Kotlin Setters and Getters

In Kotlin, properties are a core feature of the language, providing a clean and concise way to encapsulate fields while maintaining control over how values are accessed or modified. Each property can have getters and setters, which are automatically generated but can be customized as needed.

Kotlin Property Declaration

A property in Kotlin can be declared using either the var or val keyword:

1. var: mutable (can be reassigned)
2. val: read-only (immutable after initialization)

Syntax of Property

var <propertyName>: <PropertyType> = <initializer>
 get() = field // Optional getter
 set(value) { // Optional setter
 field = value
 }

Here, the property initializer, getter and setter are optional. We can also omit the property type, if it can be inferred from the initializer. The syntax of a read-only or immutable property declaration differs from a mutable one in two ways:

1. It starts with val instead of var.
2. It does not allow a setter.

Example of Mutable and Immutable Property:

fun main(args: Array<String>) {
 var x: Int = 0 // Mutable property
 val y: Int = 1 // Immutable property

 x = 2 // OK: x is mutable
 y = 0 // Error: y is read-only
}

In the above code, we are trying to assign a value again to 'y' but it shows a compile time error because it cannot accept the change.

Setters and Getters

In Kotlin,

• A getter retrieves the value of a property.
• A setter sets (updates) the value of a property.

By default, Kotlin automatically generates a getter for val and both getter and setter for var. However, you can customize these as needed.

class Company {
 var name: String = "DefaultValue"
}

The above code is equivalent to this code:

class Company {
 var name: String = "DefaultValue"
 get() = field
 set(value) {
 field = value
 }
}

Using the Property

We instantiate an object 'c' of the class 'Company {...}'. When we initialize the 'name' property, it is passed to the setter's parameter value and sets the 'field' to value. When we are trying to access name property of the object, we get field because of this code get() = field. We can get or set the properties of an object of the class using the dot(.) notation -

fun main() {
 val company = Company()
 company.name = "GeeksforGeeks" // Calls setter
 println(company.name) // Calls getter
}

Example of Default Setter and Getter

Output:

GeeksforGeeks

Value and Field Identifiers

We have noticed these two identifiers in the above program.

• Value: Conventionally, we choose the name of the setter parameter as value , but we can choose a different name if we want. The value parameter contains the value that a property is assigned to. In the above program, we have initialized the property name as c.name = "GeeksforGeeks", the value parameter contains the assigned value “GeeksforGeeks”.
• Backing Field (field): It allows storing the property value in memory possible. When we initialize a property with a value, the initialized value is written to the backing field of that property. In the above program, the value is assigned to field, and then, field is assigned to get() .

Private Modifier

If we want the get method in public access, we can write this code:

var name: String = ""
 private set

And, we can set the name only in a method inside the class because of private modifier near set accessor. Example to set the value by using a method inside a class.

Output:

Initial name: abc
Updated name: GeeksforGeeks

Explanation:

Here, the set accessor is marked as private, so it cannot be accessed or modified from outside the class, but can still be updated internally via a method.

Custom Setter and Getter

Output:

praveenruhil1993@gmail.com
Geeks@123
25
M

Here, the custom getter for email ensures the returned value is always lowercase. The custom setter for password validates the length before assignment, and the custom setter for age ensures only positive values are accepted.