How kotlin delegation is useful?

Question

I'm really confused about the kotlin delegation. Let me describe the regular polymorphism approach here which looks same like the kotlin delgation.

interface Base {
    fun print()
}
class BaseImpl(val x: Int) : Base {
    override fun print() { print(x) }
}
fun main(args: Array<String>) {
    val b : Base = BaseImpl(10)
    b.print() // prints 10
}

I can pass any implemented class of Base interface to b variable to call the method of specified class's object. Then what is the benefit of kotlin's delegation? Which is described here.

interface Base {
    fun print()
}
class BaseImpl(val x: Int) : Base {
    override fun print() { print(x) }
}
class Derived(b: Base) : Base by b // why extra line of code? 
                                   // if the above example works fine without it.
fun main(args: Array<String>) {
    val b = BaseImpl(10)
    Derived(b).print() // prints 10
}

I know this is the simple scenario where the both codes are working fine. There should be a benefit of delegation that's why kotlin introduced it. What is the difference? and how kotlin delegation can be useful? Please give me a working example to compare with polymorphism approach.

Answer 1

Also remember that you're not restricted to just one delegate. Kotlin's way of implementing delegation is similar to traits implementation in languages like Groovy. You can compose different functionality via delegates. Kotlin's way can also be considered more powerful because you can "plug in" different implementations too.

interface Marks {
  fun printMarks()
}

class StdMarks() : Marks {
  override fun printMarks() { println("printed marks") }
}

class CsvMarks() : Marks {
  override fun printMarks() { println("printed csv marks") }
}

interface Totals {
  fun printTotals()
}

class StdTotals : Totals {
  override fun printTotals() { println("calculated and printed totals") }
}

class CheatTotals : Totals {
  override fun printTotals() { println("calculated and printed higher totals") }
}

class Student(val studentId: Int, marks: Marks, totals: Totals) 
  : Marks by marks, Totals by totals

fun main(args:Array<String>) {
  val student = Student(1,StdMarks(), StdTotals())
  student.printMarks()
  student.printTotals()
  val cheater = Student(1,CsvMarks(), CheatTotals())
  cheater.printMarks()
  cheater.printTotals()
}

Output:

printed marks
calculated and printed totals
printed csv marks
calculated and printed higher totals

You can't do this with inheritance.

Answer 2

It is extremely useful for creating decorators and for object composition. Joshua Bloch in Effective Java, 2nd Edition, Item 16 'Favor Composition Over Inheritance' shows a good example: inheritance is easy-to-break, and decorators are not.

Inheritance:

class LoggingList<E> : ArrayList<E>() {

    override fun add(e: E): Boolean {
        println("added $e")
        return super.add(e)
    }

    override fun addAll(e: Collection<E>): Boolean {
        println("added all: $e")
        return super.addAll(e) // oops! Calls [add] internally.
    }

}

Delegation:

class LoggingList<E>(delegate: MutableList<E>) : MutableList<E> by delegate {

    override fun add(e: E): Boolean {
        println("added $e")
        return delegate.add(e)
    }

    override fun addAll(e: Collection<E>): Boolean {
        println("added all: $e")
        return delegate.addAll(e) // all OK
        // it calls [delegate]'s [add] internally, not ours
    }

}