Kotlin-Java interop not working with varargs

Question

I wanted to abstract out getting resources in Android, so I have written a class ResourceProvider that actually provides resources:

@Singleton
class ResourceProvider @Inject constructor(private val context: Context) {
fun getString(@StringRes id: Int): String {
    return context.getString(id)
}

fun getString(@StringRes id: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): String {
    return context.getString(id, formatArgs)
}
...
}

Nothing special here, just calling methods on Context. I have a problem when I want to get String with parameters, I created following example:

var fromContext = requireContext().getString(R.string.one_parameter_string, "Text")
Log.i("fromContext", fromContext)
var fromWrapper = resourceProvider.getString(R.string.one_parameter_string, "Text")
Log.i("fromWrapper", fromWrapper)

fromContext = requireContext().getString(R.string.two_parameter_string, "Text", "Text")
Log.i("fromContext", fromContext)
fromWrapper = resourceProvider.getString(R.string.two_parameter_string, "Text", "Text")
Log.i("fromWrapper", fromWrapper)

Here are String resources:

<string formatted="false" name="two_parameter_string">Text with parameters: %s, %s</string>
<string formatted="false" name="one_parameter_string">Text with parameter: %s</string>

as you can see I'm calling the same methods directly on Context and on my ResourceProvider class. I would expect the same results, but in fact this is what is printed in console:

I/fromContext: Text with parameter: Text
I/fromWrapper: Text with parameter: [Ljava.lang.Object;@6d43f06
I/fromContext: Text with parameters: Text, Text
D/AndroidRuntime: Shutting down VM
E/AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: main
    Process: xxx.xxx.xxx, PID: 22963
    java.util.MissingFormatArgumentException: Format specifier '%s'
        at java.util.Formatter.format(Formatter.java:2522)
        at java.util.Formatter.format(Formatter.java:2458)
        at java.lang.String.format(String.java:2814)
        at android.content.res.Resources.getString(Resources.java:472)
        at android.content.Context.getString(Context.java:572)
        at xxx.xxx.xxx.utils.ResourceProvider.getString(ResourceProvider.kt:21)
        at xxx.xxx.xxx.views.trial.TrialFragment.onViewCreated(TrialFragment.kt:45)
        at androidx.fragment.app.FragmentManagerImpl.moveToState(FragmentManager.java:1471)
        at androidx.fragment.app.FragmentManagerImpl.addAddedFragments(FragmentManager.java:2646)
        at androidx.fragment.app.FragmentManagerImpl.executeOpsTogether(FragmentManager.java:2416)
        at androidx.fragment.app.FragmentManagerImpl.removeRedundantOperationsAndExecute(FragmentManager.java:2372)
        at androidx.fragment.app.FragmentManagerImpl.execPendingActions(FragmentManager.java:2273)
        at androidx.fragment.app.FragmentManagerImpl$1.run(FragmentManager.java:733)
        at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:789)
        at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:98)
        at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:164)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:6944)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
        at com.android.internal.os.Zygote$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(Zygote.java:327)
        at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1374)

As you can see calling it directly on Context works without the flaws, but calling the same method with my wrapper makes it print Object.toString() and in second case it crashes.

Here is the decompiled version of the getString(@StringRes id: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any) method:

@NotNull
public final String getString(@StringRes int id, @NotNull Object... formatArgs) {
  Intrinsics.checkParameterIsNotNull(formatArgs, "formatArgs");
  String var10000 = this.context.getString(id, new Object[]{formatArgs});
  Intrinsics.checkExpressionValueIsNotNull(var10000, "context.getString(id, formatArgs)");
  return var10000;
}

What is the problem and how to avid it?

Answer 1

You need to use the spread operator (*) to call context.getString, i.e. you need to use *formatArgs:

@Singleton
class ResourceProvider @Inject constructor(private val context: Context) {
  fun getString(@StringRes id: Int): String {
    return context.getString(id)
  }

  fun getString(@StringRes id: Int, vararg formatArgs: Any): String {
    return context.getString(id, *formatArgs)
  }
...
}

You can read more about it in the kotlin reference regarding variable number of arguments (varargs).

If you don't do it, then the given object (in this case a formatArgs-array) is treated as a single object which you want to pass to the vararg-method, which will therefore be wrapped into a Object[] { formatArgs }.