Hey,

Today learn more about SQLDelight to make multiplatform databases with KMP + some reflection for your app development.

Tech tip: Introducing custom column types in SQLDelight

In case you don't know SqlDelight is a library that generates typesafe kotlin APIs from your SQL statements. It's what I use for building multiplatform databases and what is used in AppKickstarter.

I want to introduce to you custom column types in SQLDelight. You will improve your tables and your code will be cleaner.

By default SqlDelight stores String, Long, Double and ByteArrays

I made a simple first version of an entity to introduce custom types:

Here I stored my Int as Long, my Float as Double and my objects as String. But you can improve this with custom types:

As you can see I introduced LocalTime, LocalDate, Float, Int and other custom types of my domain models.

It's almost finished but introducing custom types you have to adapt the initialization of your database with adapters:

IntColumnAdapter, FloatColumnAdapter are utility classes from "app.cash.sqldelight:primitive-adapters" dependency.

TimeAdapter and DateAdapter are common useful adapters provided by default in AppKickstarter.

The other adapters are built for this example.

An adapter is just a converter from an object to another object that SqlDelight can manage (Double, Long, String, ByteArray), for example:

Book snippet: Ship early and often

The minimalist entrepreneur by Sahil Lavingia:

That's why I built AppKickstarter. As a solo developer, I built multiple apps and often struggled with marketing — building was simple, but distribution was tough. I kept thinking, "This idea is cool," or "I can do this better," yet I'd end up in niches where marketing demands were high or competition fierce, making success hard. AppKickstarter changes the game, making app development less risky and more efficient, saving time, energy, and investment.

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Remember: Investing your valuable time and energy into a side project is somewhat of a gamble. The more accurately you navigate, the better your chances of success.

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