Kotlin Installation | Get Started With Kotlin

1. Get Started With Kotlin

This article elaborates on the installation of Kotlin language to get started building your projects. Since Kotlin is becoming popular among developers, due to its fantastic features, there are a couple of ways to work and get started with Kotlin programming. Let us look further at the ways to set up the Kotlin environment for building Android apps.

1.1. Setting Up Kotlin

Kotlin can be set up in a few ways to get started building projects.

Installation of Compiler For Kotlin
Using a Kotlin IDE
Kotlin Playground by Android

Tutorial Contents:

2. Compiler Installation For Kotlin

To start using Kotlin, the first method is to use a compiler. Just follow these steps to install the Kotlin compiler.

Open GitHub and go to the Kotlin releases page.
Scroll down to the assets section on the Kotlin releases page and download the .zip file of the Kotlin compiler.
Now, unzip the file in a folder where we have access to write.
Further, also change the Environment Variables to the bin folder of the unzipped file.
Open the properties of your PC and navigate to Advance System Settings.
Now add the path variable to the bin folder of the unzipped compiler.
Now run the below command in CMD to check if the compiler is installed correctly.
```
kotlinc
```
If the below output appears in the CMD, it means Kotlin is installed properly.
However, if running kotlinc command in CMD produces the below output, it means that the Kotlin compiler is installed successfully, but the Java is missing in the system.
For compiling Kotlin, Java is a must, and we have to download and install Java from the official website.
After Installing the compiler and Java, save your Kotlin code inside a file suppose demo.kt with extension .kt.
After saving the file, run this command in CMD to get the compiled output of your code.
```
kotlinc demo.kt
kotlin DemoKt
```
Remember, run the second command with the file name and extension just as capitalized in the above example, otherwise, there will be an error.

3. Compile Kotlin Using IDE

The second method to compile and work with Kotlin language is through some IDE. We are using IntelliJ IDEA developed by JetBrains to work with Kotlin language. Furthermore, this Kotlin IDE method is useful for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Follow these steps to set up IntelliJ IDEA.

Firstly, download the IDE IntelliJ IDEA from this page.
Install the downloaded package inside your system.
After installing the IntelliJ IDEA package, run the software and select New Project from the welcome screen as below
From the New Project window, name your project as you want and select Kotlin as the language.
If there is no JDK selected, download the AdoptOpen JDK Hotspot 21.0.1 or the latest version as below.
After downloading the JDK, select Create to create the project.
In order to work with our project, we need to create a .kt Kotlin file under the folder with the name src and name this file demo.kt

Your demo.kt file is created, now add some Kotlin code in this file.

demo.kt

/* A simple Kotlin example to find out the factorial of a number */
fun factorial(n: Int): Long {
	return if (n == 0 || n == 1) {
		1
	} else {
		n * factorial(n - 1)
	}
}

fun main() {
	val number = 5
	val result = factorial(number)
	println("Factorial of $number is: $result")
}

Now press the Run ▶ button in the navigation bar to compile and run the code.
Finally, the IntelliJ IDEA will compile your code and produce the results as below.
So, this was all the process in compiling Kotlin code using an IDE i.e. IntelliJ IDEA.

4. Kotlin Playground by Android

In order get started with Kotlin, Google provides an online Kotlin playground to write and compile the code. This is easy as you do not need to install any of the software. just visit the playground website and start compiling. Playground - Get started with Kotlin

Kotlin Installation - Get Started With Kotlin Language

Kotlin Basics

Kotlin Flow Control