Flutter: add a simple wrapper to the Text widget - flutter

Question

I came from a React world and trying to get my head around Flutter and Dart.
I'm using the Text widget with the same parameters a lot, so it seems reasonable to think of a way to reuse code. I created a wrapper that uses it:
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
TextStyle getThemeProperty(type, TextTheme textTheme) {
switch (type) {
case 'headline1':
return textTheme.headline1;
case 'headline2':
return textTheme.headline2;
case 'headline3':
return textTheme.headline3;
default:
return textTheme.bodyText2;
}
}
class CustomText extends StatelessWidget {
const CustomText({Key key, this.type, this.text, this.color}) : super(key: key);
final type;
final text;
final color;
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
var textTheme = Theme.of(context).textTheme;
var style = getThemeProperty(type, textTheme);
if (this.color != null) style.color = this.color;
return Text(
this.text,
style: style,
);
}
}
// Usage
CustomText(
text: 'Some Heading',
type: 'headline2',
color: Colors.black
)
The idea is to set the color if the color property is passed as a parameter, but Dart's compiler doesn't like it. It throws me the error: ''color' can't be used as a setter because it's final.
Try finding a different setter, or making 'color' non-final.'
I'm planning to do the same to fontWeight and textAlign properties as well. How am I able to make this work, I mean, to add new props to the style object on demand?

Answer 1

The reason why the dart compiler is unhappy is just because the color property of the TextStyle is declared as final. Therefore to use a new color, you have to create a new instance of the TextStyle.
Luckily, the TextStyle class comes with a copyWith method that returns an edited copy of your TextStyle
final type;
final text;
final color;
#override
Widget build(BuildContext context) {
var textTheme = Theme.of(context).textTheme;
var style = getThemeProperty(type, textTheme);
return Text(
this.text,
// Added this...
style: style.copyWith(color: color ?? style.color),
);
}
As a side note, when making reusable widgets, it's always a good idea to type your parameters. This is because any type of variable can be used. So instead of passing a String for text, you may pass an int
// DON'T DO THIS
final type;
final text;
final color;
// DO THIS
final String type;
final String text;
final Color color;
Also adding the this keyword to reference a variable in a class without variable shadowing is unnecessary.
// DON'T
this.text
// DO
text