Kotlin - nullable property default to null value

Question

Suppose I define a class with a nullable property

class ABC {
   var myProperty: String? = null
}

Is there a way to default it to null value? Maybe something similar to SCALA?

var myProperty: String? = _  // compilation error

or simply:

var myProperty: String?  // compilation error

I know we could have used a lateinit variable that from Kotlin 1.2 can be later checked for initilization like so:

lateinit var myProperty: String

if (::myProperty.isInitialized) {
   //value is not-null
}

So is lateinit the preferred way? Is defaulting to null value possible or it's omitted on purpose?

Answer 1

Kotlin intentionally requires you to initialize all properties explicitly. There is no shorthand syntax. For a property of a nullable type, the preferred way is not to use lateinit, but to declare it with a null initializer.

The isInitialized method for lateinit properties is designed to handle complex cases like cleanup of resources; it's not intended to be used as a replacement for a null check for users who want to save on writing = null as part of a property declaration.