Three ways to get a task: `tasks["foo"]`, `tasks.n...

# getting-started

[robnik]

Three ways to get a task: tasks["foo"], tasks.named("foo").get(), tasks.getByName("foo"). I guess the first is extra in Kotlin, because the language allows the [] syntax for get, but is there a difference between the second and third?

[marstran]

What's the type of tasks? Where is named and getByName coming from?

[robnik]

Not sure... it's at the top level of by build script. Maybe this is because I'm using Kotlin.

[marstran]

Ah, so it's the Gradle DSL?

[robnik]

TaskContainer I think.

[marstran]

Sure, that's part of the Gradle DSL. Not the Kotlin stdlib. 😉

[robnik]

It looks like both named and getByName are defined in org.gradle... classes. One returns the task, and the other a "provider". Not sure what the purpose is.

[marstran]

You should look them up in the API doc

[robnik]

Do you mean this? https://docs.gradle.org/current/javadoc/org/gradle/api/tasks/TaskCollection.html

[robnik]

They both say they fail if there is no such named object, so I don't see a meaningful difference between the two. Maybe the return type difference matters more for some reason in Groovy.

[snowe]

A better place to ask is #gradle

[snowe]

or in the Gradle Community slack in the #kotlin-dsl channel

[robnik]

Ah, thanks. Duh, I didn't notice I posted in wrong channel.

[Nikky]

getByName allows you to pass a type like so

tasks.getByName<TaskType>("taskname") { 
  // configuration here
}