what benefits does `emptyList<String>()` have compared to `listOf<String>()`? Thread in ...

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[anlex N]

what benefits does emptyList<String>() have compared to listOf<String>()?
Thread in Slack Conversation

[Ruckus]

https://stackoverflow.com/a/48741539

[anlex N]

is this case for a class, a module, or a package?

[Ruckus]

What do you mean?

[anlex N]

this same object need to be in a class, a module, or a package?

[Ruckus]

I'm sorry, I still don't understand what you're asking. The instance returned by emptyList is a singleton, so there is only one. Not one per package, or one per module, or one per class, just one total.

[Rob Elliot]

listOf<String>() is an alias to `emptyListString()`:
public inline fun <T> listOf(): List<T> = emptyList()

So in practice there is no difference, they return exactly the same instance.

[anlex N]

@Rob Elliot where to see your code public inline fun <T> listOf(): List<T> = emptyList(). kotlin source code?

[Rob Elliot]

https://github.com/JetBrains/kotlin/blob/master/libraries/stdlib/src/kotlin/collections/Collections.kt#L90-L95

[Rob Elliot]

Or just hyperlink through to it in your IDE

[anlex N]

good. have you read all kotlin source code? @Rob Elliot

[Klitos Kyriacou]

I don't think anyone has read all of the Kotlin source code! The way to check is to first go to the documentation. If you're not sure, just do a Google search like site:<https://kotlinlang.org/api> listOf - then click on the relevant link, which takes you to https://kotlinlang.org/api/latest/jvm/stdlib/kotlin.collections/list-of.html and from there, click on the "source code" link.