How to create empty constructor for data class in Kotlin Android

Question

I have 10+ variables declared in Kotlin data class, and I would like to create an empty constructor for it like how we typically do in Java.

Data class:

data class Activity(
    var updated_on: String,
    var tags: List<String>,
    var description: String,
    var user_id: List<Int>,
    var status_id: Int,
    var title: String,
    var created_at: String,
    var data: HashMap<*, *>,
    var id: Int,
    var counts: LinkedTreeMap<*, *>,
)

Expected usage:

val activity =  Activity();
activity.title = "New Computer"
sendToServer(activity)

But the data class requires all arguments to be passed while creating a constructor. How can we simplify this like the Java POJO class constructor?

val activity =  Activity(null,null,null,null,null,"New Computer",null,null,null,null)
sendToServer(activity)

Answer 1

You have 2 options here:

1. Assign a default value to each primary constructor parameter:

   data class Activity(
       var updated_on: String = "",
       var tags: List<String> = emptyList(),
       var description: String = "",
       var user_id: List<Int> = emptyList(),
       var status_id: Int = -1,
       var title: String = "",
       var created_at: String = "",
       var data: HashMap<*, *> = hashMapOf<Any, Any>(),
       var id: Int = -1,
       var counts: LinkedTreeMap<*, *> = LinkedTreeMap<Any, Any>()
   ) 
   

2. Declare a secondary constructor that has no parameters:

   data class Activity(
       var updated_on: String,
       var tags: List<String>,
       var description: String,
       var user_id: List<Int>,
       var status_id: Int,
       var title: String,
       var created_at: String,
       var data: HashMap<*, *>,
       var id: Int,
       var counts: LinkedTreeMap<*, *>
   ) {
       constructor() : this("", emptyList(), 
                            "", emptyList(), -1, 
                            "", "", hashMapOf<Any, Any>(), 
                            -1, LinkedTreeMap<Any, Any>()
                            )
   }
   

If you don't rely on copy or equals of the Activity class or don't use the autogenerated data class methods at all you could use regular class like so:

class ActivityDto {
    var updated_on: String = "",
    var tags: List<String> = emptyList(),
    var description: String = "",
    var user_id: List<Int> = emptyList(),
    var status_id: Int = -1,
    var title: String = "",
    var created_at: String = "",
    var data: HashMap<*, *> = hashMapOf<Any, Any>(),
    var id: Int = -1,
    var counts: LinkedTreeMap<*, *> = LinkedTreeMap<Any, Any>()
}

Not every DTO needs to be a data class and vice versa. In fact in my experience I find data classes to be particularly useful in areas that involve some complex business logic.