CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidandroid-livedatakotlin-flowandroid-studio-arctic-foxkotlin-stateflow
Sweta Jain
Sweta Jain

Reputation: 4314

LiveData Vs StateFlow: Should we switch from Live data to State Flow?

I have come across articles that recommend switching to StateFlow. Like the one here. Also in the new Android studio, StateFlow support is automatically included in the functionality of data binding, including the coroutines dependencies. Live data is already in use in most of the apps. Should we migrate from LiveData to StateFlow? What are the benefits?

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Upvotes: 40

Views: 37955

Answers (4)

Amkhan
Amkhan

Reputation: 350

In Android, LiveData and State are two classes that can be used to hold and observe data in your app. Both classes are part of the Android Architecture Components library, which is a set of libraries for building robust, testable, and maintainable apps.

LiveData is a data holder that is lifecycle-aware, meaning it only delivers updates to observers that are in an active state. It is useful for holding data that needs to be observed and updated in the UI, such as data from a network request or a database query.

State is a data holder that represents an immutable state value that can be observed. It is useful for holding data that does not change often, or data that should not be modified directly.

Which of these classes is "best" to use depends on your specific needs and requirements. Here are a few factors to consider when deciding between LiveData and State:

Mutability: LiveData is mutable, meaning its value can be changed, while State is immutable, meaning its value cannot be changed directly.
Lifecycle awareness: LiveData is lifecycle-aware, while State is not.
Transformation: LiveData supports transformation through the use of the Transformations class, while State does not.
In general, if you need to hold and observe data that needs to be updated in the UI and you want the data to be lifecycle-aware, LiveData is a good choice. If you need to hold and observe data that is immutable or does not change often, State is a good choice.

It is also worth considering whether you need to transform or map the data being held and observed. If you do, LiveData is a better choice because it supports transformation through the Transformations class.

Upvotes: 1

Hamidreza Shadabkia
Hamidreza Shadabkia

Reputation: 284

Flow is the best practice

Livedata is used to observe data without having any hazel to handle lifecycle problems. Whereas Kotlin flow is used for continuous data integration and it also simplified the asynchronous programming.

Take Room Library as an example. First, it used livedata to transmit data from the database to UI. It solved most of the existing problems. But when there are any future changes in the database livedata is helpless in this situation.

After a while, the room used Kotlin flow to solve this problem. With Flow as return-type, room created a new possibility of seamless data integration across the app between database and UI without writing any extra code

read this article on medium website

Upvotes: 2

Jeremiah Polo
Jeremiah Polo

Reputation: 781

There is not much difference between State Flow and Live Data. The Main difference come in that State Flow requires an Initial value hence no need to check for nullability. The Second Difference come in unregistering the consumer; Live Data does this automatically when the view goes to STOPPED state while State Flow does not. To achieve similar behaviour as Live Data, you can collect the flow in a Lifecycle.repeatOnLifecycle block.

Benefits of State Flow

  • State flow is included in coroutines library and can be used in Multiplatform Projects
  • Using one API in your project(Flow), not two (LiveData and Flow).
  • It's Kotlin, Why Not

Upvotes: 37

Binil George
Binil George

Reputation: 338

It depends on what you want,

If you want a manual, full and versatile control over the app , go for state flow

If you want a partially automatic or relatively easy-to-use method for your app , I will say - stick with live data

In case If you want to know my personal opinion, it's state flow, as i prefer control over easy-to-use. I don't mind writing a few extra lines for it as it can be useful for me sometimes.

Think of it like using a soda opener for soda and using a nail cutter I can do it with both but the soda opener Is easy to use in this case but , don't have much versatility like nail cutter.

And at the end of the day , I use state flow everytime because, I am lazy to learn live data for some projects as state flow can do what live data can even though live data will be much easier.

And you should decide what you want to choose and if you're not as lazy as me , I recommend go with both and use the one which is suitable each time.

Cheers.

Upvotes: 11

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