Arrays and Lists (Kotlin Tutorial #3)

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Kotlin, a modern programming language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), has become increasingly popular among developers for its concise syntax, interoperability with Java, and robust features.

Among its many capabilities, Kotlin offers powerful and flexible ways to work with collections of data. In this article, we’ll delve into how to create and use arrays and lists in Kotlin, two fundamental data structures for storing collections of elements.

Understanding Arrays in Kotlin

An array in Kotlin is a collection of elements of the same type, with a fixed size.

Arrays are useful when you know the number of elements in advance and this number is not expected to change.

Creating Arrays

1. Using arrayOf Function:

val numbers = arrayOf(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
val names = arrayOf("Alice", "Bob", "Charlie")

2. Using Constructor:

val zeros = Array(5) { 0 } // Creates an array of size 5, all initialized to 0

3. Primitive Type Arrays:

Kotlin also provides specialized classes for creating arrays of primitive types without boxing overhead:

val intArray = intArrayOf(1, 2, 3, 4)
val…