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Mastering Kotlin Essentials

String Representation and Objects Equality

Explore how Kotlin transforms objects into strings using the toString method and how the data class modifier improves this with property details. Understand how Kotlin determines object equality, especially for data classes, by comparing primary constructor properties, aiding in accurate coding and debugging.

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Transforming to a string

The default toString transformation produces a string that starts with the class name, then the @ sign, and then the unsigned hexadecimal representation of the hash code of the object. The purpose of this is to display the class name and to determine whether two strings represent the same object or not.

Kotlin 1.5
class FakeUserRepository
fun main() {
   val repository1 = FakeUserRepository()
   val repository2 = FakeUserRepository()
   println(repository1) // e.g. FakeUserRepository@6842775d
   println(repository1) // e.g. FakeUserRepository@6842775d
   println(repository2) // e.g. FakeUserRepository@574caa3f
}
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