I was wondering... Why does `fun String?.orEmpty()...

# stdlib

[Luke]

I was wondering... Why does fun String?.orEmpty(): String was not defined for CharSequence? Is it a multiplatform constraint?

[Ruckus]

I would guess it has to do with expected use. As most APIs (at least from my experience) work with strings, any use of orEmpty would then also require a call to toString in most any actual use case.

[ephemient]

I wouldn't say that's true - many Android APIs take CharSequence, which can be annotated strings

[ephemient]

but it's also pretty easy to write ?: "" so it's not a huge missing gap

[Luke]

Of course, it's something I could define myself, and absolutely minor in the standard library development. But I would think that the inclusion of orEmpty for String alone could justify the equivalent for CharSequence, or at least something like fun <C, R> C?.ifNull(defaultValue: () -> R): R where C : R, for functional programming style.

[Ruckus]

That could be the case. I haven't done android in many years, so I guess my experience may come with a pretty strong sampling bias...