How to create an extension function with multiple receivers in Kotlin?

Question

I want my extension function to have a couple of receivers. For example, I want function handle to be able to call methods of both CoroutineScope and Iterable instances:

fun handle() {
    // I want to call CoroutineScope.launch() and Iterable.map() functions here
    map {
        launch { /* ... */ }
    }
}

I thought this might work:

fun <T> (Iterable<T>, CoroutineScope).handle() {}

But it gives me an error:

Function declaration must have a name

I know that I can create the function with parameters, but

Is it possible to have multiple receivers for a single function and how to do that without parameters?

Answer 1

In the Kotlin version 1.6.20 there is a new feature called Context receivers. This is a first prototype of context receivers. This feature allows to make functions, properties and classes context-dependent by adding context receivers to their declaration. There is a new syntax for that. In front of the function declaration we can specify a list of contextual types that would be required to invoke this function. A contextual declaration does the following:

• It requires all declared context receivers to be present in a caller's scope as implicit receivers.
• It brings declared context receivers into the body scope of implicit receivers.

The solution with context receivers looks like the following:

context(CoroutineScope)
fun <T> Iterable<T>.handle() {
    map {
        launch { /* ... */ }
    }
}

someCoroutineScope.launch {
    val students = listOf(...)
    students.handle()
}

In the context(CoroutineScope) we can declare multiple types, e.g context(CoroutineScope, LogInterface).

Since context receivers feature is a prototype, to enable it add -Xcontext-receivers compiler option in the app's build.gradle file:

apply plugin: 'kotlin-android'
android {
    //...
    kotlinOptions {
        jvmTarget = "11"
        freeCompilerArgs += [
                "-Xcontext-receivers"
        ]
    }
}