Difference between Java and Kotlin in Android with Examples

Kotlin was introduced in Android development considering multiple enhancements in Kotlin w.r.t Java. For example:

Java:
TextView displayText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textView);
displayText.setText("Hello World");

Kotlin:
textView.setText("Hello World")

var value: String = "abc"

// compilation error
value = null

data class User(val name: String, val age: Int)

The following are some of the important differences between Java and Kotlin.

Sr. No.	Key	Java	Kotlin
1	Exceptions	Java uses checked exceptions for exception handling.	Kotlin has no checked exception. It throws compile-time errors.
2	Null Handling	Java has not enforced null check thus null pointer exception arises when code is not handling null.	Kotlin enforces the null check at compile time.
3	Non-Private Fields	Java constructs have non-private fields.	Kotlin does not allow non-private fields in its constructs.
4	Arrays	Java arrays are covariant.	Kotlin arrays are invariant.
5	Ternary Operator	Java has a ternary operator.	Kotlin does not support a ternary operator.

Mahesh Parahar

Updated on: 2020-04-16T05:57:32+05:30

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