Kotlin Help

Get started with Kotlin/Native in IntelliJ IDEA

This tutorial demonstrates how to use IntelliJ IDEA for creating a Kotlin/Native application.

To get started, install the latest version of IntelliJ IDEA. The tutorial is applicable to both IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition and the Ultimate Edition.

Create a new Kotlin/Native project in IntelliJ IDEA

  1. In IntelliJ IDEA, select File | New | Project.

  2. In the panel on the left, select Kotlin Multiplatform.

  3. Enter a project name, select Native Application as the project template, and click Next.

    Create a native application

    By default, your project will use Gradle with Kotlin DSL as the build system.

  4. Accept the default configuration on the next screen and click Finish. Your project will open.

    Configure a native application

    By default, the wizard creates the necessary Main.kt file with code that prints "Hello, Kotlin/Native!" to the standard output.

  5. Open the build.gradle.kts file, the build script that contains the project settings. To create Kotlin/Native applications, you need the Kotlin Multiplatform Gradle plugin installed. Ensure that you use the latest version of the plugin:

    plugins { kotlin("multiplatform") version "1.8.21" }

Build and run the application

  1. Click Build Project next to the run configuration at the top of the screen:

    Build the application

  2. In the IntelliJ IDEA terminal or your command-line tool, run the following command:

    build/bin/native/debugExecutable/<your_app_name>.kexe

    IntelliJ IDEA prints "Hello, Kotlin/Native!".

You can configure IntelliJ IDEA to build your project automatically:

  1. Go to Settings/Preferences | Build, Execution, Deployment | Compiler.

  2. On the Compiler page, select Build project automatically.

  3. Apply the changes.

Now when you make changes in the class files or save the file (Ctrl + S/Cmd + S), IntelliJ IDEA automatically performs the incremental build of the project.

Update the application

Count the letters in your name

  1. Open the file Main.kt in src/nativeMain/kotlin.

    The src directory contains the Kotlin source files and resources. The file Main.kt includes sample code that prints "Hello, Kotlin/Native!" using the println() function.

  2. Add code to read the input. Use the readln() function to read the input value and assign it to the name variable:

    fun main() { // Read the input value. println("Hello, enter your name:") val name = readln() }

  3. Eliminate the whitespaces and count the letters:

    • Use the replace() function to remove the empty spaces in the name.

    • Use the scope function let to run the function within the object context.

    • Use a string template to insert your name length into the string by adding a dollar sign $ and enclosing it in curly braces – ${it.length}. it is the default name of a lambda parameter.

    fun main() { // Read the input value. println("Hello, enter your name:") val name = readln() // Count the letters in the name. name.replace(" ", "").let { println("Your name contains ${it.length} letters") } }

  4. Save the changes and run the following command in the IntelliJ IDEA terminal or your command-line tool:

    build/bin/native/debugExecutable/<your_app_name>.kexe

  5. Enter your name and enjoy the result:

    Application output

Count the unique letters in your name

  1. Open the file Main.kt in src/nativeMain/kotlin.

  2. Declare the new extension function countDistinctCharacters() for String:

    • Convert the name to lowercase using the lowercase() function.

    • Convert the input string to a list of characters using the toList() function.

    • Select only the distinct characters in your name using the distinct() function.

    • Count the distinct characters using the count() function.

    fun String.countDistinctCharacters() = lowercase().toList().distinct().count()

  3. Use the countDistinctCharacters() function to count the unique letters in your name:

    fun String.countDistinctCharacters() = lowercase().toList().distinct().count() fun main() { // Read the input value. println("Hello, enter your name:") val name = readln() // Count the letters in the name. name.replace(" ", "").let { println("Your name contains ${it.length} letters") // Print the number of unique letters. println("Your name contains ${it.countDistinctCharacters()} unique letters") } }

  4. Save the changes and run the following command in the IntelliJ IDEA terminal or your command-line tool:

    build/bin/native/debugExecutable/<your_app_name>.kexe

  5. Enter your name and enjoy the result:

    Application output

What's next?

Once you have created your first application, you can complete our long-form tutorial on Kotlin/Native, Create an app using C Interop and libcurl that explains how to create a native HTTP client and interoperate with C libraries.

Last modified: 31 May 2023
Backward compatibility Get started with Kotlin/Native using Gradle