is this the most elegant / proper way to use e.g. repeat() with a suspending function? ```suspend f...

# announcements

[Peter Ertl]

is this the most elegant / proper way to use e.g. repeat() with a suspending function?

suspend fun bla(): Unit = TODO()

repeat(10) {
  runBlocking {
    bla()
  }
}

or do I need a suspendable version of repeat ("repeatAsync") ?

[Marc Knaup]

The context is missing.

Will you call repeat inside a suspend fun or a regular fun? Big difference 🙂

[Peter Ertl]

inside a regular function

[ephemient]

as I said in the other thread, inline functions can make use of suspend lambdas

[ephemient]

repeat is an inline function

[Peter Ertl]

that’s the point I was missing

[Peter Ertl]

makes so much of a difference

[Peter Ertl]

I didn’t expect inline to do so much more

[Marc Knaup]

So if it’s supposed to block then your example is just fine.

You can also make your own function that does both repeat and runBlocking for having to write less here.
But repeatAsync would be a bad name for that because it’s not asynchronous.

[ephemient]

if you imagine it as "copy and paste this into the caller" then it makes sense that suspension should work 🙂

[ephemient]

(there's a bit of compiler cleverness to make it happen, but still)

[ephemient]

just to be clear,

suspend fun bla(): Unit = TODO()

runBlocking {
    repeat(10) {
        bla()
    }
}

works

[Peter Ertl]

thank you guys, telling me about inline behavior and suspend was the missing building block for me]

[Peter Ertl]

I saw it solely as an performance related thing so far

[Peter Ertl]

I converted a java team in a bank to kotlin and we really love it

[Peter Ertl]

it’s just a far better option

[Marc Knaup]

Don’t overthink performance 😄
First make it work great. Then go deep if there are actually problems.

[Peter Ertl]

I didn’t use inline at all, it’s just to be compatible with suspending / non-suspending functions

[Peter Ertl]

a legit use I guess

[Peter Ertl]

I generally follow the rule “make it work, right, fast”

[Marc Knaup]

You may have used inline functions already without noticing 🙂
In most cases they’re used just like regular functions.

[Peter Ertl]

apply

[Peter Ertl]

using it all the time

[Marc Knaup]

yup