LiveData

LiveData()

Creates a LiveData with no value assigned to it.

LiveData(value: T!)

Creates a LiveData initialized with the given value.

fun getValue(): T?

Returns the current value.

Note that calling this method on a background thread does not guarantee that the latest value set will be received.

fun hasActiveObservers(): Boolean

Returns true if this LiveData has active observers.

fun hasObservers(): Boolean

Returns true if this LiveData has observers.

fun isInitialized(): Boolean

Returns whether an explicit value has been set on this LiveData. If this returns true, then the current value can be retrieved from getValue.

Note that calling this method on a background thread may still result in this method returning false even if a call to postValue is being processed.

@MainThread
fun observe(owner: LifecycleOwner, observer: Observer<T!>): Unit

Adds the given observer to the observers list within the lifespan of the given owner. The events are dispatched on the main thread. If LiveData already has data set, it will be delivered to the observer.

The observer will only receive events if the owner is in STARTED or RESUMED state (active).

If the owner moves to the DESTROYED state, the observer will automatically be removed.

When data changes while the owner is not active, it will not receive any updates. If it becomes active again, it will receive the last available data automatically.

LiveData keeps a strong reference to the observer and the owner as long as the given LifecycleOwner is not destroyed. When it is destroyed, LiveData removes references to the observer &the owner.

If the given owner is already in DESTROYED state, LiveData ignores the call.

If the given owner, observer tuple is already in the list, the call is ignored. If the observer is already in the list with another owner, LiveData throws an IllegalArgumentException.

@MainThread
fun observeForever(observer: Observer<T!>): Unit

Adds the given observer to the observers list. This call is similar to observe with a LifecycleOwner, which is always active. This means that the given observer will receive all events and will never be automatically removed. You should manually call removeObserver to stop observing this LiveData. While LiveData has one of such observers, it will be considered as active.

If the observer was already added with an owner to this LiveData, LiveData throws an IllegalArgumentException.

@MainThread
fun removeObserver(observer: Observer<T!>): Unit

Removes the given observer from the observers list.

@MainThread
fun removeObservers(owner: LifecycleOwner): Unit

Removes all observers that are tied to the given LifecycleOwner.

protected fun onActive(): Unit

Called when the number of active observers change from 0 to 1.

This callback can be used to know that this LiveData is being used thus should be kept up to date.

protected fun onInactive(): Unit

Called when the number of active observers change from 1 to 0.

This does not mean that there are no observers left, there may still be observers but their lifecycle states aren't STARTED or RESUMED (like an Activity in the back stack).

You can check if there are observers via hasObservers.

protected fun postValue(value: T!): Unit

Posts a task to a main thread to set the given value. So if you have a following code executed in the main thread:

liveData.postValue("a");
liveData.setValue("b");

If you called this method multiple times before a main thread executed a posted task, only the last value would be dispatched.

@MainThread
protected fun setValue(value: T!): Unit

Sets the value. If there are active observers, the value will be dispatched to them.

This method must be called from the main thread. If you need set a value from a background thread, you can use postValue

fun <T : Any?> LiveData<T>.asFlow(): Flow<T>

Creates a Flow containing values dispatched by originating LiveData: at the start a flow collector receives the latest value held by LiveData and then observes LiveData updates.

When a collection of the returned flow starts the originating LiveData becomes active. Similarly, when a collection completes LiveData becomes inactive.

BackPressure: the returned flow is conflated. There is no mechanism to suspend an emission by LiveData due to a slow collector, so collector always gets the most recent value emitted.

@Composable
fun <T : Any?> LiveData<T>.observeAsState(): State<T?>

Starts observing this LiveData and represents its values via State. Every time there would be new value posted into the LiveData the returned State will be updated causing recomposition of every State.value usage.

The inner observer will automatically be removed when this composable disposes or the current LifecycleOwner moves to the Lifecycle.State.DESTROYED state.

import androidx.compose.material.Text
import androidx.compose.runtime.livedata.observeAsState

val value: String? by liveData.observeAsState()
Text("Value is $value")

@Composable
fun <R : Any?, T : R> LiveData<T>.observeAsState(initial: R): State<R>

Starts observing this LiveData and represents its values via State. Every time there would be new value posted into the LiveData the returned State will be updated causing recomposition of every State.value usage.

The initial value will be used only if this LiveData is not already initialized. Note that if T is a non-null type, it is your responsibility to ensure that any value you set on this LiveData is also non-null.

The inner observer will automatically be removed when this composable disposes or the current LifecycleOwner moves to the Lifecycle.State.DESTROYED state.

import androidx.compose.material.Text
import androidx.compose.runtime.livedata.observeAsState

val value: String by liveData.observeAsState("initial")
Text("Value is $value")

@MainThread
inline fun <T : Any?> LiveData<T>.observe(
    owner: LifecycleOwner,
    crossinline onChanged: (T) -> Unit
): Observer<T>

Adds the given onChanged lambda as an observer within the lifespan of the given owner and returns a reference to observer. The events are dispatched on the main thread. If LiveData already has data set, it will be delivered to the onChanged.

The observer will only receive events if the owner is in Lifecycle.State.STARTED or Lifecycle.State.RESUMED state (active).

If the owner moves to the Lifecycle.State.DESTROYED state, the observer will automatically be removed.

When data changes while the owner is not active, it will not receive any updates. If it becomes active again, it will receive the last available data automatically.

LiveData keeps a strong reference to the observer and the owner as long as the given LifecycleOwner is not destroyed. When it is destroyed, LiveData removes references to the observer and the owner.

If the given owner is already in Lifecycle.State.DESTROYED state, LiveData ignores the call.

fun <T : Any?> LiveData<T>.toPublisher(lifecycle: LifecycleOwner): Publisher<T>

Adapts the given LiveData stream to a ReactiveStreams Publisher.

By using a good publisher implementation such as RxJava 2.x Flowables, most consumers will be able to let the library deal with backpressure using operators and not need to worry about ever manually calling Subscription.request.

On subscription to the publisher, the observer will attach to the given LiveData. Once Subscription.request is called on the subscription object, an observer will be connected to the data stream. Calling request(Long.MAX_VALUE) is equivalent to creating an unbounded stream with no backpressure. If request with a finite count reaches 0, the observer will buffer the latest item and emit it to the subscriber when data is again requested. Any other items emitted during the time there was no backpressure requested will be dropped.

fun <T : Any> LiveData<PagingData<T>>.cachedIn(lifecycle: Lifecycle): LiveData<PagingData<T>>

Operator which caches a LiveData of PagingData within the scope of a Lifecycle.

cachedIn multicasts pages loaded and transformed by a PagingData, allowing multiple observers on the same instance of PagingData to receive the same events, avoiding redundant work, but comes at the cost of buffering those pages in memory.

Calling cachedIn is required to allow calling androidx.paging.AsyncPagingDataAdapter on the same instance of PagingData emitted by Pager or any of its transformed derivatives, as reloading data from scratch on the same generation of PagingData is an unsupported operation.

fun <T : Any> LiveData<PagingData<T>>.cachedIn(scope: CoroutineScope): LiveData<PagingData<T>>

Operator which caches a LiveData of PagingData within a CoroutineScope.

cachedIn multicasts pages loaded and transformed by a PagingData, allowing multiple observers on the same instance of PagingData to receive the same events, avoiding redundant work, but comes at the cost of buffering those pages in memory.

Calling cachedIn is required to allow calling androidx.paging.AsyncPagingDataAdapter on the same instance of PagingData emitted by Pager or any of its transformed derivatives, as reloading data from scratch on the same generation of PagingData is an unsupported operation.

fun <T : Any> LiveData<PagingData<T>>.cachedIn(viewModel: ViewModel): LiveData<PagingData<T>>

Operator which caches a LiveData of PagingData within the scope of a ViewModel.

cachedIn multicasts pages loaded and transformed by a PagingData, allowing multiple observers on the same instance of PagingData to receive the same events, avoiding redundant work, but comes at the cost of buffering those pages in memory.

Calling cachedIn is required to allow calling androidx.paging.AsyncPagingDataAdapter on the same instance of PagingData emitted by Pager or any of its transformed derivatives, as reloading data from scratch on the same generation of PagingData is an unsupported operation.

@MainThread
fun <X : Any?> LiveData<X>.distinctUntilChanged(): LiveData<X>

Creates a new LiveData object does not emit a value until the source this LiveData value has been changed. The value is considered changed if equals() yields false.

@MainThread
fun <X : Any?, Y : Any?> LiveData<X>.map(transform: (X) -> Y): LiveData<Y>

Returns a LiveData mapped from this LiveData by applying transform to each value set on this LiveData.

This method is analogous to io.reactivex.Observable.map.

transform will be executed on the main thread.

Here is an example mapping a simple User struct in a LiveData to a LiveData containing their full name as a String.

val userLD : LiveData<User> = ...;
val userFullNameLD: LiveData<String> = userLD.map { user -> user.firstName + user.lastName }

@MainThread
fun <X : Any?, Y : Any?> LiveData<X>.switchMap(transform: (X) -> LiveData<Y>?): LiveData<Y>

Returns a LiveData mapped from the input this LiveData by applying transform to each value set on this.

The returned `LiveData` delegates to the most recent `LiveData` created by [transform] with the most recent value set to `this`, without changing the reference. In this way [transform] can change the 'backing' `LiveData` transparently to any observer registered to the `LiveData` returned by `switchMap()`.

Note that when the backing LiveData is switched, no further values from the older LiveData will be set to the output LiveData. In this way, the method is analogous to io.reactivex.Observable.switchMap.

transform will be executed on the main thread.

Here is an example class that holds a typed-in name of a user String (such as from an EditText) in a MutableLiveData and returns a LiveData containing a List of User objects for users that have that name. It populates that LiveData by requerying a repository-pattern object each time the typed name changes.

This `ViewModel` would permit the observing UI to update "live" as the user ID text changes.

class UserViewModel: AndroidViewModel {
    val nameQueryLiveData : MutableLiveData<String> = ...

    fun usersWithNameLiveData(): LiveData<List<String>> = nameQueryLiveData.switchMap {
        name -> myDataSource.usersWithNameLiveData(name)
    }

    fun setNameQuery(val name: String) {
        this.nameQueryLiveData.value = name;
    }
}