Dig Deeper
fold, when, and let
fold and when with let
class IsbnVerifier {
fun isValid(number: String) =
number
.fold(Pair(10, 0)) { (pos, sum), ch ->
when {
ch.isDigit() -> pos - 1 to sum + (ch.digitToInt() * pos)
ch == 'X' && pos == 1 -> pos - 1 to sum + 10
ch == '-' -> pos to sum
else -> -1 to sum
}
}
.let { it.first == 0 && it.second % 11 == 0 }
}
Since there is no object state that needs to change with each call of the isValid method, the IsbnVerifier class could be defined as an object,
making it essentially a singleton object instantiation of the class.
However, as of this writing, the tests call isValid using an empty constructor for IsbnVerifier (e.g. IsbnVerifier().isValid(isbn))
instead of calling isValid like a method on an object (e.g. IsbnVerifier.isValid(isbn)), which is why IsbnVerifier can’t be defined as an object.
The isValid function is implemented as a call of fold chained to let.
Although the isValid function has multiple lines, it consists only of the one expression resulting from the function chain,
so it is defined using single-expression function syntax,
with the curly braces omitted from the isValid function call and the return type inferred.
The fold method is called on the input String.
Its accumulating value is initialized as a Pair of values that represent the updating position and the calculating sum,
with the position starting at 10, and the sum starting with 0.
The lambda of fold takes the accumulating Pair as well as the character being iterated.
Inside the lambda is a when expression to check the value of the current character being iterated.
If the character is a digit, then the when returns the current position subtracted by 1,
and also returns the sum plus the character’s numeric value multiplied by the current position.
It returns the values as the accumulating Pair by using the to keyword.
If the character is an X and the position is 1, then the current position subtracted by 1 and the sum plus 10 are returned.
If the character is a -, then the position and sum are returned as is.
If none of those cases for the when are matched, then the character is illegal, so -1 and the sum are returned.
The -1 is meant to make the final check for a valid position fail.
After the fold has iterated all of the characters in the input string, the let function is used to check the values of the
accumulating Pair.
If the position is at 0 and the sum is evenly divided by 11, then true is returned from let, otherwise, false is returned.
The isValid function returns the result of calling let.
Source: Exercism kotlin/isbn-verifier