Kotlin vs Java for Android Development by Devesh Raj CodeX

For example, Kotlin has null safety built into the language, meaning you can avoid those pesky NullPointerException errors. It also supports data classes and lambdas, which can make your code more concise and expressive. Finally, Kotlin has better support for Android development than Java does.

So it’s possible to have Kotlin and Java classes side-by-side within the same project, and everything will still compile. This is a strongly statically typed general-purpose programming language that runs on JVM. In 2017, Google announced Kotlin is an official language for android development. Kotlin is an open source programming language that combines object-oriented programming and functional features into a unique platform. The content is divided into various chapters that contain related topics with simple and useful examples. One key difference between Java and Kotlin is that the former is primarily an object oriented programming language while the latter also supports functional programming.

What are the Business Benefits of Kotlin?

However, Kotlin compiles and executes a little slower than Java, which is mainly due to its extensive number of features. The long-term prospects for Kotlin in the Android app development industry are positive. Kotlin has already seen widespread adoption among significant companies, with strong support from Google and the Android community.

This means that Kotlin code can be more concise and expressive than Java code, as well as enabling extra features like type-safe builders. This use case is worth describing separately, as Android app development is one of the most popular uses for Kotlin. While Java has been the go-to language for Android development for a long time, Kotlin is a more modern option that is becoming increasingly popular. For some, Kotlin became a new Android language, used in mobile development to write Android apps, compile code, as well as for replacing other programming languages. Is an open-source and modern statically typed programming language used by over 60% of Android developers today.

Procedural programming style

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With Kotlin/Native currently in the works, support for other platforms such as embedded systems, macOS and iOS is coming. People are using Kotlin for mobile and server-side applications, client-side with JavaScript or JavaFX, and data science, just to name a few possibilities. Java is a proven and stable language that has been around for many years, is easy to learn, and has a large community of developers who can offer help.

Company

Almost every app in the Google Play store is based on Kotlin, which serves as a base for writing microservices. Companies like Pinterest, Trello, Coursera, and Evernote use Kotlin, to name just a few. Although both Kotlin and Java provide plenty of documentation, it’s easier to find a tutorial for Java since it has been in use for a longer how to hire a kotlin developer time. Java is often considered to be the most straightforward programming language to learn, and you can find its official documentation from Oracle. Originally intending to make coding in Java more productive, a team from JetBrains introduced Kotlin in 2017. Shortly thereafter in 2018, Kotlin became its own official programming language.

For Android developers, Kotlin support is a chance to use a modern and powerful language, helping solve common headaches such as runtime exceptions and source code verbosity. Kotlin is easy to get started with and can be gradually introduced into existing projects, which means that your existing skills and technology investments are preserved. The most important thing is that in them is that it is a functional programming language.

What are the Key Features of Java and Kotlin?

It is the fourth most loved programming language according to the 2020 Stack Overflow Developer Survey. In 2020, JetBrains found in a survey of developers who use Kotlin that 56% were using Kotlin for mobile apps, while 47% were using it for a web back-end. Just over a third of all Kotlin developers said that they were migrating to Kotlin from another language. Most Kotlin users were targeting Android , with only 6% using Kotlin Native.

• Kotlin is generally easy to learn for developers already familiar with Java.
• Kotlin is a general-purpose, statically typed, and open-source programming language.
• Lambda expressions, introduced with Java 8, are one its favorite features.
• Starting with Kotlin 1.5, the compiler does not support producing bytecode compatible with Java versions below 8.
• Kotlin may also inject an assertion into the code at compile time to avoid triggering an actual null pointer exception.

Kotlin has proper function types, and it has no raw types. It also does not have checked exceptions, as Java does. Although Kotlin is a relatively new language compared to Java, it has a community of developers who work to improve the language and provide documentation. Kotlin is often used for data science tasks, such as building data pipelines and putting machine learning models into production. Jupyter and Zeppelin, two popular data science tools used with Java, also support Kotlin.

References

A data class often is written without a body, though it is possible to give a data class any methods or secondary constructors that are valid for any other class. The data keyword is used before the class keyword to define a data class. KTX extensions add Kotlin language features, such as coroutines, extension functions, lambdas, and named parameters, to existing Android libraries. A common frustration with programming languages is accessing a member of a null reference.