Kotlin offers many benefits over “plain” Java. This guide demonstrates how to replace dated POJO boilerplates using Kotlin’s more elegant data classes.

It always amazes me how much Kotlin is able to offer over “plain” Java, and data classes are no exception. In this post, we’ll explore how Kotlin’s data classes take all the boilerplate out of old-school POJOs, the power of built-in equals, hashcode, and copy methods, and learn easy destructuring with generated componentN helpers. Finally, we’ll check out a little gotcha when mixing inheritance with data classes.

Onward!

What is Kotlin?

As a quick refresher, Kotlin is a modern, statically typed language that compiles down for use on the JVM. It’s often used wherever you’d reach for Java, including Android apps and backend servers (using Java Spring or Kotlin’s own Ktor).

#kotlin #java