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Hey, anyone aware of a way to `collect` *just once* from a `StateFlow` or `SharedFlow` ? One can call `cancel()` on the job of the coroutine that is collecting but that seems a bit cumbersome...

<@U013V5FK0FP> `first()` unfortunately has different behavior from `collect()` in that it throws an exception when the flow is empty.

<@U751GPTU7> `firstOrNull` also has different behavior. It returns null if the flow is empty where `collect` would just block and wait until there is something.

StateFlow always has a value, StateFlow and SharedFlow also never complete

AFAIK a Flow is only seen as empty if it completes without emiting, since SharedFlow (and StateFlow) never complete, they can’t be empty then.

~I think I saw an exception being thrown by `first()` when I was using it on a `SharedFlow` (with no initial value).~

If I `collect()` on a `SharedFlow` no exception is thrown.

incidentally, on StateFlow I’d just read `value` since reading that code it will be more clear it will not suspend ( `first` behaves the same in this case but on other Flows like SharedFlow it can suspend)