In Kotlin, object declarations and object expressions are the designed way to implement the singleton pattern. Because this is a built-in language feature, it should be used as an idiom instead of resorting to custom idioms.
An alternative is to declare private constructors and to provide a single class instance within a companion object. However, this idiom is adopted from other languages like Java which do not feature the direct declaration of objects. It should not be used in Kotlin.
This change makes it easier to understand the code because this is how singletons are intended to be used in Kotlin. When developers share common standards and idioms, they need to spend less effort on understanding each other’s code.
Using a built-in language feature or a standard API is always better than a custom implementation, because the reimplementation of something that already exists is unnecessary.
Remove the private constructor of the class and remove the companion object or the variable that provides the single instance from the class. Replace the class declaration with an object declaration if a name is required for the singleton. Replace the class declaration with an object expression if the singleton instance can be anonymous.
class DeviceManager private constructor() {
fun instanceMethod() {
// ...
}
companion object { // Noncompliant, explicit class instance provided
val instance = DeviceManager()
}
}
object DeviceManager { // Compliant, object declaration used
fun instanceMethod() {
// ...
}
}
interface LayoutStrategy {
val instanceProperty: String
fun instanceMethod()
}
class CustomLayoutStrategy private constructor(): LayoutStrategy {
override val instanceProperty = "Hello, world!"
override fun instanceMethod() {
// ...
}
companion object { // Noncompliant, explicit class instance provided
private val instance by lazy {
CustomLayoutStrategy()
}
fun getInstance(): LayoutStrategy = instance
}
}
fun createUI() {
val component = Container()
component.setLayoutStrategy(CustomLayoutStrategy.getInstance())
}
fun createUI() {
val component = Container()
component.setLayoutStrategy(object: LayoutStrategy { // Compliant, object expression used
override val instanceProperty = "Hello, world!"
override fun instanceMethod() {
// ...
}
})
}