Hey! I have come across an error in the IntelliJ IDE in Main.kt the tutorial i am following is telli...

# getting-started

[Will_505]

Hey! I have come across an error in the IntelliJ IDE in Main.kt the tutorial i am following is telling me to declare my functions like so but i am getting issues with the compiler.

the code:

fun sayHello(itemToGreet:String) = println("Hello $itemToGreet")

fun main() {
    sayHello(itemToGreet: "Kotlin")
    sayHello(itemToGreet: "World")

}

The error:

[Landry Norris]

You need to write itemToGreet = "Kotlin" when calling sayHello

[Landry Norris]

Same with the second call.

[Landry Norris]

fun sayHello(itemToGreet: String) = println("Hello $itemToGreet")

fun main() {
    sayHello(itemToGreet = "Kotlin")
    sayHello(itemToGreet = "World")

}

[Landry Norris]

The parameter name is also not required, unlike in Swift. You can just write

fun sayHello(itemToGreet:String) = println("Hello $itemToGreet")

fun main() {
    sayHello("Kotlin")
    sayHello("World")

}

[Will_505]

ah i see. ok interesting. I will try to perform that change when going through the video tutorials then. the video is from 2019 so maybe its outdated

[Will_505]

Thank you!

[Landry Norris]

Interesting. I don’t think Kotlin’s ever supported (name: value) syntax for parameters. You do use (name: Type) when defining the function and (name = value) syntax when calling with explicit parameter names.

[Will_505]

it was the IDE adding in some fancy syntax and because of the font from the instructor i assumed they had typed it out. that's why. because im new i just got confused

[Will_505]

image.png

[Will_505]

Their syntax appears much larger and looks like its been typed out

[Will_505]

*font, not syntax

[Landry Norris]

I see. It makes sense that the inlay there could be confusing. I wonder if JetBrains has considered this. It could confuse a lot of people new to Kotlin.

[Will_505]

I think the default font is very reasonable. but once custom themes come into play yea things could get confusing

[Landry Norris]

That looks like it’s an IDE inlay. It’s not part of the actual code (there’s no text where it says ‘itemToGreet:’ in the file). It’s just a nice IDE feature that hints what the name is.

[Will_505]

yea

[Landry Norris]

You don’t need to type it in your file either. The IDE should show this itself.

[Will_505]

Yea! i understand that now. thanks 👍