| Hard Prerequisites |
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Sealed classes are used for representing restricted class hierarchies, when a value can have one of the types from a limited set, but cannot have any other type. They are, in a sense, an extension of enum classes: the set of values for an enum type is also restricted, but each enum constant exists only as a single instance, whereas a subclass of a sealed class can have multiple instances which can contain state.
To declare a sealed class, you put the sealed modifier before the name of the class. A sealed class can have subclasses, but all of them must be declared in the same file as the sealed class itself. (Before Kotlin 1.1, the rules were even more strict: classes had to be nested inside the declaration of the sealed class).
sealed class Expr
data class Const(val number: Double) : Expr()
data class Sum(val e1: Expr, val e2: Expr) : Expr()
object NotANumber : Expr()
fun eval(expr: Expr): Double = when (expr) {
is Const -> expr.number
is Sum -> eval(expr.e1) + eval(expr.e2)
NotANumber -> Double.NaN
}
(The example above uses one additional new feature of Kotlin 1.1: the possibility for data classes to extend other classes, including sealed classes.)
Note that classes which extend subclasses of a sealed class (indirect inheritors) can be placed anywhere, not necessarily in the same file.
The key benefit of using sealed classes comes into play when you use them in a when expression. If it’s possible to verify that the statement covers all cases, you don’t need to add an else clause to the statement.
fun eval(expr: Expr): Double = when(expr) {
is Expr.Const -> expr.number
is Expr.Sum -> eval(expr.e1) + eval(expr.e2)
Expr.NotANumber -> Double.NaN
// the `else` clause is not required because we've covered all the cases
}