Lesson 1:

Kotlin basics

Android Development with Kotlin v1.0 This work is licensed under the Apache 2 license. 1
About this lesson
Lesson 1: Kotlin basics
○ Get started
○ Operators
○ Data types
○ Variables
○ Conditionals
○ Lists and arrays
○ Null safety
○ Summary

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 Get started

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Open IntelliJ IDEA

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Create a new project

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Name the project

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Open REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop)

It may take a few

moments before the
Kotlin menu appears
under Tools.

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Create a printHello() function

Press Control+Enter
(Command+Enter on
a Mac) to execute.

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 Operators

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Operators
● Mathematical operators
● Increment and decrement operators
● Comparison operators

● Assignment operator

● Equality operators

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Math operators with integers

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Math operators with doubles

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Math operators

⇒ ⇒

⇒ indicates output
⇒ ⇒ from your code.

Result includes the

type (kotlin.Int).
⇒

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Numeric operator methods
Kotlin keeps numbers as primitives, but lets you call methods on numbers
as if they were objects.

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 Data types

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Integer types
Type Bits Notes

Long 64 From -263 to 263-1

Int 32 From -231 to 231-1

Short 16 From -32768 to 32767

Byte 8 From -128 to 127

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Floating-point and other numeric types
Type Bits Notes

Double 64 16 - 17 significant digits

Float 32 6 - 7 significant digits
Char 16 16-bit Unicode character

Boolean 8 True or false. Operations include:

- lazy disjunction, - lazy conjunction,
- negation

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Operand types
Results of operations keep the types of the operands

⇒ ⇒

⇒ ⇒

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Type casting
Assign an Int to a Byte

⇒
Convert Int to Byte with casting

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Underscores for long numbers

Use underscores to make long numeric constants more readable.

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Strings

Strings are any sequence of characters enclosed by double quotes.

String literals can contain escape characters

Or any arbitrary text delimited by a triple quote (""")

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String concatenation

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String templates
A template expression starts with a dollar sign ($) and can be a simple value:

Or an expression inside curly braces:

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String template expressions

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 Variables

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Variables

● Powerful type inference

● Let the compiler infer the type
● You can explicitly declare the type if needed
● Mutable and immutable variables
● Immutability not enforced, but recommended

Kotlin is a statically-typed language. The type is resolved at compile time and

never changes.

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Specifying the variable type

Colon Notation

Important: Once a type has been assigned by you or the compiler, you can't
change the type or you get an error.

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Mutable and immutable variables
● Mutable (Changeable)

● Immutable (Unchangeable)

Although not strictly enforced, using immutable variables is recommended in

most cases.

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var and val

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 Conditionals

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Control flow

Kotlin features several ways to implement conditional logic:

● If/Else statements
● When statements
● For loops
● While loops

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if/else statements

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if statement with multiple cases

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Ranges

● Data type containing a span of comparable values (e.g.,

integers from 1 to 100 inclusive)
● Ranges are bounded
● Objects within a range can be mutable or immutable

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Ranges in if/else statements

Note: There are no spaces around the "range to" operator (1..100)

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when statement

As well as a when statement, you can also define a when expression that
provides a return value.

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for loops

You don’t need to define an iterator variable and increment it for each pass.

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for loops: elements and indexes

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for loops: step sizes and ranges

⇒
for (i in 3..6 step 2) print(i)
⇒

for (i in 'd'..'g') print (i)

⇒

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while loops
var bicycles = 0
while (bicycles < 50) {
bicycles++
}
println("$bicycles bicycles in the bicycle rack\n")
⇒

do {
bicycles--
} while (bicycles > 50)
println("$bicycles bicycles in the bicycle rack\n")
⇒

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repeat loops

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Lists and arrays

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Lists

● Lists are ordered collections of elements

● List elements can be accessed programmatically through their
indices
● Elements can occur more than once in a list

An example of a list is a sentence: it's a group of words, their order is important,

and they can repeat.

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Immutable list using listOf()

Declare a list using and print it out.

⇒ [trumpet, piano, violin]

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Mutable list using mutableListOf()

Lists can be changed using mutableListOf()

With a list defined with val, you can't change which list the variable refers to, but
you can still change the contents of the list.

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Arrays

● Arrays store multiple items

● Array elements can be accessed programmatically through

their indices

● Array elements are mutable

● Array size is fixed

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Array using arrayOf()

An array of strings can be created using arrayOf()

With an array defined with val, you can't change which array the variable refers
to, but you can still change the contents of the array.

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Arrays with mixed or single types

An array can contain different types.

An array can also contain just one type (integers in this case).

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Combining arrays

Use the + operator.

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 Null safety

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Null safety

● In Kotlin, variables cannot be null by default

● You can explicitly assign a variable to null using the safe call
operator
● Allow null-pointer exceptions using the !! operator
● You can test for null using the elvis (?:) operator

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Variables cannot be null

In Kotlin, null variables are not allowed by default.

Declare an Int and assign null to it.

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Safe call operator

The safe call operator (?), after the type indicates that a variable can be null.

Declare an Int? as nullable

In general, do not set a variable to null as it may have unwanted consequences.

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Testing for null
Check whether the numberOfBooks variable is not null. Then decrement that
variable.

Now look at the Kotlin way of writing it, using the safe call operator.

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The !! operator
If you’re certain a variable won’t be null, use !! to force the variable into a
non-null type. Then you can call methods/properties on it.

throws NullPointerException if s is null

Warning: Because !! will throw an exception, it should only be used when it

would be exceptional to hold a null value.

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Elvis operator

Chain null tests with the ?: operator.

The ?: operator is sometimes called the "Elvis operator," because it's like a smiley
on its side with a pompadour hairstyle, like Elvis Presley styled his hair.

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 Summary

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Summary
In Lesson 1, you learned how to:
● Create an IntelliJ IDEA project, opening REPL, and execute a function
● Use operators and numeric operator methods
● Use data types, type casting, strings, and string templates
● Use variables and type inference, and mutable and immutable
variables
● Use conditionals, control flow, and looping structures
● Use lists and arrays
● Use Kotlin's null safety features
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Pathway

Practice what you’ve learned by

completing the pathway:
Lesson 1: Kotlin basics

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