Normally you can't declare a var without assigning...

# getting-started

[febs]

Normally you can't declare a var without assigning it a value; unless you state that it is a "lateinit" var.
You can't declare a val withoutu assigning it a value too; but you can use "by lazy" to achieve that.

BUT THEN

Why in a { catch (e: Exception) } block I am allowed to define a val or a var and then assign it afterwards, without the need of "lateinit" nor "by lazy"?

[diesieben07]

Your initial conception is not correct. The following works:

val a: String
if (condition) {
    a = "foo"
} else {
    a = "bar"
}

[diesieben07]

Can you give a concrete example of code you are confused about?

[febs]

Thanks. Why then in most cases the IDE complains?

[febs]

image.png

[diesieben07]

That looks like a property. In that case you will have to put the initialization code inside an init { } block (or constructor), since you can't just write inside the class body.

[diesieben07]

So:

val antani: String
init {
    antani = "ciao"
}

[febs]

OK, thanks: so the behavior is different whether we are talking about a property or a "normal" var or val, right?
If I got that correct, I'll dive deeper in that.

[diesieben07]

What you call "normal" are local variables (inside function).

[diesieben07]

This has nothing to do with the initialization of val/var. It's just that you can't just have code inside a class body.

[diesieben07]

If you want initialization code for the instances of the class, you use the constructor or init.

[diesieben07]

In your code example the problem is not with the property, it is that your antani = "ciao" code cannot be put at that place.

[febs]

Amazing replies, thank you so much

[diesieben07]

No problem 🙂