5 Kotlin features Android developers need to know

[51CTO.com Quick Translation] It has always been generally believed in the industry that Java is the core of the Android operating system. Therefore, for every Android developer, Java is their first choice. However, this situation was completely overturned after the emergence of Kotlin. Kotlin is also a programming language. And to some extent, its development features are better than Java, and it can be said that it is a more effective alternative.

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Recently, the Android community has been very enthusiastic about Kotlin. I would like to take this opportunity to discuss with you the five key features of Kotlin that you need to know and master as an Android developer.

What makes Kotlin better than Java

Kotlin, designed and developed by JetBrains, solves a series of problems of Java. At present, although Java will not be eliminated soon for some time, Kotlin will continue to play a leading role in the field of Android development in the foreseeable future.

Let’s first look at the key areas where Kotlin has advantages over Java:

• Kotlin comes with a range of tools and frameworks that can work with Java.
• As a programming language, Kotlin is more explicit and concise than Java.
• Compared to Java, Kotlin helps reduce the overall code size of the program and can minimize the error rate.
• Unlike Java, Kotlin is loaded with an advanced compiler that can check various errors during the compilation process and the runtime environment.

1. Efficiency

Kotlin is a programming language with a gentle learning curve. At the same time, it can help developers build their own applications with the least amount of code. Therefore, in terms of learning, mastering the language, and writing applications, Kotlin can help programmers complete tasks more quickly.

It is worth mentioning that it can reduce the number of lines of code of the program to 100%. Compared with Java, the length of its ordinary code is about four-fifths of Java. Therefore, Kotlin provides developers with a better opportunity to produce higher-quality applications.

2. Null Safety

Null Safety is one of the key advantages of Kotlin and a feature that every Android developer finds very useful. Every Java developer has to deal with NullPointerException again and again when writing code in Java. Although this special element helps us test the product quality of the software, in fact, it greatly reduces the development speed and efficiency of programmers.

Therefore, this feature fundamentally reduces the complexity of various applications in the running environment. Correspondingly, developers are also happy to no longer worry about various null pointer exceptions when compiling code. In the Java environment, there is no relevant information and services about the null safety feature.

It is worth noting that Kotlin provides Java developers with null safety features at the early stage of initialization. That is, developers can determine whether to assign null safety at the beginning of initialization. After that, Kotlin can provide null safety through the compiler. This move greatly reduces the risk of various Null Point Exceptions faced by developers in the runtime environment.

3. Lazy loading feature

Faster loading speed is of course one of the most important indicators of any high-quality app. The lazy-loading feature provided by Kotlin can solve this problem well. When you use Kotlin for Android development, this feature will help you minimize the startup time of your application. In actual applications, Kotlin can load the necessary content for its initialization faster, and in the subsequent loading process, other non-essential elements and content are gradually loaded onto the application page.

Therefore, through this lazy loading feature, Android developers programming in Kotlin can prioritize those major resources and keep them in the main memory to ensure faster loading speed. At the same time, they can also choose to keep certain minor resources in the secondary memory.

4. Extension Functions

Extension functions are also often referred to as Standard Library Functions by Kotlin developers. It is a key feature that can help developers in many ways. When programming in Kotlin, we can use it as a basic function of an object-oriented language and extend it as needed.

While Java only allows developers to include new functional functions in common mainstream classes, those further extended classes may cause trouble for developers to access various ready-to-use components. In contrast, Kotlin allows us to extend these functions as needed. At the same time, we can also smoothly add various new functions to existing classes. In addition, Kotlin's standard library also provides rich options for various standard functions.

5. Collections and Streams

If you are a Java developer, you will inevitably need to understand and deal with various object collections during the development of Java applications. The reason for this is that various Java objects need to go through the process to be converted into different representation elements. Therefore, Java usually generates parallel streams of translated objects, which slows down the entire application.

As a high-level programming language, Kotlin uses immutable collections to solve the above problems. Here, various rich functional APIs will be able to automatically return some collections with the same functions.

in conclusion

At present, although Java still has many advanced features and advantages, for Android developers, Kotlin, as a rising star, has good interoperability with Java and a relatively gentle learning curve. Therefore, it has become another best choice for Android developers.

Original title: 5 Kotlin Features That Every Android App Developer Must Know, Author: Atman Rathod

[Translated by 51CTO. Please indicate the original translator and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]