implementation 'com.benoitthore.backingfield:core:0.9.1'
The BackingField delegate allows backing fields on classes without having to extend them by storing keys and values in a map with WeakReferences so it doesn't create memory leaks.
When creating a BackingField, a Thread is started and waits until the Garbage Collector kicks in. When this happens the map is cleared so it only keeps WeakReferences that are still holding on to a value.
It can be used like so:
var SomeClass.extraValue : String by BackingField { "DefaultValue" }
...
val someInstance = SomeClass()
val someOtherInstance = SomeClass()
someInstance.extraValue = "value1"
someOtherInstance.extraValue = "value2" Limitations :
- This does not work on primitive types
- Not as performant as a extending the class and adding an extra property
This extension is far from being perfect, it allocates an object every time get/set is called. The goal of this library is to provide an easy way of adding backing fields for testing, debugging and prototyping purposes only