Is there a way to use the default value on a non-optional parameter when null is passed?
You can define a companion object for your data class and overload its invoke operator to use default values when null
is passed:
data class Data private constructor(
val name: String,
val number: Long
) {
companion object {
operator fun invoke(
name: String? = null,
number: Long? = null
) = Data(
name ?: "",
number ?: 0
)
}
}
the secondary constructor only supports for the Nullable primitive properties. which means it will result in 2 same constructors if the property is not a primitive type, for example:
data class Data(val name: String) {
constructor(name: String? = null) : this(name ?: "foo");
// ^--- report constructor signature error
}
data class Data(val number: Long = 0) {
constructor(number: Long? = null) : this(number ?: 0)
// ^--- No problem since there are 2 constructors generated:
// Data(long number) and Data(java.lang.Long number)
}
an alternative way is using invoke
operator for that, for example:
data class Data(val name: String) {
companion object {
operator fun invoke(name: String? = null) = Data(name ?: "")
}
}
IF the class is not a data class, then you can lazy initializing properties from parameters, rather than define properties on the primary constructor, for example:
class Data(name: String? = null, number: Long? = null) {
val name = name ?: ""
val number = number ?: 0
}