WeakReference<T extends Object> abstract final

abstract final class WeakReference<T extends Object>

Annotations: @Since.new("2.17")

A weak reference to a Dart object.

A weak reference to the target object which may be cleared (set to reference null instead) at any time when there is no other way for the program to access the target object.

Being the target of a weak reference does not keep an object from being garbage collected.

There are no guarantees that a weak reference will ever be cleared even if all references to its target are weak references.

Not all objects are supported as targets for weak references. The WeakReference constructor will reject any object that is not supported as an Expando key.

Use-cases like caching can benefit from using weak references. Example:

/// [CachedComputation] caches the computation result, weakly holding
/// on to the cache.
///
/// If nothing else in the program is holding on the result, and the
/// garbage collector runs, the cache is purged, freeing the memory.
///
/// Until the cache is purged, the computation will not run again on
/// a subsequent request.
///
/// Example use:
/// ```
/// final cached = CachedComputation(
///     () => jsonDecode(someJsonSource) as Object);
/// print(cached.result); // Executes computation.
/// print(cached.result); // Most likely uses cache.
/// ```
class CachedComputation<R extends Object> {
  final R Function() computation;

  WeakReference<R>? _cache;

  CachedComputation(this.computation);

  R get result {
    final cachedResult = _cache?.target;
    if (cachedResult != null) {
      return cachedResult;
    }

    final result = computation();

    // WeakReferences do not support nulls, bools, numbers, and strings.
    if (result is! bool && result is! num && result is! String) {
      _cache = WeakReference(result);
    }

    return result;
  }
}

Constructors

WeakReference() factory

factory WeakReference(T target)

Creates a WeakReference pointing to the given target.

The target must be an object supported as an Expando key, which means target cannot be a number, a string, a boolean, a record, the null value, or certain other types of special objects.

Implementation

external factory WeakReference(T target);

Properties

hashCode no setter inherited

int get hashCode

The hash code for this object.

A hash code is a single integer which represents the state of the object that affects operator == comparisons.

All objects have hash codes. The default hash code implemented by Object represents only the identity of the object, the same way as the default operator == implementation only considers objects equal if they are identical (see identityHashCode).

If operator == is overridden to use the object state instead, the hash code must also be changed to represent that state, otherwise the object cannot be used in hash based data structures like the default Set and Map implementations.

Hash codes must be the same for objects that are equal to each other according to operator ==. The hash code of an object should only change if the object changes in a way that affects equality. There are no further requirements for the hash codes. They need not be consistent between executions of the same program and there are no distribution guarantees.

Objects that are not equal are allowed to have the same hash code. It is even technically allowed that all instances have the same hash code, but if clashes happen too often, it may reduce the efficiency of hash-based data structures like HashSet or HashMap.

If a subclass overrides hashCode, it should override the operator == operator as well to maintain consistency.

Inherited from Object.

Implementation

external int get hashCode;

runtimeType no setter inherited

Type get runtimeType

A representation of the runtime type of the object.

Inherited from Object.

Implementation

external Type get runtimeType;

target no setter

T? get target

The current object weakly referenced by this WeakReference, if any.

The value is either the object supplied in the constructor, or null if the weak reference has been cleared.

Implementation

T? get target;

Methods

noSuchMethod() inherited

dynamic noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation)

Invoked when a nonexistent method or property is accessed.

A dynamic member invocation can attempt to call a member which doesn't exist on the receiving object. Example:

dynamic object = 1;
object.add(42); // Statically allowed, run-time error

This invalid code will invoke the noSuchMethod method of the integer 1 with an Invocation representing the .add(42) call and arguments (which then throws).

Classes can override noSuchMethod to provide custom behavior for such invalid dynamic invocations.

A class with a non-default noSuchMethod invocation can also omit implementations for members of its interface. Example:

class MockList<T> implements List<T> {
  noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) {
    log(invocation);
    super.noSuchMethod(invocation); // Will throw.
  }
}
void main() {
  MockList().add(42);
}

This code has no compile-time warnings or errors even though the MockList class has no concrete implementation of any of the List interface methods. Calls to List methods are forwarded to noSuchMethod, so this code will log an invocation similar to Invocation.method(#add, [42]) and then throw.

If a value is returned from noSuchMethod, it becomes the result of the original invocation. If the value is not of a type that can be returned by the original invocation, a type error occurs at the invocation.

The default behavior is to throw a NoSuchMethodError.

Inherited from Object.

Implementation

@pragma("vm:entry-point")
@pragma("wasm:entry-point")
external dynamic noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation);

toString() inherited

String toString()

A string representation of this object.

Some classes have a default textual representation, often paired with a static parse function (like int.parse). These classes will provide the textual representation as their string representation.

Other classes have no meaningful textual representation that a program will care about. Such classes will typically override toString to provide useful information when inspecting the object, mainly for debugging or logging.

Inherited from Object.

Implementation

external String toString();

Operators

operator ==() inherited

bool operator ==(Object other)

The equality operator.

The default behavior for all Objects is to return true if and only if this object and other are the same object.

Override this method to specify a different equality relation on a class. The overriding method must still be an equivalence relation. That is, it must be:

• Total: It must return a boolean for all arguments. It should never throw.

• Reflexive: For all objects o, o == o must be true.

• Symmetric: For all objects o1 and o2, o1 == o2 and o2 == o1 must either both be true, or both be false.

• Transitive: For all objects o1, o2, and o3, if o1 == o2 and o2 == o3 are true, then o1 == o3 must be true.

The method should also be consistent over time, so whether two objects are equal should only change if at least one of the objects was modified.

If a subclass overrides the equality operator, it should override the hashCode method as well to maintain consistency.

Inherited from Object.

Implementation

external bool operator ==(Object other);