How to add item to list with Null Safety - dart

I have problem working with null safety in dart.
void main() {
List<String>? testlist;
testlist?.add('null test');
print(testlist);
}
Why the printed testlist is still null?

Your testlist is still null, because you defined it as nullable and did not initialize it.
So when it comes to adding an entry to your testlist, while calling testlist?.add('null test');. A check will be performed, if testlist is null. If it is null, the call for add will be skipped. And in your case, it is always null.
So to visualize the null-conditional operator in your code line testlist?.add('null test');. It could also be written as:
List<String>? testlist;
// testlist?.add('null test');
if(testlist != null) {
testlist.add('null test');
}
print(testlist);
If you want to add the string, you have to initialize your testlist:
List<String>? testlist = [];
Or if possible you could avoid the nullable and write your code as:
List<String> testlist = [];
testlist.add('null test');
print(testlist);

Because you haven't assigned a value to testlist, it's null and the add method is not executed.
The add method simply "adds" an entry to the list, but if the list is null you can't add anything to it.
You have to initialize it somehow, for example as List<String>? testlist = [];, but it depends how you'll use it in the end.

Related

TypeError while attempting to sort a list of custom objects

I'm new to Dart and tried to get a class to implement List using the answers here, and tried to sort a list of these objects using the docs here. I deleted most of my code in an effort to post a MWE:
import 'dart:collection';
class Transaction<E> extends ListBase<E>{
DateTime when;
Transaction(this.when);
List innerList = new List();
int get length => innerList.length;
void set length(int length){
innerList.length = length;
}
void operator[]=(int index, E value){
innerList[index] = value;
}
E operator [](int index) => innerList[index];
void add(E value) => innerList.add(value);
void addAll(Iterable<E> all) => innerList.addAll(all);
}
class Forecaster{
var transactions;
Forecaster(){
this.transactions = new List<dynamic>();
}
void tabulate(){
transactions.sort((a,b) => a.when.compareTo(b.when)); //problem line?
for(var d in transactions){
d.asMap().forEach((index,content){
int len = content.toStringAsFixed(2).length;
});
}
}
void forecast(var forWhen){
var first = new Transaction(DateTime.now());
first.addAll([5,9]);
transactions.add(first);
}
}
void main(){
Forecaster myTest = new Forecaster();
var dub = myTest;
dub..forecast(DateTime.now())
..tabulate();
}
Running with the problem line results in an exception (Uncaught exception: TypeError: Closure 'Forecaster_tabulate_closure': type '(dynamic, dynamic) => dynamic' is not a subtype of type '(dynamic, dynamic) => int') I don't understand. If I comment out the problem line, the TypeError goes away. Is the TypeError because I did something wrong when defining Transaction? I'm attempting this with DartPad.
I'm new to Dart too, so my explanation might not be 100% on the money, but I believe, yes, the main issue is the type assignment of transactions. I think because you initialize it as a var, it is having trouble deducing the type of a.when, which is means it also doesn't know the type of a.when.compareTo(), and assumes dynamic. You are feeding the output of compareTo into List.sort() which is expecting an int from the anonymous function. Thus the error that it wanted an int but got dynamic.
The easiest way to address this is to initialize transactions with a more explicit type rather than as var:
List<Transaction> transactions;
Forecaster(){
this.transactions = new List<Transaction>();
}
Also, to confirm that it is an issue with it not being able to infer the return type of compareTo, I tried leaving your code as-is, but explicitly casting the result as int, and that also worked:
transactions.sort((a,b){
return (a.when.compareTo(b.when) as int);
});
Note: code like the above and using lots of dynamics and vars is in general not great practice with Dart - you lose a lot of the benefits of having a typed language. You might also notice that when you type in an IDE, you don't get methods auto-suggested when you do stuff like this - for example, until I changed transactions to an explicit type of list, typing a.when did not trigger autocomplete, and my IDE thought the type was dynamic, not DateTime.
Your problem is with the types. The code:
var transactions;
Forecaster(){
this.transactions = new List<dynamic>();
}
void tabulate(){
transactions.sort((a,b) => a.when.compareTo(b.when));
first declares transactions to have type dynamic.
Then you call sort on that with an argument which is inferred to have type dynamic Function(dynamic, dynamic) (because there is no clue available to say otherwise in the type of transactions).
However, the actual run-time type of transactions is List<Transaction>, and that requires a function argument of type int Function(Transaction, Transaction). The type dynamic Function(dynamic, dynamic) is not a sub-type of int Function(Transaction, Transaction) (the return type has to be a subtype of int for that to be the case) so you get a run-time error.
If you change transactions to have type List<Transaction>, then the type inference will have a clue when it gets to the function literal. It will infer that (a, b) => a.when.compareTo(b.when) in a context expecting int Function(Transaction, Transaction) will have that type.
Even if you just change transactions to List<dynamic>, it will still work, it will just make a.when.compareTo(b.when) be dynamic invocations.

Searching a List of objects for a particular object in dart using "where"

I would like to obtain an object from a List based on a specific search criteria of its member variable
this is the code I am using
class foo
{
foo(this._a);
int _a;
}
List<foo> lst = new List<foo>();
main()
{
foo f = new foo(12);
lst.add(f);
List<foo> result = lst.where( (foo m) {
return m._a == 12;
});
print(result[0]._a);
}
I am getting the error and not sure how to resolve this
Uncaught exception:
TypeError: Instance of 'WhereIterable<foo>': type 'WhereIterable<foo>' is not a subtype of type 'List<foo>'
I am trying to search for an object whose member variable a == 12. Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong ?
The Iterable.where method returns an iterable of all the members which satisfy your test, not just one, and it's a lazily computed iterable, not a list. You can use lst.where(test).toList() to create a list, but that's overkill if you only need the first element.
You can use lst.firstWhere(test) instead to only return the first element, or you can use lst.where(test).first to do effectively the same thing.
In either case, the code will throw if there is no element matched by the test.
To avoid throwing, you can use var result = lst.firstWhere(test, orElse: () => null) so you get null if there is no such element.
Another alternative is
foo result;
int index = lst.indexWhere(test);
if (index >= 0) result = lst[index];
The answer is simple. Iterable.where returns an Iterable, not a List. AFAIK this is because _WhereIterable does its computations lazily.
If you really need to return a List, call lst.where(...).toList().
Otherwise, you can set result to be an Iterable<foo>, instead of a List<foo>.
or you can go crazy and do this:
bool checkIfProductNotFound(Map<String, Object> trendingProduct) {
bool isNotFound = this
._MyProductList
.where((element) => element["id"] == trendingProduct["id"])
.toList()
.isEmpty;
return isNotFound ;
}

Groovy removeAll closure not removing objects in Set

I'm using data binding with parent/child relationships in Grails 2.3.7 and am having trouble with deletes. The form has many optional children, and to keep the database tidy I'd like to purge blank (null) values. I've found some nice articles which suggest using removeAll to filter my entries but I can't get remove or removeAll to work!
For example... (Parent has 10 children, 5 are blank)
def update(Parent parent) {
parent.children.getClass() // returns org.hibernate.collection.PersistentSet
parent.children.size() // returns 10
parent.children.findAll{ it.value == null }.size() // returns 5
parent.children.removeAll{ it.value == null } // returns TRUE
parent.children.size() // Still returns 10!!!
}
I've read PersistentSet is finicky about equals() and hashCode() being implemented manually, which I've done in every domain class. What baffles me is how removeAll can return true, indicating the Collection has changed, yet it hasn't. I've been stuck on this for a couple days now so any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.
Update:
I've been experimenting with the Child hashcode and that seems to be the culprit. If I make a bare-bones hashcode based on the id (bad practice) then removeAll works, but if I include the value it stops working again. For example...
// Sample 1: Works with removeAll
int hashCode() {
int hash1 = id.hashCode()
return hash1
}
// Sample 2: Doesn't work with removeAll
int hashCode() {
int hash1 = id.hashCode()
int hash2 = value == null ? 0 : value.hashCode()
return hash1 + hash2
}
// Sample Domain classes (thanks Burt)
class Parent {
static hasMany = [children: Child]
}
class Child {
String name
String value
static constraints = {
value nullable: true
}
}
This behavior is explained by the data binding step updating data, making it dirty. (ie: child.value.isDirty() == true) Here's how I understand it.
First Grails data binding fetches the Parent and children, and the hashcode of each Child is calculated. Next, data updates are applied which makes child.value dirty (if it changed) but the Set's hashcodes remain unchanged. When removeAll finds a match it builds a hashCode with the dirty data, but that hashcode is NOT found in the Set so it can't remove it. Essentially removeAll will only work if ALL of my hashCode variables are clean.
So if the data must be clean to remove it, one solution is to save it twice. Like this...
// Parent Controller
def update(Parent parent) {
parent.children.removeAll{ it.value == null } // Removes CLEAN children with no value
parent.save(flush:true)
parent.refresh() // parent.children is now clean
parent.children.removeAll{ it.value == null } // Removes (formerly dirty) children
parent.save(flush:true) // Success!
}
This works though it's not ideal. First I must allow null values in the database, though they only exist briefly and I don't want them. And second it's kinda inefficient to do two saves. Surely there must be a better way?
hashCode and equals weirdness aren't an issue here - there are no contains calls or something similar that would use the hashCode value and potentially miss the actual data. If you look at the implementation of removeAll you can see that it uses an Iterator to call your closure on every instance and remove any where the closure result is truthy, and return true if at least one was removed. Using this Parent class
class Parent {
static hasMany = [children: Child]
}
and this Child
class Child {
String name
String value
static constraints = {
value nullable: true
}
}
and this code to create test instances:
def parent = new Parent()
5.times {
parent.addToChildren(name: 'c' + it)
}
5.times {
parent.addToChildren(name: 'c2' + it, value: 'asd')
}
parent.save()
it prints 5 for the final size(). So there's probably something else affecting this. You shouldn't have to, but you can create your own removeAll that does the same thing, and if you throw in some println calls you might figure out what's up:
boolean removeAll(collection, Closure remove) {
boolean atLeastOne = false
Iterator iter = collection.iterator()
while (iter.hasNext()) {
def c = iter.next()
if (remove(c)) {
iter.remove()
atLeastOne = true
}
}
atLeastOne
}
Invoke this as
println removeAll(parent.children) { it.value == null }

Using a query in an Adapter for listview

I have a listview that I fill from an Adapter. My original code the data was being returned from a table, but now I need to get the code from a query with a join so the examples I used will no longer work and I haven't been able to find out how to use a query for this. I'm using an ORMrepository.
In my ORMrepository I have this function
public IList<Coe> GetmyCoe()
{
using (var database = new SQLiteConnection(_helper.WritableDatabase.Path))
{
string query = "SELECT Coe.Id, Adult.LName + ', ' + Adult.MName AS Name, Coe.Createdt FROM Adult INNER JOIN Coe ON Adult.CoeMID = Coe.Id";
return database.Query<Coe>(query);
}
}
which actually returns the data I want.
then in my Activity page I have this.
_list = FindViewById<ListView>(Resource.Id.List);
FindViewById<ListView>(Resource.Id.List).ItemClick += new System.EventHandler<ItemEventArgs>(CoeList_ItemClick);
var Coe = ((OmsisMobileApplication)Application).OmsisRepository.GetmyCoe();
_list.Adapter = new CoeListAdapter(this, Coe);
My Adapter page is where I have the problem, I know it is set up to to looking at a table which I'm not doing anymore. But I don't know how to change it for what I'm passing into it now. Current CoeListAdapter is:
public class CoeListAdapter : BaseAdapter
{
private IEnumerable<Coe> _Coe;
private Activity _context;
public CoeListAdapter(Activity context, IEnumerable<Coe> Coe)
{
_context = context;
_Coe = Coe;
}
public override View GetView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent)
{
var view = (convertView
?? _context.LayoutInflater.Inflate(
Resource.Layout.CoeListItem, parent, false)
) as LinearLayout;
var Coe = _Coe.ElementAt(position);
view.FindViewById<TextView>(Resource.Id.CoeMID).Text = Coe.Id.ToString();
//view.FindViewById<TextView>(Resource.Id.GrdnMaleName).Text = Coe.Name;
view.FindViewById<TextView>(Resource.Id.CreateDt).Text = Coe.CreateDt;
return view;
}
public override int Count
{
get { return _Coe.Count(); }
}
public Coe GetCoe(int position)
{
return _Coe.ElementAt(position);
}
public override Java.Lang.Object GetItem(int position)
{
return null;
}
public override long GetItemId(int position)
{
return position;
}
}
How do I set up the CoeListAdapter.cs page so that it can use the passed in data. As you can see I have a commented out lines where I fill a TextView which error because Coe.Name is not in the table model for Coe. but it is returned in the query. I believe my problem is IEnumerable but what do I change it to. I'm new to Mobile developement and suing VS2010 for Mono
The problem probably lies with the binding/mapping of the object not the creation of the view.
Or probably more specifically, the query.
Adult.LName + ', ' + Adult.MName AS Name
this should be:
Adult.LName || ', ' || Adult.MName AS Name
See also: String concatenation does not work in SQLite
From the sqlite docs: http://www.sqlite.org/lang_expr.html under the Operators heading:
The unary operator + is a no-op. It can be applied to strings,
numbers, blobs or NULL and it always returns a result with the same
value as the operand.
Note that there are two variations of the equals and not equals
operators. Equals can be either = or ==. The non-equals operator can
be either != or <>. The || operator is "concatenate" - it joins
together the two strings of its operands. The operator % outputs the
value of its left operand modulo its right operand.
The result of any binary operator is either a numeric value or NULL,
except for the || concatenation operator which always evaluates to
either NULL or a text value.
This shows that the + will evaluate to zero. If you use ||, the value will either be the correct value or NULL (if either of Adult.LName or Adult.MName is NULL).
This can be fixed by:
coalesce(first, '') || ', ' || coalesce(second, '')
but this may result in , LastName or FirstName,.
Another way would be to create another two properties in Coe called LName and MName.
Then bind the values to those properties and use the Name property like this:
public string Name
{
get { return string.Join(", ", LName, MName); }
}
This will probably be better as you can change how the Name appears especially if there are different combinations of First, Middle and Last names in different places.
And off topic:
I believe my problem is IEnumerable...
This is probably not too true as it returns the correct values. A better way would be to use IList as IEnumerable will iterate through the list each time to get the item as it does not know that the collection is actually a list. (I think)
thanks for the help on the concantination, I did find that was wrong, I did fix my problem, I was using an example by Greg Shackles on how to set up using a data base. what I had to do was create a new model with the elements I was wanting. So I created a new Model and called it CoeList, then everywhere I had List or IEnumerable I changed it to List or IEnumerable and it worked.

Using __arglist with a varying set of named parameters

in my application I have 2 layers. The first layer is a C legacy exposing cdecl functions that use the "..." syntax for a varying parameter list. The only way I found to call these functions from my .Net layer (the second one) is using the DllImport technics. For example the C function below:
int myFunc(char* name, ...);
looks like that in C#:
[DllImport("MyDll.dll"),
CharSet = CharSet.Ansi,
CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl]
int myFunc(string name, __arglist);
My problem is that sometimes I want to call this function with 2 extra parameters but if one of them is NULL it won't be included in the argument list (my legacy code fails on NULL values). For example I want this call:
int foo(string name, string a, string b)
{
myFunc(name, __arglist(a, b));
}
{
foo("john", "arg1", null);
}
to be interpreted by C as
myFunc("john", "arg1");
Unfortunately doing something like that:
int foo(string name, string a, string b)
{
List<string> args = new List<string>();
if(a != null) args.Add(a);
if(b != null) args.Add(b);
myFunc(name, __arglist(args));
}
{
foo("john", "arg1", null);
}
is interpreted by C like that:
myFunc(name, args);
and not:
myFunc(name, args[0]);
Does anybody have any idea?
How does the C function know which one is the last parameter? It cannot know a priori how many parameters there are. It needs additional information. One common way for functions get the information they need is by parsing the included string parameter to count format specifiers, as in printf. In that case, if the format string only indicates that there is one extra parameter, then the function doesn't know the difference between a call that really had just one extra parameter and a call that had two or a call that had 20. The function should have the self-discipline to only read one parameter, since that's all the format string said there was. Reading more would lead to undefined behavior.
If what I've described is not the way your function works, then there's not much you can do on the calling end to solve it. But if it is how your function works, then there's nothing to do on the calling end, because there's no problem.
Another option, since you indicate that your "legacy code fails on null values," is to fix your legacy code so it doesn't fail anymore.
A third option is to simply write all four possibilities:
if (a != null) {
if (b != null)
return myFunc(name, a, b);
else
return myFunc(name, a);
} else {
if (b != null)
return myFunc(names, b);
else
return myFunc(names);
}
More than two optional parameters, though, and the code starts getting unwieldy.
Try converting your System.List ToArray() before wrapping it in __arglist
myFunc(name, __arglist(args.ToArray()));

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