Writing a Kotlin util function which provides self-reference in initializer

Question

I\'m trying to generalize my hack from an answer to another question.

It should provide a way to reference a value which is not constructed yet inside its initializ

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure you can achieve the same results in a more readable and clear way using something like this:

fun  selfReferenced(initializer: () -> T) = initializer.invoke()
operator fun T.getValue(any: Any?, property: KProperty<*>) = this

and later use

val valueName: ValueType by selfReferenced{
    //here you can create and use the valueName object
}

Using as example your quoted question https://stackoverflow.com/a/35050722/2196460 you can do this:

val textToSpeech:TextToSpeech by selfReferenced {
TextToSpeech(
        App.instance,
        TextToSpeech.OnInitListener { status ->
            if (status == TextToSpeech.SUCCESS) {
                textToSpeech.setLanguage(Locale.UK)
            }
        })
    }

Inside the selfReferenced block you can use the outer object with no restrictions. The only thing you should take care of, is declaring the type explicitly to avoid recursive type checking issues.