How does the reified k...

The reified keyword in Kotlin is used in conjunction with inline functions to preserve type information at runtime. It allows you to access the actual type arguments passed to a generic function or type.

Here's how reified works:

• reified can only be used with inline functions. Inline functions are expanded by the compiler at the call site, so the type information is available.

• When you mark a type parameter as reified, you can use it inside the function body to perform type checks and casts.

• A common use case is to implement generic functions that behave differently based on the actual type argument passed to the function.

Example:

inline fun <reified T> isInstance(value: Any) = value is T

In this example, the isInstance function checks if the given value is an instance of the type T. The reified keyword allows us to use T inside the function body to perform the is check.

println(isInstance<String>("hello")) // true
println(isInstance<Int>(42)) // false

Another example is using reified with the when expression:

inline fun <reified T> getClassName() = when (T...