How to know whether late init has been initialized in dart(flutter)?

Question

I am fetching data from url in Flutter. I have a late init Map called tables. I am fetching data inside initState() function. When I first launch the app, I am getting LateInizialization error on the red screen. I want to detect whether late init is initialized and display spinner if it is not initialized. This is my code.

class TablesTab extends StatefulWidget {
  @override
  _TablesTabState createState() => _TablesTabState();
}

class _TablesTabState extends State<TablesTab> {
  late List<dynamic> tables;
  var refreshKey = GlobalKey<RefreshIndicatorState>();
  GetUriData tablesInstance = new GetUriData(url: '/api/table/getAllTables');

  void getTables() async {
    tables = await tablesInstance.getData();
  }

  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();
    getTables();
  }

  Future<void> refreshList() async {
    refreshKey.currentState?.show(atTop: false);
    // await Future.delayed(Duration(seconds: 2));
    var updatedTables = await tablesInstance.getData();
    setState(() {
      tables = updatedTables;
    });

    //network call and setState so that view will render the new values
    print(tables);
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      body: RefreshIndicator(
          child:  GridView.count(
            crossAxisCount: 4,
            children: List.generate(this.tables.length, (index) {
              return Center(
                child: GestureDetector(
                  onTap: () {
                    Navigator.pushNamed(context, '/tableReview', arguments: {'table': this.tables[index]});
                  },
                  child: Container(
                      width: 80,
                      height: 80,
                      decoration: BoxDecoration(
                          border: Border.all(color: Theme.of(context).primaryColor, width: 2.0),
                          borderRadius: BorderRadius.all(Radius.circular(70))
                      ),
                      padding: const EdgeInsets.all(14.0),
                      child: Column(
                        mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.center,
                        crossAxisAlignment: CrossAxisAlignment.center,
                        children: [
                          Text(
                            '${this.tables[index]['tableNum']}',
                            style: TextStyle(
                                color: Theme.of(context).primaryColor,
                                fontSize: 23
                            ),
                          ),
                        ],
                      )
                  ),
                ),
              );
            }),
          ),
          onRefresh: refreshList
      )
    );
  }

Answer 1

You can't know whether late field initialized or not.

I don't think you should use late in that case. Adding late to field means that the field will be initialized when you use it for the first time. In your code the field can be not initialized, so you'd better to use tables without late, initialize it with empty list and use boolean flag to indicate loading:

  var tables = [];
  var loading = false;

  ...

  Future<void> refreshList() async {
    ...
    setState(() {
      loading = true;
    });
    var updatedTables = await tablesInstance.getData();
    setState(() {
      tables = updatedTables;
      loading = false;
    });
    ...
  }