Kotlin: lateinit to val, or, alternatively, a var that can set once

Question

Just curious: In Kotlin, I would love to get some val that can be initialized by lazy, but with a parameter. That's because I need something that's created very late in order to initialize it.

Specifically, I wish I had:

private lateinit val controlObj:SomeView

or:

private val controlObj:SomeView by lazy { view:View->view.findViewById(...)}

and then:

override fun onCreateView(....) {
    val view = inflate(....)


    controlObj = view.findViewById(...)

or in the 2nd case controlObj.initWith(view) or something like that:

return view

I cannot use by lazy because by lazy won't accept external parameters to be used when initialising. In this example - the containing view.

Of course I have lateinit var but it would be nice if I could make sure it becomes read only after setting and I could do it in one line.

Is there a pretty clean way to create a read only variable that initializes only once but only when some other variables are born? Any init once keyword? That after init the compiler knows it's immutable?

I am aware of the potential concurrency issues here but if I dare to access it before init, I surely deserve to be thrown.

Answer 1

You can implement own delegate like this:

class InitOnceProperty<T> : ReadWriteProperty<Any, T> {

    private object EMPTY

    private var value: Any? = EMPTY

    override fun getValue(thisRef: Any, property: KProperty<*>): T {
        if (value == EMPTY) {
            throw IllegalStateException("Value isn't initialized")
        } else {
            return value as T
        }
    }

    override fun setValue(thisRef: Any, property: KProperty<*>, value: T) {
        if (this.value != EMPTY) {
            throw IllegalStateException("Value is initialized")
        }
        this.value = value
    }
}

After that you can use it as following:

inline fun <reified T> initOnce(): ReadWriteProperty<Any, T> = InitOnceProperty()

class Test {

     var property: String by initOnce()

     fun readValueFailure() {
         val data = property //Value isn't initialized, exception is thrown
     }

     fun writeValueTwice() {
         property = "Test1" 
         property = "Test2" //Exception is thrown, value already initalized
     }

     fun readWriteCorrect() {
         property = "Test" 
         val data1 = property
         val data2 = property //Exception isn't thrown, everything is correct
     }

}

In case when you try to access value before it is initialized you will get exception as well as when you try to reassign new value.

Answer 2

In this solution you implement a custom delegate and it becomes a separate property on your class. The delegate has a var inside, but the controlObj property has the guarantees you want.

class X {
    private val initOnce = InitOnce<View>()
    private val controlObj: View by initOnce

    fun readWithoutInit() {
        println(controlObj)
    }

    fun readWithInit() {
        initOnce.initWith(createView())
        println(controlObj)
    }

    fun doubleInit() {
        initOnce.initWith(createView())
        initOnce.initWith(createView())
        println(controlObj)
    }
}

fun createView(): View = TODO()

class InitOnce<T : Any> {

    private var value: T? = null

    fun initWith(value: T) {
        if (this.value != null) {
            throw IllegalStateException("Already initialized")
        }
        this.value = value
    }

    operator fun getValue(thisRef: Any?, property: KProperty<*>): T =
            value ?: throw IllegalStateException("Not initialized")
}

BTW if you need thread safety, the solution is just slightly different:

class InitOnceThreadSafe<T : Any> {

    private val viewRef = AtomicReference<T>()

    fun initWith(value: T) {
        if (!viewRef.compareAndSet(null, value)) {
            throw IllegalStateException("Already initialized")
        }
    }

    operator fun getValue(thisRef: Any?, property: KProperty<*>): T =
            viewRef.get() ?: throw IllegalStateException("Not initialized")
}

Answer 3

You can use lazy. For example with TextView

    val text by lazy<TextView?>{view?.findViewById(R.id.text_view)}

where view is getView(). And after onCreateView() you can use text as read only variable

Answer 4

You can implement own delegate like this:

class LateInitVal {
    private val map: MutableMap<String, Any> = mutableMapOf()

    fun initValue(property: KProperty<*>, value: Any) {
        if (map.containsKey(property.name)) throw IllegalStateException("Value is initialized")

        map[property.name] = value
    }

    fun <T> delegate(): ReadOnlyProperty<Any, T> = MyDelegate()

    private inner class MyDelegate<T> : ReadOnlyProperty<Any, T> {

        override fun getValue(thisRef: Any, property: KProperty<*>): T {
            val any = map[property.name]
            return any as? T ?: throw IllegalStateException("Value isn't initialized")
        }

    }
}

After that you can use it as following:

class LateInitValTest {
    @Test
    fun testLateInit() {
        val myClass = MyClass()

        myClass.init("hello", 100)

        assertEquals("hello", myClass.text)
        assertEquals(100, myClass.num)
    }
}

class MyClass {
    private val lateInitVal = LateInitVal()
    val text: String by lateInitVal.delegate<String>()
    val num: Int by lateInitVal.delegate<Int>()

    fun init(argStr: String, argNum: Int) {
        (::text) init argStr
        (::num) init argNum
    }

    private infix fun KProperty<*>.init(value: Any) {
        lateInitVal.initValue(this, value)
    }
}

In case when you try to access value before it initialized you will get exception as well as when you try to reassign new value.

Answer 5

Safe delegation, Synchronized and helpfull messages

import kotlin.properties.ReadWriteProperty
import kotlin.reflect.KProperty

interface InitOnce<T> : ReadWriteProperty<Any?, T> {

    val isInitialized: Boolean

    val value: T

}

class SynchronizedInitOnceImpl<T> : InitOnce<T> {

    object UNINITIALIZED_VALUE

    private var name: String? = null

    @Volatile
    private var _value: Any? = UNINITIALIZED_VALUE

    override val value: T
        @Suppress("UNCHECKED_CAST")
        get() {

            val _v = synchronized(this) { _value }

            if (_v !== UNINITIALIZED_VALUE) return _v as T
            else error("'$name' not initialized yet")

        }

    override val isInitialized: Boolean
        get() = _value !== UNINITIALIZED_VALUE

    override operator fun getValue(thisRef: Any?, property: KProperty<*>): T {

        if(name == null) name = property.name

        return value

    }

    override operator fun setValue(thisRef: Any?, property: KProperty<*>, value: T) {

        synchronized(this) {

            val _v = _value
            if (_v !== UNINITIALIZED_VALUE) error("'${property.name}' already initialized")
            else _value = value

        }

    }

}

fun <T> initOnce(): InitOnce<T> = SynchronizedInitOnceImpl()

Usage

var hello: String by initOnce()