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    5 Lofty Features of Kotlin That Makes It Ahead of Java

    February 19, 2019 — By Brain Technosys

    In the future, you must know that the applications of Kotlin will prove to be ahead of Java. Several manufacturers of a smartphone such as Samsung, Sony, Lenovo, HTC, MI, Micromax, and others, have supported Android smartphone. All these phones have been exclusively designed to display the Android System.

    Kotlin A Successor Of Java

    Kotlin that was introduced in 2011 was intended to act as an open source, general-purpose programming language. This has a type of interface and works across other platforms. Kotlin is brief and can shorten the boilerplate code to a large degree. It has helped Android developers as it contains new features that are not found in Java. Kotlin has functions like smart casts, null safety feature, primary constructors, type projections, operator overloading, data classes, companion objects, singletons, and separate interfaces for reading only. As Kotlin deals on readable syntax, code reviews do not pose as an issue for people who do not know the language.
    In the year 2019, the following five lofty features of Kotlin have been considered that can prove to be ahead of Java. They include:

    1. Null Safety

    Securing of code by Kotlin is done through operator overloading, functional concepts, and null safety. It includes data classes as well. Besides these extended functions, you can find that some other feature, like smart casts, is considered as an extension function.

    2. Streams and Its Collections

    Users who are new to Kotlin have to be aware of Java Stream API’s and lazy Initializations. In this connection, it can be stated that Kotlin’s API’s Collection is considered as more versatile and expressive. However, you must note that the development of designs might become monotonous. In order to come out of these difficulties, an introduction of the Stream API abstraction has been done.

    3. Parameters Naming

    Passing of default values to parameters in the definition of a function is allowed by Kotlin.

    4. Extension Functions

    Since Kotlin is a programming language, it provides the users certain useful Standard Library Function. The basic idea of introducing these new functionalities is provided into an existing class that can be further expanded. Here, Kotlin comes up with strong standard extension functions that can be added as new functionalities. This operation is done to the existing classes in an easy manner.

    5. Immutability

    Kotlin offers the feature of immutability. In this, it ignores the side effects created by the functions. Here, the meaning of immutability shows that an object or variable when once created cannot be changed. Hence, while considering case properties of that object, which needs to be changed; you have to clone the entire object or variable. In the case of Java, cloning means it chews the memory in a simple way. It looks like a verbose and is considered as wrong. In fact, Kotlin makes use of immutability as it is safely threaded and there are no race conditions. Further, you do not encounter any concurrency issues, and there is no requirement of synchronization.

    It is normal to find that there are two main threads in the UI and background of Android. These two work independently if you try to write clean code. It should be noted here that Java offers only a restricted amount of support. This aspect will ensure that the software is immutable at the time of compilation. Further, Kotlin offers high-end compiler support that can differentiate between values and properties, which are immutable. Other characteristic features of Kotlin includes that you can create singletons and enumerations involving sealed classes.

    You must know that Kotlin is considered as a more stable option for Android Studio. It is designed exclusively to improve the existing Java models by providing extensive solutions to manage API design deficiencies.