Kotlin can also do the same thing through the lateinit keyword. Swift also has implicit unwrapping, which defines an optional, but tells the compiler that it can unwrap it because it will have a value when ready. The goal of Kotlin nullables is to help with the issue of the NullPointerException and add more tools for type checking. For Kotlin nullables, there is still use of the null pointer, but with its type system, you can determine if a variable should be allowed to contain a null pointer. Kotlin uses the Java Virtual Machine’s way of having null values. This allows for the optional type to always have a value to its pointer. Swift’s Optional is actually an enum that has two values, some(value) and none. The philosophies on null/nil checking are different because of the way optionals/nullables are implemented in each language. Simple Syntactical Differences:ĭata class SampleClass(var id: Int?, var thing1: String, var thing2: String, var thing3: String?) This is a side-by-side comparison of some important concepts in programming within these two languages. With that being said, I have enjoyed writing code in both of these languages. We have to remember that we aren’t comparing iOS and Android, or XCode and Android Studio: we are comparing the languages that are used to build apps on these platforms. Being at WillowTree has allowed me to sink my teeth into both languages. This made it easier for me when learning Swift and Kotlin because I had experience with both Object-oriented and functional programming. I didn’t have lots of experience with a functional programming language, but I did have lots of Java, C++, and C# experience. Even though I learned a great deal about the design of a compiler, I feel like the biggest reward long term was having to force myself to do functional programming. In college, my Compilers course was using Scala as its language. Both languages are foundational to the current mobile development world.

Swift and Kotlin were both designed to interop with Objective-C and Java, which allows for newer updates in apps to potentially be written in these languages. Their predecessors, Objective-C and Java, are very object-oriented, but Swift and Kotlin give us mobile developers an Object-oriented paradigm combined with some functional features. Both have certainly given the mobile development world a more functional feel. Swift and Kotlin are the development languages for iOS and Android respectively.

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