unrelated `if (title == null) title = tmdbEpisode...

# language-proposals

[Zac Sweers]

unrelated

if (title == null) title = tmdbEpisode.name

I wish I could do title ?= thing. Like Ruby’s ||= where it assigns only if not assigned yet. That could possibly mesh nicely with what I was raising here too: https://kotlinlang.slack.com/archives/C0B9K7EP2/p1527792590000151

[voddan]

To start the discussion:
- How often do you have to use such code? Some numbers from github statistics maybe?
- Can such code be abstracted away without modifying Koitlin?
- Can using a null value be avoided altogether?
- Will the proposed syntax be clear to people of all backgrounds? What other languages have similar constructs?

[ilya.gorbunov]

There's some discussion ongoing about the ?= operator on the forum: https://discuss.kotlinlang.org/t/conditional-assignment-operator-proposal/8150

[Zac Sweers]

would it be best to keep to the discussion in that forum?

[ilya.gorbunov]

@Zac Sweers Yes, it won't vanish after reaching the message limit horizon in this slack.

[Zac Sweers]

🙂