Importance of Kotlin Programming Language and Key Benefits

What is Kotlin and Where it is Used?

Kotlin is a statically typed programming language mostly used for android development. It runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and can be compiled into JavaScript source code or uses the LLVM compiler infrastructure. Kotlin, as described before, is a JVM-based language developed by Jet Brains a company known for creating IntelliJ IDEA, a powerful IDE for Java development. Android Studio, the official Android IDE, is based on IntelliJ.

Kotlin was created with Java developers in mind, and with IntelliJ as its main development IDE. And these are two very interesting features for Android developers. Kotlin is very intuitive and easy to learn for Java developers. Most parts of the language are very similar to what we already know, and the differences in basic concepts can be learned in no time.

We have total integration with our daily IDE for free. Android Studio can understand, compile, and run the Kotlin code. And the support for this language comes from the company that develops the IDE, so we Android developers are first-class citizens.

But this is only related to how the language integrates with our tools. What are the advantages of the language when compared to Java 6?

What Are the Key Benefits of Using Kotlin Programming Language?

Kotlin is a more expressive programming language and this is one of its most important qualities. You can do more while writing less code.

It’s Safer:

Kotlin is null safe, which means that we deal with possible null situations in compile-time, to prevent execution time exceptions. We need to explicitly specify that an object can be null, and then check its nullity before using it. You will save a lot of time debugging null pointer exceptions and fixing nullity bugs.

It’s Functional:

Kotlin is basically an object-oriented language, not a pure functional language. However, like many other modern languages, it uses many concepts from functional programming, such as lambda expressions, to solve some problems in a much easier way. Another nice feature is the way it deals with collections.

It Makes Use of Extension Functions:

This means we can extend any class with new features even if we don’t have access to the source code.

It’s highly Interoperable:

You can continue using most libraries and code written in Java because the interoperability between both languages is excellent. It’s even possible to create mixed projects, with both Kotlin and Java files coexisting.

If we want to create a User entry in Java using data class, it requires lots of boilerplate code.

import java.util.Objects;  
public class User {  
    private String name;  
    private int id;  
    private String email;  
  
    public User(String name, int id, String email) {  
        this.name = name;  
        this.id = id;  
this.email = email;  
    }  
  
    public String getName() {  
        return name;  
    }  
  
    public void setName(String name) {  
        this.name = name;  
    }  
  
    public intgetId() {  
        return id;  
    }  
  
    public void setId(int id) {  
        this.id = id;  
    }  
  
    public String getEmail() {  
        return email;  
    }  
  
    public void setEmail(String email) {  
this.email = email;  
    }  
  
    @Override  
    public boolean equals(Object o) {  
        if (this == o) return true;  
        if (!(o instanceof User)) return false;  
        User user = (User) o;  
        return getId() == user.getId() &&  
Objects.equals(getName(), user.getName()) &&  
Objects.equals(getEmail(), user.getEmail());  
    }  
  
    @Override  
    public inthashCode() {  
  
        return Objects.hash(getName(), getId(), getEmail());  
    }  
  
    @Override  
    public String toString() {  
        return "User{" +  
                "name='" + name + '\'' +  
                ", id=" + id +  
                ", email='" + email + '\'' +  
                '}';  
    }  
}  

Calling the constructor of the above Java data class using the object of the User class as

class MyClass{  
    public static void main(String agrs[]){  
        User u = new User("Anuj",111,"xyz@mail.com");  
System.out.println(u);  
    }  
}  

Output: User{name='Anuj', id=111, email='xyz@mail.com'}

The above Java data class code is rewritten in Kotlin data code in a single line as

data class User(var name: String, var id: Int, var email: String)

Calling the constructor of the above Kotlin data class using the object of the User class as

fun main(agrs: Array(String)) {  
val u = User("Anuj", 111, "xyz@mail.com")  
println(u)  
}  

Output: User(name=Anuj, id=111, email=xyz@mail.com)

If you guys are interested in reading more about Kotlin then you should be happy. Because we have recently written a complete article about Kotlin vs Java where you can explore more things about the Kotlin programming language.

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