This article will give you a brief introduction to the Kotlin when expression and how to use it.
If you're used to Java, you’re probably used to the switch statement:
switch (number) { case 0: System.out.println("zero"); break; case 1: System.out.println("one"); break; case 2: System.out.println("two"); break; default: System.out.println("something else"); break; } In Kotlin we have the when statement – which can be described as switch on steroids. when can be used both as an expression and as a statement.
The first example is a basic when statement:
when (number) { 0 -> println("zero") 1 -> println("one") 2 -> println("two") else -> println("something else") } You can already see that it’s cleaner than the switch statement.
It's possible to specify ranges as well:
when (number) { 0 -> println("zero") 1, 2 -> println("one or two") in 3..10 -> println("between three and ten") !in 11..20 -> println("not between eleven and twenty") else -> println("something else") } You can also check the type of the parameter with the is expression. Here you’ll also benefit from the smart cast in Kotlin, which means that the is keyword implicitly casts value to the given type.
when (value) { is String -> println(value.replaceFirst("a", "b")) is Int -> println(value * 2) is Boolean -> println(!value) } In these examples we've seen the use of when as a statement. As mentioned earlier, when can also be used as an expression, as we can see in this example:
val numberAsString = when (number) { 1 -> "one" 2 -> "two" else -> "something else" } println("The number is $numberAsString") If the compiler can guarantee that when always returns a value there is no need for else:
fun example(trueOrFalse: Boolean) { when (trueOrFalse) { true -> println("true") false -> println("false") } } You can even use when without an argument. When used without an argument it acts more like an if-else chain:
when { carType == "Porsche" -> println("fast car") carType == "Jeep" -> println("beach car") numberOfCars > 5 -> println("many cars, but not Porsche or Jeep") } As you can see, the Kotlin when statement can be used in many different ways. Happy coding!