Kotlin: eliminate nulls from a List (or other functional transformation)

Question

Problem

What is the idiomatic way of working around this limitation of the null-safety in the Kotlin type system?

val strs1:List<String?> = listOf("hello", null, "world")

// ERROR: Type Inference Failed: Expected Type Mismatch:
// required: List<String>
// round:    List<String?>
val strs2:List<String> = strs1.filter { it != null }

This question is not just about eliminating nulls, but also to make the type system recognize that the nulls are removed from the collection by the transformation.

I'd prefer not to loop, but I will if that's the best way to do it.

Work-Around

The following compiles, but I'm not sure it's the best way to do it:

fun <T> notNullList(list: List<T?>):List<T> {
    val accumulator:MutableList<T> = mutableListOf()
    for (element in list) {
        if (element != null) {
            accumulator.add(element)
        }
    }
    return accumulator
}
val strs2:List<String> = notNullList(strs1)

Ayeshaayin

Answer 1

You can use filterNotNull

Here is a simple example:

val a: List<Int?> = listOf(1, 2, 3, null)
val b: List<Int> = a.filterNotNull()

But under the hood, stdlib does the same as you wrote

/**
 * Appends all elements that are not `null` to the given [destination].
 */
public fun <C : MutableCollection<in T>, T : Any> Iterable<T?>.filterNotNullTo(destination: C): C {
    for (element in this) if (element != null) destination.add(element)
    return destination
}

Obliterate

Sweet! Doh! Why didn't I see that? :-) – Ayeshaayin

if you are creating the list you can also use listOfNotNull – Dudley

I get a Useless call on a collection type warning. Called over a Mutable list<Strings> – Semicolon

@Semicolon It is useless, as your list doesn't contain any nulls. It would be a List<String?> otherwise. (Notice the "?") – Sewellyn

Answer 2

you can also use

mightContainsNullElementList.removeIf { it == null }

Estep

Please explain that further - what does that line do, and why exactly does it solve the given problem? – Falsify

@NicoHaase Actually this code speaks for itself. it's quite understandable – Conjunctive

Answer 3

val strs1 = listOf("hello", null, "world") // [hello, null, world]
val strs2 = strs1.filter { !it.isNullOrBlank() } // [hello, world]

Enquire

Please add some explanation to your answer such that others can learn from it – Falsify