Hello, I have a public interface called "Foo" and ...

# codingconventions

[james.cruz]

Hello,
I have a public interface called "Foo" and it has an internal default object implementation.
What's the preferred way to get the implementation's instance?

1️⃣ Companion object as the default implementation

interface Foo {
  companion object : Foo {
    // default implementation goes here

2️⃣ Quasi constructor

interface Foo {
  companion object {
    operator fun invoke(): Foo = DefaultFooImpl

3️⃣ Top level method

fun defaultFoo(): Foo = DefaultFooImpl

[Czar]

1️⃣ is different to 2️⃣ and 3️⃣ , the former creates a singleton which is tied to Foo interface, whereas latter create new instance on each invocation, so choice here depends on what you want.
1️⃣ is very weird, I don't see any valid justification for it, feel free to change my mind 🙂 Having a singleton default implementation of an interface can be achieved in a much more readable standard way.
As for 2️⃣ vs 3️⃣ (you want a new instance on each invocation), I'd say 2️⃣ effectively tries to hide the fact that Foo is an interface and IMHO hinders readability a lot, I probably would not allow it in any code base under my supervision, whereas 3️⃣ is readable and conveys intention clearly.

[james.cruz]

Thanks for the reply!

For clarification, DefaultFooImpl is an object, so they're all returning the same singleton instance every time.

Regardless, 3️⃣ still seems to be the better choice, considering what you said

[Mike]

If DefaultFooImpl is an object, why aren’t you just referencing the functions/properties directly on it? Rather than creating an extra level of indirection to get the pointer.

Rather than defaultFoo().someFunction(), you can just do DefaultFooImpl.someFunction()

Or you want to be able to change the value of defaultFoo w/o having to change all occurrences throughout the code?

The use-case is unclear to me.

[james.cruz]

Hi Mike,
That's because DefaultFooImpl is an internal object, as others have pointed out.

We're exposing an API to 3rd party users of our library. So we want to keep source and binary compatibility as much as possible.

[Czar]

Then I suggest making it as obvious as possible e.g.
exposing it as a property instead of a method, and with a descriptive name: Foo.defaultSingletonImpl

interface Foo {
	companion object {
		val defaultSingletonImpl = DefaultFooImpl
	}
}

[bdawg.io]

My vote would be to follow the other conventions of default factories:

fun Foo(): Foo = DefaultFooImpl

(for example, emptySet() returns a singleton of Set<Nothing>)

[bdawg.io]

This is also similar to Job which is an interface but you can get the default implementation using Job()