How to create an anonymous implementation of an interface?

Question

I have an interface:

interface TileSet {     fun contains(x: Int, y: Int) : Boolean } 

I want to be able to create unions of sets of tiles (tile is a pair of x and y integer coordinates):

fun TileSet.union(another: TileSet) : TileSet =     // .. 

In Java 8, I could do it like this:

@FunctionalInterface public interface TileSet {     boolean contains(int x, int y);      public default TileSet unite(TileSet another) {         return (x, y) -> TileSet.this.contains(x, y) && another.contains(x, y);     } } 

So an interface is implemented with a lambda in TileSet#unite(). Or it could be implemented with the old anonymous class approach:

public default TileSet unite(TileSet another) {     return new TileSet() {          @Override          public boolean contains(int x, int y) {              return TileSet.this.contains(x, y) && another.contains(x, y);          }     } } 

How can I create an anonymous implementation of a single-method interface in Kotlin?

I know how to do it if I use (Int, Int) -> Boolean instead of TileSet, but I want the type to have a descriptive name rather than just a function signature.

Answer 1

There are examples in the documentation for anonymous classes, but not for interfaces.

This is how I created an instance of an interface:

fun TileSet.union(another: TileSet) : TileSet =     object : TileSet {         override fun contains(x: Int, y: Int) : Boolean =             [email protected](x, y) || another.contains(x, y)     } 

Notice that, unlike in the example from documentation, there are no parentheses after object : TileSet.

Answer 2

I was experimenting a little bit, and I was surprised to find that you can implement Java functional interfaces using Kotlin lambdas:

// Implementing Java functional interfaces using lambdas val greeter = Consumer<String> { println("Hi $it") } val dice = Supplier { ThreadLocalRandom.current().nextInt(1, 7) } 

But when you implement Kotlin functional interfaces, you need the full ceremony:

// Implementing a Kotlin functional inteface with lambdas is not possible val greeter = object : MyConsumer<String> {     override fun accept(x: String) {         println("Hi $x")     } }  @FunctionalInterface interface MyConsumer<T> {     fun accept(x:T) } 

I wonder why the full anonymous class syntax is needed when implementing Kotlin intefaces from the very Kotlin!

Maybe they want you to use functions instead? That could be done like this.

// If you want to use lambdas, define a function instead of an interface val greeter: MyConsumerFunction<String> = { println("Hi $it") }  typealias MyConsumerFunction<T> = (T) -> Unit 

Anyway, if anyone knows anything about this, please let me know! :)