Understanding Types
Learn to understand Kotlin's type system by comparing it with Java's types, discovering how Kotlin employs type inference, immutability, and simpler equality checks. Gain clarity on Kotlin's function declaration syntax and how the language supports safer and more concise coding.
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We said that Kotlin is a type-safe language. Let’s examine the Kotlin type system and compare it to what Java provides.
Note: The Java examples are for familiarity and not to prove that Kotlin is superior to Java in any way.
Basic types
Some languages make a distinction between primitive types and objects. Taking Java as an example, there is the int type and Integer—the former being more memory-efficient and the latter more expressive by supporting a lack of value and having methods.
There is no such distinction in Kotlin. From a developer’s perspective, all the types are the same.
But this doesn’t mean that Kotlin is less efficient than Java in that aspect. The Kotlin compiler optimizes types.
Most of the Kotlin types are named similarly to Java, the exceptions being Java’s Integer being called Int in Kotlin and Java’s ...