Hi Everybody! .. I'm just doing my first steps in Kotlin after a long time using Groovy, so far I'm enjoying it. I have a question, probably simple but Im trying to get some traction. ❓ -> If I have an app which is using BigDecimal heavily, is there a way to avoid creating theBigDecimal explicitly when calling methods that expect a BigDecimal? (something like implicit transformation from integer to BigDecimal on the caller so you can call methods using just a integer) E.g. When instantiating this data class, I have to pass the salary as explicit integer:

val employeeRunData = EmployeeRunData(annualSalary = BigDecimal(120000))

Instead, I would like to do something like: <note there is not call to _BigDecimal(120000)_>

val employeeRunData = EmployeeRunData(annualSalary = 120000))

I would highlight that the annoyance is while writing unit test. Thank you all!

there is no implicit conversion, but you can always do

fun EmployeeRunData(annualSalary: Int) = EmployeeRunData(annualSalary = BigDecimal(annualSalary))

secondary constructors are probably what you need:

fun main(){
    val constructWithBigDecimal = EmployeeRunData(BigDecimal.TEN)
    val constructWithNumber = EmployeeRunData(2341L)
}

data class EmployeeRunData(val annualSalary: BigDecimal) {
    constructor(annualSalary: Number) : this(BigDecimal(annualSalary.toString()))
}

This way, whenever you call the constructor of EmployeeRunData, it will set its annualSalary directly if you call it with a BigDecimal, otherwise it will call it with the constructor. If your problem is in writing unittests only, I suggest just making local functions

previously, in another language, I used extension methods to make this a bit easier. So if

foo()

expects a BigDecimal, you could call it like

foo(<http://123.bd|123.bd>)

➕ That’s what I’d recommend:

val <http://Int.bd|Int.bd> get() = toBigDecimal()

Thanks all for the answers. I’m trying to avoid secondary constructors because I want the production contract to be only with BigDecimal. I think that @Martin and @elizarov answers are what I’m looking for. Roman/Martin Could you provide some context/explanation to help me to understand the solution? ; my initial read from this is that we are creating a extension function to a property called “bd” that call a method toBigDecimal() which needs to be implemented. Is it correct? Thanks for the help!

The Kotlin standard library already defines

toBigDecimal()

as an extension function on the

Int

type, so you don't need to implement that. @elizarov's solution is adding a

bd

property to the

Int

type, and the getter for that property delegates to

toBigDecimal()

. That way,

EmployeeRunData

only needs the primary constructor, which takes a

BigDecimal

, and you can call it like:

val constructWithBigDecimal = EmployeeRunData(<http://10.bd|10.bd>)

. Does that make more sense?

Thanks a lot @Martin . It makes sense!!