Kotlin variables
last modified January 29, 2024
This article shows how to use variables in Kotlin.
Kotlin is a statically-typed programming language that runs on the Java virtual machine. The type of every expression is known at compile time.
A variable is a place to store data. A variable has a name and a data
type. A data type determines what values can be assigned to the variable.
Kotlin has the following basic types: Double, Float,
Long, Int, Short, and Byte.
Kotlin variables
There are two types of variables in Kotlin: read-only and mutable.
Read-only variables (or constants) are declared with val
and mutable with var.
Kotlin data type inference
Kotlin can infer the data type of a variable from the right side of the assignment. The data type is only mandatory when the assignment is deferred.
val word = "cloud" val word: String = "cloud"
The data type follows the indentifier and a colon in Kotlin.
Kotlin variables example
The following example creates two variables.
package com.zetcode
fun main() {
val word = "influence"
println(word)
var word2 = "sunshine"
println(word2)
word2 = "rain"
println(word2)
}
There is one read-only and one mutable variable.
val word = "influence"
With the val keyword, we define a read-only variable.
Its value cannot be altered later in the program. The data type is String,
which is inferred from the string literal on the right side of the assignment.
var word2 = "sunshine" println(word2) word2 = "rain" println(word2)
With the var keyword, we define a mutable variable.
The value of the variable is modified later in the program.
influence sunshine rain
Kotlin variable deferred assignment
In the following example, we defer the assignment of a variable after its declaration.
package com.zetcode
fun main() {
val input: String?
print("Enter something: ")
input = readLine()
println(input)
}
The example reads an input from a user.
val input: String?
We declare a variable of String data type. The trailing
question mark tells Kotlin that the variable may be null. This time
the data type has to be provided explicitly.
print("Enter something: ")
We print a prompt to the user.
input = readLine()
An input is read from the user with readLine. At this
moment, we have assigned a value to the input variable.
Kotlin properties
Variables created in a class are properties. The read-only variables have default accessors and mutable variables accessors and mutators.
package com.zetcode
class Person {
var name:String = ""
var age:Int = 0
override fun toString(): String {
return "Person(name='$name', age=$age)"
}
}
fun main() {
val p1 = Person()
p1.name = "Peter"
p1.age = 23
println(p1)
}
In the example we have a Person class with two properties:
name and age.
var name:String = "" var age:Int = 0
We have two mutable properties.
override fun toString(): String {
return "Person(name='$name', age=$age)"
}
We override the toString method to get a string representation
of a Person object.
val p1 = Person() p1.name = "Peter" p1.age = 23
A Person object is created. We set the two properties.
Person(name='Peter', age=23)
Source
In this article we have worked with variables in Kotlin.
Author
List all Kotlin tutorials.