Can I add class as extension to another class in Kotlin? - class

For example, I know that I can add extension to class String like this:
val String.isValidEmail : Boolean
get() {
val expression = "^[\\w\\.-]+#([\\w\\-]+\\.)+[A-Z]{2,4}$"
val pattern = Pattern.compile(expression, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
val matcher = pattern.matcher(this)
return matcher.matches()
}
Now I want to add a class as extension into another class, which I think the implementation will be like this:
class Networking {
....
}
class Networking.Email {
....
}
// MainActivity.kt
val email = Networking.Email()
But this gave me error for "Networking.Email". For the "Networking" part: Redeclaration: Networking. For the "Email" part: Expecting a top level declaration. Is this actually possible in Kotlin?

No, there are no such things as extension classes in Kotlin. See here:
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.

Related

instantiate a generic class in Dart

I would like to instantiate an object with a generic type in Dart.
So far, there is nothing very complicated. This is how I would normally do it:
MyClass <MyType> x = new MyClass <MyType> ();
However, there I have a somewhat special case. The "MyType" type I want to use is contained in a variable.
And there, I do not see how to do the instantiation.
I specify that it is for a Flutter project.
Could you help me please ?
This way you can create a generic class and customize it to your needing:
class GenericClass<T> {
T t;
T getModel() => t;
void setModel(T t) => this.t = t;
}
You can also define its type to extends your 'CustomModel':
class GenericClass<T extends CustomModel>{
...
}
For using just get instance from class like this:
GenericClass<int> intClass = new GenericClass();
I hope it was useful for you :)
There is no path without using something reflective like dart:mirrors to go from a String to a type. This is by design, to allow tree-shaking and optimizations to be more productive.

Scala Class that containing List

I have a very basic and simple Scala question. For example, I have a java class like that
class Dataset{
private List<Record> records;
Dataset(){
records = new ArrayList<Record>()
}
public void addItem(Record r){
records.add(r)
}
}
When I try to write same class in Scala, I encoutered with some error:
class RecordSet() {
private var dataset:List[Record]
def this(){
dataset = new List[Record]
}
def addRecord(rd: Record)={
dataset :+ rd
}
}
I cannot declare a List variable like ( private var dataset:List[Record])
and cannot write a default constructor.
Here is how you will replicate the Java code you mentioned in your question:
// defining Record so the code below compiles
case class Record()
// Here is the Scala implementation
class RecordSet(private var dataset:List[Record]) {
def addRecord(rd: Record)={
dataset :+ rd
}
}
Some explanation:
In Scala, when you define a class, you have the ability to pass parameter to the class definition. eg: class Foo(num:Int, descr:String) Scala would automatically use the given parameter to create a primary constructor for you. So you can now instantiate the Foo, like so new Foo(1, "One"). This is different in Java where you have to explicitly define parameter accepting constructors.
You have to be aware that the parameter passed do not automatically become instance member of the class. Although if you want, you can tell Scala to make them instance member. There are various ways to do this, one way is to prefix the parameter with either var or val. For example class Foo(val num:Int, val descr:String) or class Foo(var num:Int, var descr:String). The difference is that with val, the instance variable are immutable. With var they are mutable.
Also, by default the instance member Scala will generate would be public. That means they can be accessed directly from an instance of the object. For example:
val foo = new Foo(1, "One")
println(foo.num) // prints 1.
If you want them to be private, you add private keyword to the definition. So that would become:
class Foo(private var num:Int, private var desc:String)
The reason why your code fails to compile is you define a method called this() which is used to create multiple constructors. (and not to create a constructor that initiates a private field which is your intention judging from the Java code you shared). You can google for multiple constructors or auxiliary constructors to learn more about this.
As dade told the issue in your code is that with this keyword you are actually creating an auxilary constructor which has some limitations like the first line of your auxilary constructor must be another constructor (auxilary/primary). Hence you cannot use such a way to create a class.
Also you can not write such lines in a scala concrete class private var dataset:List[Record] as it is considered as abstract (no definition provided).
Now with the code. Usually in Scala we don't prefer mutability because it introduces side-effects in our functions (which is not the functional way but as scala is not purely functional you can use mutability too).
In Scala way, the code should be something like this:
class RecordSet(private val dataset:List[Record]) {
def addRecord(rd: Record): RecordSet ={
new RecordSet(dataset :+ rd)
}
}
Now with the above class there is no mutability. Whenever you are adding on an element to the dataset a new instance of RecordSet is being created. Hence no mutability.
However, if you have to use the same class reference in your application use your a mutable collection for your dataset like below:
class RecordSet(private val dataset:ListBuffer[Record]) {
def addRecord(rd: Record): ListBuffer[Record] ={
dataset += rd
}
}
Above code will append the new record in the existing dataset with the same class reference.

Is it possible to extend a package private class defined in a 3rd party jar in Scala

Is it possible to extend a package private class in scala that is defined in a 3rd party jar. So for instance if a 3rd party jar that my code depends on has some class like so
private [somepackage] A {
}
can I somehow subclass this class in my code?
Thanks
Not according to Programming in Scala 3rd Ed., paraphrased:
package a
package b {
private[a] class B
}
all code outside the package a cannot access class B
Note that here, package b is in package a.
Curiously, this doesn't appear to be the case in the REPL: see this post
Nope, you can't do that.
If you need it to stub/mock it, consider using a proxy to access class A, and stub/mock that proxy class instead. E.g., if A.doStuff is what you want to mock/stub, and A.accessStuff is what you need in your code, create a class
class ADecorated(underlying: A) {
def doStuff() {
underlying.doStuff()
// whatever I want to do
}
def accessStuff() {
x = underlying.accessStuff()
// do something else and return
}
// Any other method you want to use
}
Replace usage of A.createA with new ADecorated(A.createA()). ADecorated is what you work with now

How do Kotlin's extension functions work?

Let's say I want an integer that supplies a square method.
Kotlin:
fun Int.square() = this * this
usage:
println("${20.square()}")
doc:
Extensions do not actually modify classes they extend. By defining an extension, you do not insert new members into a class, but merely make new functions callable with the dot-notation on variables of this type.
We would like to emphasize that extension functions are dispatched statically
My expectation would've been that they simply add it to the member functions of the extended class during compilation, but that is what they explicitly deny, so my next thought was it could be "sort of" like scala implicits.
Scala:
object IntExtensions{
implicit Class SquareableInt(i:Int){
def square = i*i
}
}
usage:
import IntExtensions._
and then
println(f"${20.square}")
doc:
An implicit class is desugared into a class and implicit method pairing, where the implciit method mimics the constructor of the class.
The generated implicit method will have the same name as the implicit class.
But scala implicits create a new class, that would disable the usage of this.
So ... how IS it that Kotlin extends classes? "Make callable" isn't telling me much.
In your case Kotlin just create simple utils-class with name "filename"Kt and static method "int square(int x)" (java pseudo-code)
From Java it look something like this
// filename int-utils.kt
final class IntUtilsKt {
public static int square(int x) {
return x * x;
}
}
And after this all calls to
val result = 20.square()
will be transformed (on byte-code level) to
val result = IntUtilsKt.square(20);
P.S.
You can see it yourself using IDEA action "Show Kotlin byte-code"

Best Practice to Load Class in Scala

I'm new to Scala (and functional programming as well) and I'm developing a plugin based application to learn and study.
I've cretead a trait to be the interface of a plugin. So when my app starts, it will load all the classes that implement this trait.
trait Plugin {
def init(config: Properties)
def execute(parameters: Map[String, Array[String]])
}
In my learning of Scala, I've read that if I want to program in functional way, I should avoid using var. Here's my problem:
The init method will be called after the class being loaded. And probably I will want to use the values from the config parameter in the execute method.
How to store this without using a var? Is there a better practice to do what I want here?
Thanks
There is more to programming in a functional way than just avoiding vars. One key concept is also to prefer immutable objects. In that respect your Plugin API is already breaking functional principles as both methods are only executed for their side-effects. With such an API using vars inside the implementation does not make a difference.
For an immutable plugin instance you could split plugin creation:
trait PluginFactory {
def createPlugin (config: Properties): Plugin
}
trait Plugin {
def execute ...
}
Example:
class MyPluginFactory extends MyPlugin {
def createPlugin (config: Properties): Plugin = {
val someValue = ... // extract from config
new MyPlugin(someValue)
}
}
class MyPlugin (someValue: String) extends Plugin {
def execute ... // using someConfig
}
You can use a val! It's basically the same thing, but the value of a val field cannot be modified later on. If you were using a class, you could write:
For example:
class Plugin(val config: Properties) {
def init {
// do init stuff...
}
def execute = // ...
}
Unfortunately, a trait cannot have class parameters. If you want to have a config field in your trait, you wont be able to set its value immediately, so it will have to be a var.