instance itself
is a reference to the constructor function. This can be used to interoperate with JS functions that expect a reference to a
constructor.
Examples:
class A
class B
class C
inline fun <reified T> foo() {

println(T::class.simpleName)
}
val a = A()
println(a::class.simpleName) // Obtains class for an instance; prints "A"
println(B::class.simpleName) // Obtains class for a type; prints "B"
println(B::class.js.name) // prints "B"
foo<C>() // prints "C"
183
JavaScript DCE
Since version 1.1.4, Kotlin/JS includes a dead code elimination (DCE) tool. This tool allows to strip out unused properties,
functions and classes from the generated JS. There are several ways you get unused declarations:
Functions can be inlined and never get called directly (which happens always except for few situations).
You are using a shared library which provides much more functions than you actually need. For example, standard library
( kotlin.js ) contains functions for manipulating lists, arrays, char sequences, adapters for DOM, etc, which together gives
about 1.3 mb le. A simple "Hello, world" application only requires console routines, which is only few kilobytes for the entire
le.
Dead code elimination is often also called 'tree shaking'.
How to use
DCE tool is currently available from Gradle.
To activate DCE tool, add the following line to build.gradle :
apply plugin: 'kotlin-dce-js'
Note that if you are using multi-project build, you should apply plugin to the main project that is an entry point to your application.
By default, the resulting set of JavaScript les (your application together with all dependencies) can be found at path
$BUILD_DIR/min/ , where $BUILD_DIR is the path to generated JavaScript (usually, build/classes/main ).
Con guring
To congure DCE on the main source set, you can use the runDceKotlinJs task (and corresponding
runDce<sourceSetName>KotlinJs for other source sets).
Sometimes you are going to use a Kotlin declaration directly from JavaScript, and it's being stripped out by DCE. You may want to
keep this declaration. To do so, you can use the following syntax in build.gradle :
runDceKotlinJs.keep "declarationToKeep"[, "declarationToKeep", ...]
Where declarationToKeep has the following syntax:
moduleName.dot.separated.package.name.declarationName
For example, consider a module is named kotlin-js-example and it contains a function named toKeep in package
org.jetbrains.kotlin.examples . Use the following line:
runDceKotlinJs.keep "kotlin-js-example_main.org.jetbrains.kotlin.examples.toKeep"
Note that if your function has parameters, its name will be mangled, so the mangled name should be used in the keep directive.
Example
A full example that shows how to integrate Kotlin with DCE and webpack to get a small bundle, can be found here.
Notes
As for 1.1.x versions, DCE tool is an experimental feature. This does not mean we are going to remove it, or that it's
unusable for production. This means that we can change names of conguration parameters, default settings, etc.
Currently you should not use DCE tool if your project is a shared library. It's only applicable when you are developing an
application (which may use shared libraries). The reason is: DCE does not know which parts of the library are going to be
used by the user's application.
DCE does not perform minication (uglication) of your code by removing unnecessary whitespaces and shortening
identiers. You should use existing tools, like UglifyJS (https://github.com/mishoo/UglifyJS2) or Google Closure Compiler
(https://developers.google.com/closure/compiler/) for this purpose.
184
Tools
Documenting Kotlin Code
The language used to document Kotlin code (the equivalent of Java's JavaDoc) is called KDoc. In its essence, KDoc combines
JavaDoc's syntax for block tags (extended to support Kotlin's specic constructs) and Markdown for inline markup.
Generating the Documentation

Kotlin's documentation generation tool is called Dokka. See the Dokka README for usage instructions.
Dokka has plugins for Gradle, Maven and Ant, so you can integrate documentation generation into your build process.
KDoc Syntax
Just like with JavaDoc, KDoc comments start with /** and end with */ . Every line of the comment may begin with an asterisk,
which is not considered part of the contents of the comment.
By convention, the rst paragraph of the documentation text (the block of text until the rst blank line) is the summary
description of the element, and the following text is the detailed description.
Every block tag begins on a new line and starts with the @ character.
Here's an example of a class documented using KDoc:
/**
* A group of *members*.
*
* This class has no useful logic; it's just a documentation example.
*
* @param T the type of a member in this group.
* @property name the name of this group.
* @constructor Creates an empty group.
*/
class Group<T>(val name: String) {
/**
* Adds a [member] to this group.
* @return the new size of the group.
*/
fun add(member: T): Int { ... }
}
Block Tags
KDoc currently supports the following block tags:
@param <name>
Documents a value parameter of a function or a type parameter of a class, property or function. To better separate the
parameter name from the description, if you prefer, you can enclose the name of the parameter in brackets. The following two
syntaxes are therefore equivalent:
@param name description.

@param[name] description.
185
@return
Documents the return value of a function.
@constructor
Documents the primary constructor of a class.
@receiver
Documents the receiver of an extension function.
@property <name>
Documents the property of a class which has the specied name. This tag can be used for documenting properties declared in
the primary constructor, where putting a doc comment directly before the property denition would be awkward.
@throws <class>, @exception <class>
Documents an exception which can be thrown by a method. Since Kotlin does not have checked exceptions, there is also no
expectation that all possible exceptions are documented, but you can still use this tag when it provides useful information for
users of the class.
@sample <identifier>
Embeds the body of the function with the specied qualied name into the documentation for the current element, in order to
show an example of how the element could be used.
@see <identifier>
Adds a link to the specied class or method to the See Also block of the documentation.
@author
Species the author of the element being documented.
@since
Species the version of the software in which the element being documented was introduced.
@suppress
Excludes the element from the generated documentation. Can be used for elements which are not part of the ocial API of a
module but still have to be visible externally.
KDoc does not support the @deprecated tag. Instead, please use the @Deprecated annotation.
Inline Markup
For inline markup, KDoc uses the regular Markdown syntax, extended to support a shorthand syntax for linking to other
elements in the code.
Linking to Elements
To link to another element (class, method, property or parameter), simply put its name in square brackets:
Use the method [foo] for this purpose.
If you want to specify a custom label for the link, use the Markdown reference-style syntax:
Use [this method][foo] for this purpose.
186
You can also use qualied names in the links. Note that, unlike JavaDoc, qualied names always use the dot character to
separate the components, even before a method name:
Use [kotlin.reflect.KClass.properties] to enumerate the properties of the class.
Names in links are resolved using the same rules as if the name was used inside the element being documented. In particular,
this means that if you have imported a name into the current le, you don't need to fully qualify it when you use it in a KDoc
comment.
Note that KDoc does not have any syntax for resolving overloaded members in links. Since the Kotlin documentation generation
tool puts the documentation for all overloads of a function on the same page, identifying a specic overloaded function is not
required for the link to work.
Module and Package Documentation

Documentation for a module as a whole, as well as packages in that module, is provided as a separate Markdown le, and the
paths to that le is passed to Dokka using the -include command line parameter or the corresponding parameters in Ant,
Maven and Gradle plugins.
Inside the le, the documentation for the module as a whole and for individual packages is introduced by the corresponding
rst-level headings. The text of the heading must be "Module <module name> " for the module, and "Package <package
qualified name> " for a package.
Here's an example content of the le:
# Module kotlin-demo
The module shows the Dokka syntax usage.
# Package org.jetbrains.kotlin.demo
Contains assorted useful stuff.
## Level 2 heading
Text after this heading is also part of documentation for òrg.jetbrains.kotlin.demo`
# Package org.jetbrains.kotlin.demo2
Useful stuff in another package.
187
Annotation processing with Kotlin
Annotation processors (see JSR 269) are supported in Kotlin with the kapt compiler plugin.
Being short, you can use libraries such as Dagger or Data Binding in your Kotlin projects.
Please read below about how to apply the kapt plugin to your Gradle/Maven build.
Using in Gradle
Apply the kotlin-kapt Gradle plugin:
apply plugin: 'kotlin-kapt'
Or you can apply it using the plugins DSL:
plugins {
id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt" version "1.1.60"
}
Then add the respective dependencies using the kapt conguration in your dependencies block:
dependencies {
kapt 'groupId:artifactId:version'
}
If you previously used the Android support for annotation processors, replace usages of the annotationProcessor
conguration with kapt . If your project contains Java classes, kapt will also take care of them.
If you use annotation processors for your androidTest or test sources, the respective kapt congurations are named
kaptAndroidTest and kaptTest . Note that kaptAndroidTest and kaptTest extends kapt , so you can just provide the
kapt dependency and it will be available both for production sources and tests.
Some annotation processors (such as AutoFactory ) rely on precise types in declaration signatures. By default, Kapt replaces
every unknown type (including types for the generated classes) to NonExistentClass , but you can change this behavior. Add
the additional ag to the build.gradle le to enable error type inferring in stubs:
kapt {
correctErrorTypes = true
}
Using in Maven
Add an execution of the kapt goal from kotlin-maven-plugin before compile :
188
<execution>
<id>kapt</id>
<goals>
<goal>kapt</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<sourceDirs>
<sourceDir>src/main/kotlin</sourceDir>
<sourceDir>src/main/java</sourceDir>
</sourceDirs>
<annotationProcessorPaths>

<annotationProcessorPath>
<groupId>com.google.dagger</groupId>
<artifactId>dagger-compiler</artifactId>
<version>2.9</version>
</annotationProcessorPath>
</annotationProcessorPaths>
</configuration>
</execution>
You can nd a complete sample project showing the use of Kotlin, Maven and Dagger in the Kotlin examples repository.
Please note that kapt is still not supported for IntelliJ IDEAs own build system. Launch the build from the Maven Projects
toolbar whenever you want to re-run the annotation processing.
Using in CLI
Kapt compiler plugin is available in the binary distribution of the Kotlin compiler.
You can attach the plugin by providing the path to its JAR le using the Xplugin kotlinc option:
-Xplugin=$KOTLIN_HOME/lib/kotlin-annotation-processing.jar
Here is a list of the available options:
sources (required): An output path for the generated les.
classes (required): An output path for the generated class les and resources.
stubs (required): An output path for the stub les. In other words, some temporary directory.
incrementalData : An output path for the binary stubs.
apclasspath (repeatable ): A path to the annotation processor JAR. Pass as many apclasspath options as many JARs you
have.
apoptions : A base64-encoded list of the annotation processor options. See AP/javac options encoding for more
information.
javacArguments : A base64-encoded list of the options passed to javac. See AP/javac options encoding for more
information.
processors : A comma-specied list of annotation processor qualied class names. If specied, kapt does not try to nd
annotation processors in apclasspath .
verbose : Enable verbose output.
aptMode (required)
stubs only generate stubs needed for annotation processing;
apt only run annotation processing;
stubsAndApt generate stubs and run annotation processing.
correctErrorTypes : See below. Disabled by default.
The plugin option format is: -P plugin:<plugin id>:<key>=<value> . Options can be repeated.
An example:
189
-P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3:sources=build/kapt/sources
-P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3:classes=build/kapt/classes
-P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3:stubs=build/kapt/stubs
-P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3:apclasspath=lib/ap.jar
-P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3:apclasspath=lib/anotherAp.jar
-P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.kapt3:correctErrorTypes=true
Generating Kotlin sources

Kapt can generate Kotlin sources. Just write the generated Kotlin source les to the directory specied by
processingEnv.options["kapt.kotlin.generated"] , and these les will be compiled together with the main sources.
You can nd the complete sample in the kotlin-examples Github repository.
Note that Kapt does not support multiple rounds for the generated Kotlin les.
AP/javac options encoding

apoptions and javacArguments CLI options accept an encoded map of options.
Here is how you can encode options by yourself:
fun encodeList(options: Map<String, String>): String {

val os = ByteArrayOutputStream()
val oos = ObjectOutputStream(os)
oos.writeInt(options.size)
for ((key, value) in options.entries) {
oos.writeUTF(key)
oos.writeUTF(value)
}
oos.flush()
return Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(os.toByteArray())
}
190
Using Gradle
In order to build Kotlin with Gradle you should set up the kotlin-gradle plugin, apply it to your project and add kotlin-stdlib
dependencies. Those actions may also be performed automatically in IntelliJ IDEA by invoking the Tools | Kotlin | Congure Kotlin
in Project action.
Plugin and Versions

The kotlin-gradle-plugin compiles Kotlin sources and modules.
The version of Kotlin to use is usually dened as the kotlin_version property:
buildscript {
ext.kotlin_version = '1.1.60'
repositories {
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
}
}
This is not required when using Kotlin Gradle plugin 1.1.1 and above with the Gradle plugins DSL.
Targeting the JVM

To target the JVM, the Kotlin plugin needs to be applied:
apply plugin: "kotlin"
Or, starting with Kotlin 1.1.1, the plugin can be applied using the Gradle plugins DSL:
plugins {
id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.jvm" version "1.1.60"
}
The version should be literal in this block, and it cannot be applied from another build script.
Kotlin sources can be mixed with Java sources in the same folder, or in dierent folders. The default convention is using dierent
folders:
project
- src
- main (root)
- kotlin
- java
The corresponding sourceSets property should be updated if not using the default convention:
sourceSets {
main.kotlin.srcDirs += 'src/main/myKotlin'
main.java.srcDirs += 'src/main/myJava'
}
Targeting JavaScript
When targeting JavaScript, a dierent plugin should be applied:
191
apply plugin: "kotlin2js"
This plugin only works for Kotlin les so it is recommended to keep Kotlin and Java les separate (if it's the case that the same
project contains Java les). As with targeting the JVM, if not using the default convention, we need to specify the source folder
using sourceSets :
sourceSets {
main.kotlin.srcDirs += 'src/main/myKotlin'
}
In addition to the output JavaScript le, the plugin by default creates an additional JS le with binary descriptors. This le is
required if you're building a re-usable library that other Kotlin modules can depend on, and should be distributed together with
the result of translation. The generation is controlled by the kotlinOptions.metaInfo option:
compileKotlin2Js {
kotlinOptions.metaInfo = true
}
Targeting Android
Android's Gradle model is a little dierent from ordinary Gradle, so if we want to build an Android project written in Kotlin, we
need kotlin-android plugin instead of kotlin:
buildscript {
ext.kotlin_version = '1.1.60'
...
dependencies {
}
}
apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'kotlin-android'
Don't forget to congure the standard library dependency.
Android Studio
If using Android Studio, the following needs to be added under android:
android {
...
sourceSets {
main.java.srcDirs += 'src/main/kotlin'
}
}
This lets Android Studio know that the kotlin directory is a source root, so when the project model is loaded into the IDE it will be
properly recognized. Alternatively, you can put Kotlin classes in the Java source directory, typically located in src/main/java .
Con guring Dependencies

In addition to the kotlin-gradle-plugin dependency shown above, you need to add a dependency on the Kotlin standard
library:
192
repositories {
mavenCentral()
}
dependencies {
compile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib"
}
If you target JavaScript, use compile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-js" instead.
If you're targeting JDK 7 or JDK 8, you can use extended versions of the Kotlin standard library which contain additional extension
functions for APIs added in new JDK versions. Instead of kotlin-stdlib , use one of the following dependencies:
compile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jre7"
compile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib-jre8"
If your project uses Kotlin reection or testing facilities, you need to add the corresponding dependencies as well:
compile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-reflect"
testCompile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-test"
testCompile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-test-junit"
Starting with Kotlin 1.1.2, the dependencies with group org.jetbrains.kotlin are by default resolved with the version taken
from the applied plugin. You can provide the version manually using the full dependency notation like compile
"org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:$kotlin_version" .
Annotation processing
See the description of Kotlin annotation processing tool ( kapt ).
Incremental compilation
Kotlin supports optional incremental compilation in Gradle. Incremental compilation tracks changes of source les between
builds so only les aected by these changes would be compiled.
Starting with Kotlin 1.1.1, incremental compilation is enabled by default.
There are several ways to override the default setting:
1. add kotlin.incremental=true or kotlin.incremental=false line either to a gradle.properties or a

local.properties le;
2. add -Pkotlin.incremental=true or -Pkotlin.incremental=false to gradle command line parameters. Note that in this
case the parameter should be added to each subsequent build, and any build with disabled incremental compilation
invalidates incremental caches.
When incremental compilation is enabled, you should see the following warning message in your build log:
Using kotlin incremental compilation
Note, that the rst build won't be incremental.
Coroutines support
Coroutines support is an experimental feature in Kotlin 1.1, so the Kotlin compiler reports a warning when you use coroutines in
your project. To turn o the warning, add the following block to your build.gradle le:
kotlin {
experimental {
coroutines 'enable'
}
}
193
Module names
The Kotlin modules that the build produces are named accordingly to the archivesBaseName property of the project. If a project
has a broad name like lib or jvm , which is common for subprojects, the Kotlin output les related to the module
( *.kotlin_module ) might clash with those from third-party modules with the same name. This causes problems when a project
is packaged into a single archive (e.g. APK).
To avoid this, consider setting a unique archivesBaseName manually:
archivesBaseName = 'myExampleProject_lib'
Compiler Options
To specify additional compilation options, use the kotlinOptions property of a Kotlin compilation task.
When targeting the JVM, the tasks are called compileKotlin for production code and compileTestKotlin for test code. The
tasks for custom source sets of are called accordingly to the compile<Name>Kotlin pattern.
The names of the tasks in Android Projects contain the build variant names and follow the pattern
compile<BuildVariant>Kotlin , for example, compileDebugKotlin , compileReleaseUnitTestKotlin .
When targeting JavaScript, the tasks are called compileKotlin2Js and compileTestKotlin2Js respectively, and
compile<Name>Kotlin2Js for custom source sets.
To congure a single task, use its name. Examples:
compileKotlin {
kotlinOptions.suppressWarnings = true
}
compileKotlin {
kotlinOptions {
suppressWarnings = true
}
}
It is also possible to congure all Kotlin compilation tasks in the project:
tasks.withType(org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinCompile).all {
kotlinOptions {
// ...
}
}
A complete list of options for the Gradle tasks follows:
Attributes common for JVM and JS
Name Description Possible Default

values value
apiVersion Allow to use declarations only from the specied version of bundled "1.0", "1.1" "1.1"
libraries
languageVersion Provide source compatibility with specied language version "1.0", "1.1" "1.1"
suppressWarnings Generate no warnings false
verbose Enable verbose logging output false
freeCompilerArgs A list of additional compiler arguments []
Attributes speci c for JVM
Name Description Possible Default

values value
javaParameters Generate metadata for Java 1.8 reection on method parameters false
194
Name
jdkHome Description
Path to JDK home directory to include into classpath, if diers from default Possible Default
JAVA_HOME values value
jvmTarget Target version of the generated JVM bytecode (1.6 or 1.8), default is 1.6 "1.6", "1.8" "1.6"
noJdk Don't include Java runtime into classpath false
noReflect Don't include Kotlin reection implementation into classpath true
noStdlib Don't include Kotlin runtime into classpath true
Attributes speci c for JS
Name Description Possible values Default

value
friendModulesDisabled Disable internal declaration export false
main Whether a main function should be called "call", "noCall" "call"
metaInfo Generate .meta.js and .kjsm les with metadata. Use to true
create a library
moduleKind Kind of a module generated by compiler "plain", "amd", "plain"
"commonjs", "umd"
noStdlib Don't use bundled Kotlin stdlib true
outputFile Output le path
sourceMap Generate source map false
sourceMapEmbedSources Embed source les into source map "never", "always", "inlining" "inlining"
sourceMapPrefix Prex for paths in a source map
target Generate JS les for specic ECMA version "v5" "v5"
typedArrays Translate primitive arrays to JS typed arrays false
Generating documentation
To generate documentation for Kotlin projects, use Dokka; please refer to the Dokka README for conguration instructions.
Dokka supports mixed-language projects and can generate output in multiple formats, including standard JavaDoc.
OSGi
For OSGi support see the Kotlin OSGi page.
Examples
The following examples show dierent possibilities of conguring the Gradle plugin:
Kotlin
Mixed Java and Kotlin
Android
JavaScript
195
Using Maven
Plugin and Versions

The kotlin-maven-plugin compiles Kotlin sources and modules. Currently only Maven v3 is supported.
Dene the version of Kotlin you want to use via a kotlin.version property:
<properties>
<kotlin.version>1.1.60</kotlin.version>
</properties>
Dependencies
Kotlin has an extensive standard library that can be used in your applications. Congure the following dependency in the pom
le:
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<artifactId>kotlin-stdlib</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
If you're targeting JDK 7 or JDK 8, you can use extended versions of the Kotlin standard library which contain additional extension
functions for APIs added in new JDK versions. Instead of kotlin-stdlib , use kotlin-stdlib-jre7 or kotlin-stdlib-jre8 ,
depending on your JDK version.
If your project uses Kotlin reection or testing facilities, you need to add the corresponding dependencies as well. The artifact
IDs are kotlin-reflect for the reection library, and kotlin-test and kotlin-test-junit for the testing libraries.
Compiling Kotlin only source code

To compile source code, specify the source directories in the tag:
<build>
<sourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/main/kotlin</sourceDirectory>
<testSourceDirectory>${project.basedir}/src/test/kotlin</testSourceDirectory>
</build>
The Kotlin Maven Plugin needs to be referenced to compile the sources:
196
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>compile</id>
<goals> <goal>compile</goal> </goals>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>test-compile</id>
<goals> <goal>test-compile</goal> </goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
Compiling Kotlin and Java sources

To compile mixed code applications Kotlin compiler should be invoked before Java compiler. In maven terms that means kotlin-
maven-plugin should be run before maven-compiler-plugin using the following method, making sure that the kotlin plugin is
above the maven-compiler-plugin in your pom.xml le:
197
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>compile</id>
<configuration>
<sourceDirs>
<sourceDir>${project.basedir}/src/main/kotlin</sourceDir>
<sourceDir>${project.basedir}/src/main/java</sourceDir>
</sourceDirs>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<goals> <goal>test-compile</goal> </goals>
<configuration>
<sourceDirs>
<sourceDir>${project.basedir}/src/test/kotlin</sourceDir>
<sourceDir>${project.basedir}/src/test/java</sourceDir>
</sourceDirs>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.5.1</version>
<executions>

<execution>
<id>default-compile</id>
<phase>none</phase>
</execution>

<execution>
<id>default-testCompile</id>
<phase>none</phase>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>java-compile</id>
<phase>compile</phase>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>java-test-compile</id>
<phase>test-compile</phase>
<goals> <goal>testCompile</goal> </goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
Incremental compilation
To make your builds faster, you can enable incremental compilation for Maven (supported since Kotlin 1.1.2). In order to do that,
dene the kotlin.compiler.incremental property:
198
<properties>
<kotlin.compiler.incremental>true</kotlin.compiler.incremental>
</properties>
Alternatively, run your build with the -Dkotlin.compiler.incremental=true option.
Annotation processing
See the description of Kotlin annotation processing tool ( kapt ).
Jar le
To create a small Jar le containing just the code from your module, include the following under build->plugins in your Maven
pom.xml le, where main.class is dened as a property and points to the main Kotlin or Java class:
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<archive>
<manifest>
<addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
<mainClass>${main.class}</mainClass>
</manifest>
</archive>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Self-contained Jar le
To create a self-contained Jar le containing the code from your module along with dependencies, include the following under
build->plugins in your Maven pom.xml le, where main.class is dened as a property and points to the main Kotlin or Java
class:
<plugin>
<artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>make-assembly</id>
<phase>package</phase>
<goals> <goal>single</goal> </goals>
<configuration>
<archive>
<manifest>
<mainClass>${main.class}</mainClass>
</manifest>
</archive>
<descriptorRefs>
<descriptorRef>jar-with-dependencies</descriptorRef>
</descriptorRefs>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
This self-contained jar le can be passed directly to a JRE to run your application:
java -jar target/mymodule-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT-jar-with-dependencies.jar
199
Targeting JavaScript
In order to compile JavaScript code, you need to use the js and test-js goals for the compile execution:
<plugin>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>compile</id>
<phase>compile</phase>
<goals>
<goal>js</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
<execution>
<phase>test-compile</phase>
<goals>
<goal>test-js</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
You also need to change the standard library dependency:
<artifactId>kotlin-stdlib-js</artifactId>
For unit testing support, you also need to add a dependency on the kotlin-test-js artifact.
See the Getting Started with Kotlin and JavaScript with Maven tutorial for more information.
Specifying compiler options

Additional options for the compiler can be specied as tags under the <configuration> element of the Maven plugin node:
<plugin>
<executions>...</executions>
<configuration>
<nowarn>true</nowarn> 
</configuration>
</plugin>
Many of the options can also be congured through properties:
<project ...>
<properties>
<kotlin.compiler.languageVersion>1.0</kotlin.compiler.languageVersion>
</properties>
</project>
The following attributes are supported:
Attributes common for JVM and JS
200
Name Property name Description Possible Default
values value
nowarn Generate no warnings true, false

false
languageVersion kotlin.compiler.languageVersion Provide source compatibility with specied "1.0", "1.1"
language version "1.1"
apiVersion kotlin.compiler.apiVersion Allow to use declarations only from the "1.0", "1.1"
specied version of bundled libraries "1.1"
sourceDirs The directories containing the source les The project
to compile source roots
compilerPlugins Enabled compiler plugins []
pluginOptions Options for compiler plugins []
args Additional compiler arguments []
Attributes speci c for JVM
Name Property name Description Possible Default

values value
jvmTarget kotlin.compiler.jvmTarget Target version of the generated JVM bytecode "1.6", "1.8" "1.6"
jdkHome kotlin.compiler.jdkHome Path to JDK home directory to include into classpath, if
diers from default JAVA_HOME
Attributes speci c for JS
Name Property Description Possible values Default

name value
outputFile Output le path
metaInfo Generate .meta.js and .kjsm les with true, false true
metadata. Use to create a library
sourceMap Generate source map true, false false
sourceMapEmbedSources Embed source les into source map "never", "always", "inlining"
"inlining"
sourceMapPrex Prex for paths in a source map
moduleKind Kind of a module generated by compiler "plain", "amd", "plain"
"commonjs", "umd"
Generating documentation
The standard JavaDoc generation plugin ( maven-javadoc-plugin ) does not support Kotlin code. To generate documentation
for Kotlin projects, use Dokka; please refer to the Dokka README for conguration instructions. Dokka supports mixed-
language projects and can generate output in multiple formats, including standard JavaDoc.
OSGi
For OSGi support see the Kotlin OSGi page.
Examples
An example Maven project can be downloaded directly from the GitHub repository
201
Using Ant
Getting the Ant Tasks

Kotlin provides three tasks for Ant:
kotlinc: Kotlin compiler targeting the JVM;

kotlin2js: Kotlin compiler targeting JavaScript;
withKotlin: Task to compile Kotlin les when using the standard javac Ant task.
These tasks are dened in the kotlin-ant.jar library which is located in the lib folder for the Kotlin Compiler Ant version 1.8.2+ is
required.
Targeting JVM with Kotlin-only source

When the project consists of exclusively Kotlin source code, the easiest way to compile the project is to use the kotlinc task:
<project name="Ant Task Test" default="build">

<typedef resource="org/jetbrains/kotlin/ant/antlib.xml" classpath="${kotlin.lib}/kotlin-ant.jar"/>
<target name="build">
<kotlinc src="hello.kt" output="hello.jar"/>
</target>
</project>
where ${kotlin.lib} points to the folder where the Kotlin standalone compiler was unzipped.
Targeting JVM with Kotlin-only source and multiple roots

If a project consists of multiple source roots, use src as elements to dene paths:

<kotlinc output="hello.jar">
<src path="root1"/>
<src path="root2"/>
</kotlinc>
</target>
</project>
Targeting JVM with Kotlin and Java source

If a project consists of both Kotlin and Java source code, while it is possible to use kotlinc, to avoid repetition of task parameters,
it is recommended to use withKotlin task:

<delete dir="classes" failonerror="false"/>
<mkdir dir="classes"/>
<javac destdir="classes" includeAntRuntime="false" srcdir="src">
<withKotlin/>
</javac>
<jar destfile="hello.jar">
<fileset dir="classes"/>
</jar>
</target>
</project>
202
To specify additional command line arguments for <withKotlin> , you can use a nested <compilerArg> parameter. The full list
of arguments that can be used is shown when you run kotlinc -help . You can also specify the name of the module being
compiled as the moduleName attribute:
<withKotlin moduleName="myModule">
<compilerarg value="-no-stdlib"/>
</withKotlin>
Targeting JavaScript with single source folder

<kotlin2js src="root1" output="out.js"/>
</target>
</project>
Targeting JavaScript with Pre x, PostFix and sourcemap options

<taskdef resource="org/jetbrains/kotlin/ant/antlib.xml" classpath="${kotlin.lib}/kotlin-ant.jar"/>
<kotlin2js src="root1" output="out.js" outputPrefix="prefix" outputPostfix="postfix"
sourcemap="true"/>
</target>
</project>
Targeting JavaScript with single source folder and metaInfo option

The metaInfo option is useful, if you want to distribute the result of translation as a Kotlin/JavaScript library. If metaInfo was set
to true , then during compilation additional JS le with binary metadata will be created. This le should be distributed together
with the result of translation:


<kotlin2js src="root1" output="out.js" metaInfo="true"/>
</target>
</project>
References
Complete list of elements and attributes are listed below:
Attributes common for kotlinc and kotlin2js
Name Description Required Default Value

src Kotlin source le or directory to compile Yes
nowarn Suppresses all compilation warnings No false
noStdlib Does not include the Kotlin standard library into the classpath No false
failOnError Fails the build if errors are detected during the compilation No true
kotlinc Attributes
203
Name Description Required Default Value
output Destination directory or .jar le name Yes

classpath Compilation class path No
classpathref Compilation class path reference No
includeRuntime If output is a .jar le, whether Kotlin runtime library is No true
included in the jar
moduleName Name of the module being compiled No The name of the target (if specied)
or the project
kotlin2js Attributes
Name Description Required

output Destination le Yes
libraries Paths to Kotlin libraries No
outputPrefix Prex to use for generated JavaScript les No
outputSuffix Sux to use for generated JavaScript les No
sourcemap Whether sourcemap le should be generated No
metaInfo Whether metadata le with binary descriptors should be generated No
main Should compiler generated code call the main function No
204
Kotlin and OSGi
To enable Kotlin OSGi support you need to include kotlin-osgi-bundle instead of regular Kotlin libraries. It is recommended to
remove kotlin-runtime , kotlin-stdlib and kotlin-reflect dependencies as kotlin-osgi-bundle already contains all of
them. You also should pay attention in case when external Kotlin libraries are included. Most regular Kotlin dependencies are not
OSGi-ready, so you shouldn't use them and should remove them from your project.
Maven
To include the Kotlin OSGi bundle to a Maven project:
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<artifactId>kotlin-osgi-bundle</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
To exclude the standard library from external libraries (notice that "star exclusion" works in Maven 3 only):
<dependency>
<groupId>some.group.id</groupId>
<artifactId>some.library</artifactId>
<version>some.library.version</version>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<artifactId>*</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
Gradle
To include kotlin-osgi-bundle to a gradle project:
compile "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-osgi-bundle:$kotlinVersion"
To exclude default Kotlin libraries that comes as transitive dependencies you can use the following approach:
dependencies {
compile (
[group: 'some.group.id', name: 'some.library', version: 'someversion'],
.....) {
exclude group: 'org.jetbrains.kotlin'
}
FAQ
Why not just add required manifest options to all Kotlin libraries
Even though it is the most preferred way to provide OSGi support, unfortunately it couldn't be done for now due to so called
"package split" issue that couldn't be easily eliminated and such a big change is not planned for now. There is Require-Bundle
feature but it is not the best option too and not recommended to use. So it was decided to make a separate artifact for OSGi.
205
Compiler Plugins
All-open compiler plugin

Kotlin has classes and their members final by default, which makes it inconvenient to use frameworks and libraries such as
Spring AOP that require classes to be open . The all-open compiler plugin adapts Kotlin to the requirements of those
frameworks and makes classes annotated with a specic annotation and their members open without the explicit open
keyword.
For instance, when you use Spring, you don't need all the classes to be open, but only classes annotated with specic
annotations like @Configuration or @Service . All-open allows to specify such annotations.
We provide all-open plugin support both for Gradle and Maven with the complete IDE integration.
:point_up: For Spring you can use the kotlin-spring compiler plugin (see below).
Using in Gradle
Add the plugin artifact to the buildscript dependencies and apply the plugin:
buildscript {
dependencies {
classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-allopen:$kotlin_version"
}
}
apply plugin: "kotlin-allopen"
As an alternative, you can enable it using the plugins block:
plugins {
id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.allopen" version "1.1.60"
}
Then specify the list of annotations that will make classes open:
allOpen {
annotation("com.my.Annotation")
// annotations("com.another.Annotation", "com.third.Annotation")
}
If the class (or any of its superclasses) is annotated with com.my.Annotation , the class itself and all its members will become
open.
It also works with meta-annotations:
@com.my.Annotation
annotation class MyFrameworkAnnotation
@MyFrameworkAnnotation
class MyClass // will be all-open
MyFrameworkAnnotation is annotated with the all-open meta-annotation com.my.Annotation , so it becomes an all-open

annotation as well.
Using in Maven
Here's how to use all-open with Maven:
206
<plugin>
<configuration>
<compilerPlugins>

<plugin>all-open</plugin>
</compilerPlugins>
<pluginOptions>

<option>all-open:annotation=com.my.Annotation</option>
<option>all-open:annotation=com.their.AnotherAnnotation</option>
</pluginOptions>
</configuration>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<artifactId>kotlin-maven-allopen</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>
Please refer to the "Using in Gradle" section above for the detailed information about how all-open annotations work.
Spring support
If you use Spring, you can enable the kotlin-spring compiler plugin instead of specifying Spring annotations manually. The kotlin-
spring is a wrapper on top of all-open, and it behaves exactly the same way.
As with all-open, add the plugin to the buildscript dependencies:
buildscript {
dependencies {
classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-allopen:$kotlin_version"
}
}
apply plugin: "kotlin-spring" // instead of "kotlin-allopen"
Or using the Gradle plugins DSL:
plugins {
id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.spring" version "1.1.60"
}
In Maven, enable the spring plugin:
<compilerPlugins>
<plugin>spring</plugin>
</compilerPlugins>
The plugin species the following annotations: @Component, @Async, @Transactional, @Cacheable and @SpringBootTest.
Thanks to meta-annotations support classes annotated with @Configuration, @Controller, @RestController, @Service or
@Repository are automatically opened since these annotations are meta-annotated with @Component.
Of course, you can use both kotlin-allopen and kotlin-spring in the same project.
207
Note that if you use the project template generated by the start.spring.io service, the kotlin-spring plugin will be enabled by
default.
Using in CLI
All-open compiler plugin JAR is available in the binary distribution of the Kotlin compiler. You can attach the plugin by providing the
path to its JAR le using the Xplugin kotlinc option:
-Xplugin=$KOTLIN_HOME/lib/allopen-compiler-plugin.jar
You can specify all-open annotations directly, using the annotation plugin option, or enable the "preset". The only preset
available now for all-open is spring .
# The plugin option format is: "-P plugin:<plugin id>:<key>=<value>".

# Options can be repeated.
-P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.allopen:annotation=com.my.Annotation
-P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.allopen:preset=spring
No-arg compiler plugin

The no-arg compiler plugin generates an additional zero-argument constructor for classes with a specic annotation.
The generated constructor is synthetic so it cant be directly called from Java or Kotlin, but it can be called using reection.
This allows the Java Persistence API (JPA) to instantiate the data class although it doesn't have the zero-parameter constructor
from Kotlin or Java point of view (see the description of kotlin-jpa plugin below).
Using in Gradle
The usage is pretty similar to all-open.
Add the plugin and specify the list of annotations that must lead to generating a no-arg constructor for the annotated classes.
buildscript {
dependencies {
classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-noarg:$kotlin_version"
}
}
apply plugin: "kotlin-noarg"
plugins {
id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.noarg" version "1.1.60"
}
Then specify the list of no-arg annotations:
noArg {
annotation("com.my.Annotation")
}
Enable invokeInitializers option if you want the plugin to run the initialization logic from the synthetic constructor. Starting
from Kotlin 1.1.3-2, it is disabled by default because of KT-18667 and KT-18668 which will be addressed in the future.
noArg {
invokeInitializers = true
}
208
Using in Maven
<plugin>
<configuration>
<compilerPlugins>

<plugin>no-arg</plugin>
</compilerPlugins>
<pluginOptions>
<option>no-arg:annotation=com.my.Annotation</option>


</pluginOptions>
</configuration>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<artifactId>kotlin-maven-noarg</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>
JPA support
As with the kotlin-spring plugin, kotlin-jpa is a wrapped on top of no-arg. The plugin species @Entity, @Embeddable and
@MappedSuperclass no-arg annotations automatically.
That's how you add the plugin in Gradle:
buildscript {
dependencies {
classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-noarg:$kotlin_version"
}
}
apply plugin: "kotlin-jpa"
plugins {
id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.jpa" version "1.1.60"
}
In Maven, enable the jpa plugin:
<compilerPlugins>
<plugin>jpa</plugin>
</compilerPlugins>
Using in CLI
As with all-open, add the plugin JAR le to the compiler plugin classpath and specify annotations or presets:
209
-Xplugin=$KOTLIN_HOME/lib/noarg-compiler-plugin.jar
-P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.noarg:annotation=com.my.Annotation
-P plugin:org.jetbrains.kotlin.noarg:preset=jpa
210
FAQ
FAQ
What is Kotlin?
Kotlin is an OSS statically typed programming language that targets the JVM, Android, JavaScript and Native. Its developed by
JetBrains. The project started in 2010 and was open source from very early on. The rst ocial 1.0 release was in February
2016.
What is the current version of Kotlin?
The currently released version is 1.1.60, published on November 13, 2017.
Is Kotlin free?
Yes. Kotlin is free, has been free and will remain free. It is developed under the Apache 2.0 license and the source code is
available on GitHub.
Is Kotlin an object-oriented language or a functional one?
Kotlin has both object-oriented and functional constructs. You can use it in both OO and FP styles, or mix elements of the two.
With rst-class support for features such as higher-order functions, function types and lambdas, Kotlin is a great choice if youre
doing or exploring functional programming.
What advantages does Kotlin give me over the Java programming language?
Kotlin is more concise. Rough estimates indicate approximately a 40% cut in the number of lines of code. Its also more type-
safe, e.g. support for non-nullable types makes applications less prone to NPEs. Other features including smart casting, higher-
order functions, extension functions and lambdas with receivers provide the ability to write expressive code as well as facilitating
creation of DSL.
Is Kotlin compatible with the Java programming language?
Yes. Kotlin is 100% interoperable with the Java programming language and major emphasis has been placed on making sure that
your existing codebase can interact properly with Kotlin. You can easily call Kotlin code from Java and Java code from Kotlin. This
makes adoption much easier and lower-risk. Theres also an automated Java-to-Kotlin converter built into the IDE that simplies
migration of existing code.
What can I use Kotlin for?
Kotlin can be used for any kind of development, be it server-side, client-side web and Android. With Kotlin/Native currently in the
works, support for other platforms such as embedded systems, macOS and iOS is coming. People are using Kotlin for mobile
and server-side applications, client-side with JavaScript or JavaFX, and data science, just to name a few possibilities.
Can I use Kotlin for Android development?
Yes. Kotlin is supported as a rst-class language on Android. There are hundreds of applications already using Kotlin for Android,
such as Basecamp, Pinterest and more. For more information check out the resource on Android development.
Can I use Kotlin for server-side development?
211
Yes. Kotlin is 100% compatible with the JVM and as such you can use any existing frameworks such as Spring Boot, vert.x or JSF.
In addition there are specic frameworks written in Kotlin such as Ktor. For more information check out the resource on server-
side development.
Can I use Kotlin for web development?
Yes. In addition to using for backend web, you can also use Kotlin/JS for client-side web. Kotlin can use denitions from
DenitelyTyped to get static typing for common JavaScript libraries, and it is compatible with existing module systems such as
AMD and CommonJS. For more information check out the resource on client-side development.
Can I use Kotlin for desktop development?
Yes. You can use any Java UI framework such as JavaFx, Swing or other. In addition there are Kotlin specic frameworks such as
TornadoFX.
Can I use Kotlin for native development?
Kotlin/Native is currently in the works. It compiles Kotlin to native code that can run without a VM. There is a Technology Preview
released but it is not production-ready yet, and doesnt yet target all the platforms that we plan to support for 1.0. For more
information check out the blog post announcing Kotlin/Native.
What IDEs support Kotlin?
Kotlin is supported by all major Java IDEs including IntelliJ IDEA, Android Studio, Eclipse and NetBeans. In addition, a command line
compiler is available and provides straightforward support for compiling and running applications.
What build tools support Kotlin?
On the JVM side, the main build tools include Gradle, Maven, Ant, and Kobalt. There are also some build tools available that target
client-side JavaScript.
What does Kotlin compile down to?
When targeting the JVM, Kotlin produces Java compatible bytecode. When targeting JavaScript, Kotlin transpiles to ES5.1 and
generates code which is compatible with module systems including AMD and CommonJS. When targeting native, Kotlin will
produce platform-specic code (via LLVM).
Does Kotlin only target Java 6?
No. Kotlin lets you choose between generating Java 6 and Java 8 compatible bytecode. More optimal byte code may be
generated for higher versions of the platform.
Is Kotlin hard?
Kotlin is inspired by existing languages such as Java, C#, JavaScript, Scala and Groovy. We've tried to ensure that Kotlin is easy to
learn, so that people can easily jump on board, reading and writing Kotlin in a matter of days. Learning idiomatic Kotlin and using
some more of its advanced features can take a little longer, but overall it is not a complicated language.
What companies are using Kotlin?
There are too many companies using Kotlin to list, but some more visible companies that have publicly declared usage of Kotlin,
be this via blog posts, GitHub repositories or talks include Square, Pinterest or Basecamp.
Who develops Kotlin?
Kotlin is primarily developed by a team of engineers at JetBrains (current team size is 40+). The lead language designer is
Andrey Breslav. In addition to the core team, there are also over 100 external contributors on GitHub.
Where can I learn more about Kotlin?
The best place to start is this website. From there you can download the compiler, try it online as well as get access to
resources, reference documentation and tutorials.
212
Are there any books on Kotlin?
There are already a number of books available for Kotlin, including Kotlin in Action which is by Kotlin team members Dmitry
Jemerov and Svetlana Isakova, Kotlin for Android Developers targeted at Android developers.
Are there any online courses available for Kotlin?
There are a few courses available for Kotlin, including a Pluralsight Kotlin Course by Kevin Jones, an OReilly Course by Hadi Hariri
and an Udemy Kotlin Course by Peter Sommerho.
There are also many recordings of Kotlin talks available on YouTube and Vimeo.
Does Kotlin have a community?
Yes. Kotlin has a very vibrant community. Kotlin developers hang out on the Kotlin forums, StackOverow and more actively on
the Kotlin Slack (with close to 7000 members as of May 2017).
Are there Kotlin events?
Yes. There are many User Groups and Meetups now focused exclusively around Kotlin. You can nd a list on the web site. In
addition there are community organised Kotlin Nights events around the world.
Is there a Kotlin conference?
Yes. The rst ocial KotlinConf, taking place in San Francisco 2-3 November 2017. Kotlin is also being covered in dierent
conferences worldwide. You can nd a list of upcoming talks on the web site.
Is Kotlin on Social Media?
Yes. The most active Kotlin account is on Twitter. There is also a Google+ group.
Any other online Kotlin resources?
The web site has a bunch of online resources, including Kotlin Digests by community members, a newsletter, a podcast and
more.
Where can I get an HD Kotlin logo?
Logos can be downloaded here. Please follow simple rules in the guidelines.pdf inside the archive.
213
Comparison to Java Programming Language
Some Java issues addressed in Kotlin

Kotlin xes a series of issues that Java suers from:
Null references are controlled by the type system.

No raw types
Arrays in Kotlin are invariant
Kotlin has proper function types, as opposed to Java's SAM-conversions
Use-site variance without wildcards
Kotlin does not have checked exceptions
What Java has that Kotlin does not

Checked exceptions
Primitive types that are not classes
Static members
Non-private elds
Wildcard-types
What Kotlin has that Java does not

Lambda expressions + Inline functions = performant custom control structures
Extension functions
Null-safety
Smart casts
String templates
Properties
Primary constructors
First-class delegation
Type inference for variable and property types
Singletons
Declaration-site variance & Type projections
Range expressions
Operator overloading
Companion objects
Data classes
Separate interfaces for read-only and mutable collections
Coroutines
214
215

Kotlin Docs

Uploaded by

Kotlin Docs

Uploaded by

Kotlin Language Documentation

Using Kotlin for Server-side Development 4

Using Kotlin for Android Development 6

Kotlin JavaScript Overview 7

What's New in Kotlin 1.1 9

Control Flow: if, when, for, while 38

Returns and Jumps 41

Classes and Objects 43

Classes and Inheritance 43

Properties and Fields 49

Nested and Inner Classes 69

Object Expressions and Declarations 72

Functions and Lambdas 83

Higher-Order Functions and Lambdas 89

Destructuring Declarations 102

Collections: List, Set, Map 104

This Expression 111

Operator overloading 113

Null Safety 116

Type-Safe Builders 129

Multiplatform Projects (Preview) 135

Keywords and Operators 139

Lexical structure 151

Java Interop 156

Calling Java code from Kotlin 156

Calling Kotlin from Java 166

Dynamic Type 173

Calling JavaScript from Kotlin 175

Calling Kotlin from JavaScript 178

JavaScript Modules 180

JavaScript Reflection 183

JavaScript DCE 184

Documenting Kotlin Code 185

Annotation processing with Kotlin 188

Using Gradle 191

Using Maven 196

Using Ant 202

Kotlin and OSGi 205

Compiler Plugins 206

Comparison to Java Programming Language 214

Frameworks for Server-side Development with Kotlin

Deploying Kotlin Server-side Applications

Users of Kotlin on the Server Side

Kotlin for Android Case Studies

Tools for Android Development

The Kotlin compiler tries to comply with the following goals:

Provide output that is optimal in size

How can it be used

Creating Kotlin code that targets client-side JavaScript

Creating Kotlin code that targets server-side JavaScript

Getting Started with Kotlin to JavaScript

Kotlin/Native currently supports the following platforms:

Windows (x86_64 only at the moment)

We've built a number of sample projects to showcase the possibilities of Kotlin/Native:

The Kotlin/Native GitHub repository contains a number of sample projects;

Let's look at async / await which is implemented in an external library, kotlinx.coroutines:

// runs the code in the background thread pool

// launches new coroutine in UI context

// print the sequence

Other Language Features

typealias OscarWinners = Map<String, String>

fun countLaLaLand(oscarWinners: OscarWinners) =

See the documentation and KEEP for more details.

Bound callable references

val numberRegex = "\\d+".toRegex()

Read the documentation and KEEP for more details.

Sealed and data classes

data class Const(val number: Double) : Expr()

fun eval(expr: Expr): Double = when (expr) {

val map = mapOf(1 to "one", 2 to "two")

Read the documentation and KEEP for more details.

Underscores for unused parameters

map.forEach { _, value -> println("$value!") }

This also works in destructuring declarations:

val (_, status) = getResult()

Read the KEEP for more details.