Using Poet I'm trying to figure out how to get the...

# squarelibraries

[ian.shaun.thomas]

Using Poet I'm trying to figure out how to get the type for a generated class. For example if you created a type and want to create an instance of it in the companion the desired code might look like this:

data class Test(val input:String) {
    companion object {
        val example = Test("Hello")
    }
}

I can get as far as creating the data class and companion object but I'm not sure how to get the type Test , I'm using Any to get the code to generate but Any is the wrong type. It would be fine to just not have a type and maybe that is the solution but I'm not seeing a way to create a property without a type.

FileSpec.builder("", "Test")
    .addType(
        TypeSpec.classBuilder("Test")
            .addModifiers(KModifier.DATA)
            .primaryConstructor(
                FunSpec.constructorBuilder()
                    .addParameter("input", String::class)
                    .build(),
            )
            .addProperty(
                PropertySpec.builder("input", String::class)
                    .initializer("input")
                    .build(),
            )
            .addType(
                TypeSpec.companionObjectBuilder()
                    .addProperty(
                        PropertySpec.builder("example", Any::class)
                            .initializer(CodeBlock.of("Test(\"Hello\")"))
                            .build(),
                    )
                    .build(),
            )
            .build(),
    )
    .build()
    .writeTo(generatedOutputDir)

output:

public data class Test(
  public val input: String,
) {
  public companion object {
    public val example: Any = Test("Hello")
  }
}

[jw]

There is no "self" type, so you have to create a ClassName using the target package and type name.

[jw]

Generally I find it useful to create the ClassName first, and then use that to create the FileSpec and TypeSpec which both will accept `ClassName`s

[ian.shaun.thomas]

Ah, ok that is what I was missing. I figured there has to be some way to create types that don't exist "yet". Thank you

[jw]

https://github.com/square/kotlinpoet/blob/527e8511faa17a02ed0afa9e3c136c518672791b/kotlinpoet/src/jvmMain/kotlin/com/squareup/kotlinpoet/FileSpec.kt#L566
https://github.com/square/kotlinpoet/blob/527e8511faa17a02ed0afa9e3c136c518672791b/kotlinpoet/src/jvmMain/kotlin/com/squareup/kotlinpoet/TypeSpec.kt#L904

[ian.shaun.thomas]

And thanks for the tip, it is much nicer having the classname over repeating the strings in multiple places 👍