Hello World using a Companion Object

Similar to using an Object Declaration, you can define the main function of a Kotlin program using a Companion Object of a class.

package my.program

class App {
    companion object {
        @JvmStatic fun main(args: Array<String>) {
            println("Hello World")
        }
    }
}

The class name that you will run is the name of your class, in this case is my.program.App.

The advantage to this method over a top-level function is that the class name to run is more self-evident, and any other functions you add are scoped into the class App. This is similar to the Object Declaration example, other than you are in control of instantiating any classes to do further work.

A slight variation that instantiates the class to do the actual “hello”:

class App {
    companion object {
        @JvmStatic fun main(args: Array<String>) {
            App().run()
        }
    }

    fun run() {
        println("Hello World")
    }
}

See also:

• Static Methods including the @JvmStatic annotation