Type alias in Kotlin is a feature that allows you to give a new name to an existing type. It can help make your code more readable and easier to understand.
Here's an example: let's say you're working on an Android app and you're using the type Pair<String, Int>
a lot in your code. Instead of writing Pair<String, Int>
every time you need to use it, you can create a type alias for it:
typealias StringIntPair = Pair<String, Int>
Now you can use the StringIntPair
type alias instead of Pair<String, Int>
in your code. Here's an example:
val pair: StringIntPair = "foo" to 42
This is the same as writing:
val pair: Pair<String, Int> = "foo" to 42
Type aliases can also be used with generic types, nullable types, and function types. For example, the following code defines a type alias for a nullable function that takes two integers as arguments and returns a nullable integer
typealias MyFunction = ((Int, Int) -> Int)?
Now you can use the type alias "MyFunction" instead of the function type ((Int, Int) -> Int)?
. For example, the following code creates a variable of type "MyFunction" and assigns a lambda expression to it:
val myFunction: MyFunction = { a, b -> a + b }
This is equivalent to creating a variable of the type ((Int, Int) -> Int)?
and assign a lambda expression to it:
val myFunction: ((Int, Int) -> Int)? = { a, b -> a + b }
You can have new names for inner nested classes
class A {
inner class Inner
}
class B {
inner class Inner
}
typealias AInner = A.Inner
typealias BInner = B.Inner
You can even use resource file names.
typealias Drawable = R.drawable
typealias Layout = R.layout
setContentView(Layout.activity_main)
imageView.setImageDrawable(ContextCompat.getDrawable(this,Drawable.ic_launcher_background))
In general, type aliases can make your code more concise and easier to read. They're especially useful when you're working with complex types or when you want to create your own custom types that are more specific to your app's needs.
This is all about typeAlias in Koltin.
Happy learning.