In the previous post about Dart, we talked about Collections in Dart. We spoke about List, Maps, and sets. And today, we’re going to talk about some functions that are awesome and can help you in many cases.

Note: In this post we use in various cases the anonymous function, if you are not familiarized with it, you can check my other post about functions.

Map

The map function exists in many programming languages, and Dart is not an exception. This function creates a new list after transform every element of the previous list. This function takes as a parameter an anonymous function. Let’s see an example.

var list = List.of({1,2,3,4});
var mappedList = list.map( (number) => number *2);
print(mappedList);

In this example, we create an anonymous function that has a number as a parameter, and we multiply that number per two. The result of this function is:
(2,4,6,8)

Sort

Sometimes you receive a list from the server, and you need to show it to the user. But what if you need to apply some filter and sort it in an ascending way? Well, this function can help you. Let’s see an example.

var randomNumbers = List.of({14, 51, 23, 45, 6, 3, 22, 1});
randomNumbers.sort();
print(randomNumbers);

This is the result.

[1, 3, 6, 14, 22, 23, 45, 51]

Generate

This function is great when you need to create a list of numbers for a test. It takes as first parameter a number, which indicates the size of the list and an anonymous function which tells the generate() function how to create the numbers inside the list.

Here’s an example.

var generatedList = List.generate(10, (number) => number * Random().nextInt(50));
  print(generatedList);

In the example we can see how we can generate a list of ten elements and multiply it by a random number from 0 to 50.

Take

The take function literally takes the first elements from the list. This can be useful when you have a list of winners and want to take the top 3. Here’s how you can use it.

var list = List.from([1,2,3,4,5,6]);
var topThreeList = list.take(3);
print(topThreeList);

The result of this example is: 1,2,3

Skip

The skip function is the opposite of the take function. This function ignores the first elements and creates a list of the remaining ones. This example shows how you can use it.

var list = List.from([1,2,3,4,5,6]);
var skipList = list.skip(3);
print(skipList);

The result is: 4,5,6

Where

This function is one of my favorites. It helps us to create a list of elements that satisfy a predicate. That means that your element list is going to have only elements that meet your requirements. Let’s say that you need to create a list of only even numbers.

var randomNumbers = List.of({14, 51, 23, 45, 6, 3, 22, 1});
var evenNumbers = randomNumbers.where((number => number.isEven));
print(evenNumbers);

The result of this example is 14,6,22.

An awesome tip

These function can be combined to achieve a greater solution. You can combine a where function with a sort function to get the even numbers sorted in ascending way.

var randomNumbers = List.of({14, 51, 23, 45, 6, 3, 22, 1});
var evenNumbers = randomNumbers.where((number) => number.isEven);
evenNumbers = evenNumbers.toList()..sort();
print(evenNumbers);

In this example we take only the even numbers from the randomNumbersList, then we convert these numbers to a List finally we use the cascade operator.. to sort() the list in an ascending way.

The final result is: [6, 14, 22]

That’s it

I hope you liked it. Do you want to learn more? I’m also creating new CodingSlices about Flutter on Instagram, feel free to follow me in @codingpizza for more content.

I’m also writing an eBook, which is a basic course of Dart. It’s about all you need to know to get started with Flutter. It’s free, and you can sign-up here.

Now is your turn

You can try these concepts in IDE like Intellij idea community, which is free. All you need is to install the Dart plugin. Visual Studio Code or in some online editors like Dartpad.

Previous post

If you’re interested in more posts like this, youcan check out my others post about Dart.

Variables

Functions

Parameters

Control flow

Collections

Hello everyone, this week we’re going to talk about Collections. Collections are a crucial part of every project. As always let’s start with what are Collections.

Collections are objects that groups multiple elements inside of them; a List is one of them.

Let’s say we have a list of lottery numbers. We can create a list from it.

The lotteryNumbers is a List,which is part of Collections. In Dart, we can create a List in different ways.

Using var

You can create a null list using the reserved keyword var and the name of the list.

Null VS Initialized

There’s a difference between a null list and an Initialized list. I recently found an image that explains it well.

An empty list is when the list exist but there is not element on it. Null instead means you don’t have a list initialized yet offcourse there’s a more scientific way to explain this, but this is a good example to start.

You can create list as follows.

If you’re curious, you can try to print the size of each list using the .length property and compare the results.

Creating a list for a specific type

If we need to create a list from one specific object type, we need to specify it inside angle brackets in the following way.

In this example we’re creating a list of only String objects.

In case we need to create a list with multiple object types, we need to use the dynamic keyword instead of String.

You can also create a list using the List.of function, we already used this way in the first code snippet.

Retrieving elements from the list

In case you need to retrieve an element. What you need to do is to use brackets beside the List name. This gives you the element from that list in that position. Also you can use the elementAt() function.

Here’s an example:

The result of this example is going to be the first number of that list, in our case the number 1.

Adding an element from the list

This time we’re going to add an element to an already created list. All we need to do is to use the .add function and pass as parameter the number we want to add.

Add items are pretty straightforward

Deleting an element from the list

This time we’re going to do the opposite, we’re going to remove an element from the list. What we need to do is to have the position of the element and use the .removeAt() function.

Which number do you think we removed from this list? If your answer is number 1. You were close, but that’s incorrect, we removed the number 2 because the list position starts from 0.

Value  -> [1,2,3,4,5]
Position->[0,1,2,3,4]

Another type of Collections

Introducing Maps, Maps are unordered key-value pair collection which helps us to associate a key to a value. You can create a map specifying the key type and the value type as follows:

After this reference from the nineties, we can see that each Power Ranger has a dinosaur associated with.

Obtaining an item from a map

Sometimes we need to recall only one of our Zords, how we can do it in a map? All you need to do is indicate the key inside brackets just after the name of the map.

This example returns the Zord of the red ranger.

How to remove a ranger from the map

If you need to remove an element from the map what you need to do is to use the .remove() function and pass as parameter the key. Here’s an example.

How to add a new ranger to our map

When we have a new member in our crew, we need to create a map and then assign it to that map the key and the value only after that we can add that ranger to our map. Here’s an example.

As you can see in this previous example, we created a map with a string key and a string value. Then we assign the key inside the brackets and assign the value “Sabertooth Tiger” to that key.

Last but not least

We can’t talk about Collections without mentioning Sets. A set is an unordered collection of unique objects. Two things worth mentioning about sets are: First, you cannot get an item by index and second, adding a duplicate
item has no effect.

Here’s an example about how to create a set

Remove from the set

If we need to remove an element from the set we can use the function .remove().

Adding an item to the set

When we need to add an item to the set we use the .add() function.

As I mentioned before we can’t add a duplicate object to the Set.

That’s it

If you’re new into programming, I hope this helps you, and if you’re not, I hope you liked it. I’m also creating new CodingSlices about Flutter on Instagram, feel free to follow me in @codingpizza for more content.

I’m also writing an eBook which is a basic course of Dart It’s about all you need to get started with Flutter. It’s free and you can sign-up
here.

Now is your turn

You can try these concepts in IDE like Intellij idea community which is free. All you need is to install the Dart Plugin. Visual Studio Code or in some online editors like Dartpad.

Previous post

If you’re interested in more posts like this, you can check out my others post about Dart.

Variables

Functions

Parameters

Control flow

Variables

Functions

Parameters

Power without control is useless.

In this post, we’re going to talk about how Control Flow, works in Dart. Let’s start with what it is, Control Flow. In simple words is the order in which your code is executed.

Let’s say we need to choose between going outside with an umbrella or not. We check our Weather app, and if it says it’s going to rain we take it with us, otherwise we can leave it at home.

If we want to write that in code, this can be.

if (isGoingToRainToday()) {
 takeUmbrella() 
} else {
 print ("What a great weather today ?")
}

If statements

The if statements help our code to make a decision, it has the following syntax.

if (condition) {
 doThis()
} else {
 doAnotherThing()
}

We start with the reserved keyword if, then we add a condition inside the parentheses. If that condition is met the code inside the first curly braces is going to be executed. Otherwise, the code after the else statement is executed. The condition at the end is a Boolean value; let’s see an example.

In the previous example, we wanted to check the weather to know if we needed to take the umbrella with us. But what isGoingToRainToday() is? Well is a function which returns a boolean. It looks like this.

Boolean isGoingToRainToday() {
	return false
} 

Here’s a tip the else statement is not always needed. If you only need to execute what it is inside the if statement you can omit it.

If you need to make a comparison with more than two options you can also use an else if statement, let’s see how it is.

var flavor = "Vanilla";
if (flavor == "Vanilla"){
	print("Here's your vanilla ice cream");
} else if( flavor == "Chocolate") {
	print("Here's your chocolate ice cream");
} else {
	print("Since we don't know your favorite flavor, here's a random one");
}

In this example we have a favorite flavor of ice cream, the if statement is going to check if the flavor is vanilla if it is not, is going to try the else if condition. If any of the condition mentioned before are met, the else statement is going to be executed.

What happen if we have too many flavors?

Introducing the Switch case

The switch statements work with variables instead of a condition if the switch has a “case” for the value of the variable the code inside that case is going to be executed. If the switch can’t found a case for it, the code inside the default case is executed.
Here’s an example.

var flavor = "Vanilla"
switch (flavor) {
	case "Vanilla":
		print("Here's your vanilla ice cream");
	case "Chocolate":
		print("Here's your chocolate ice cream");
	case "Orange":
		print("Here's your orange ice cream");
	default:
		print("Since we don't know your favorite flavor, here's a random one");
}

The for statement

The for statement is a common statement that exists in almost every language. Is used to iterate an array of objects. The syntax in Dart is as follows:

for (var i = 0; i < list.length; i++){
 print(list[i]);
}

This statement may look confusing but let’s split this declaration, the variable i start at value 0, and it will increase by one until it reaches the length minus one of the list.

For each time the variable increase by one, the code inside the braces is executed. This print that “i object” from the list.

The for statement is useful when you know when it’s going to end. In our case, we now it because list.length is limited.

While statement

The While statement on the other side works better when you don’t know when a condition is going to meet. It will execute the code inside the braces until the condition is met, for example.

int laps = 0;
while (laps < 5){
	print("Laps $laps");
	laps++;
}

In this example, the code inside the while is executed until the laps are less than five.

Laps 0
Laps 1
Laps 2
Laps 3
Laps 4

The sibling of the while is the do while

Introducing the sibling of the While statement, the Do while statement. This statement executes the code and after the statement evaluates it. Here’s an example.

int countDown = 5;
do {
 print("Time remaining: $countDown");
 countDown--;
} while (countDown != 0);

This code is going to print the countDown variable while it’s different than zero. Here’s the result.

Time remaining: 5
Time remaining: 4
Time remaining: 3
Time remaining: 2
Time remaining: 1

That’s it

If you’re new into programming, I hope this helps you, and if you’re not, I hope you liked it. I’m also creating new CodingSlices about Flutter on Instagram, feel free to follow me in @codingpizza for more content.

Do you know I’m also writing an eBook which is a basic course of Dart. All you need to get started with Flutter. It’s free and you can sign-up here.

Now is your turn

You can try these concepts in IDE like Intellij idea community which is free, all you need is to install the Dart Plugin. Visual Studio Code or in some online editors like Dartpad.

Previous post

If you’re interested in more post like this you can check out my others post about Dart.

Variables

Functions

Parameters