what’s the default/suggested/safest/recommended wa...

# getting-started

[oday]

what’s the default/suggested/safest/recommended way to initialize stuff like this ? http://snpy.in/kISHVt

[Igor Khvostenkov]

You can use default values for String and Int or lateinit for non primitives.

lateinit var smth: String
var smth: String = ""
var smth: Int = 0

[oday]

this is the way to go isn’t it?

[oday]

only in Kotlin do I find myself resorting to this ? = null initialization

[oday]

because it’s allowing me to set anything as a defualt value null

[oday]

so I think it’s the safest since the option is now open to me, I start thinking that yea an Int could be sent to me as null

[Igor Khvostenkov]

Then you need to decide if you want to be defensive or offensive when receive null

[Daniel Garibaldi]

all values are optional? is this a data class?

[Daniel Garibaldi]

Are you planing to use jackson with it? because you can set default values in jackson and there's no need to set defaults in data class

[Nezteb]

If you have an init { } block in the class, you can just make them all val thing: String and it won’t complain because they will always be initialized

[Nezteb]

Otherwise: The var thing: String? = null is basically the equivalent in Java because anything can be null. You’re just forced to acknowledge it in Kotlin.

[Nezteb]

You could use a data class. That screenshot only shows a bunch of properties, which data classes are perfect for wrapping. Assuming this isn’t a huge class with lots of methods.

[oday]

why would I use a data class?

[oday]

sorry for the extremely late answer, but a data class will offer you a hash and equals methods no?

[oday]

what’s the value here, but good point for init!

[oday]

during testing, I need these values to be initialized all auotmatically so that I can instantiate objects of this class with the fields I want, i dont wanna run around and have them all filled before i get the chance to use the class

[Nezteb]

Ah, the reason I suggested a data class is in that screenshot I didn’t see any functions, just data. So I was thinking you could have a data class for all of that.

data class ClassConfig(...)
class MyClass {
    val config = ClassConfig(
        ....
    )
    // Functions here...
}