Introduction

This lesson is an introduction to libraries in Dart/Flutter. A library is a reusable module for frequently used programs/code. It helps to write a modular codebase. In Dart, each app is a library.

The lesson about libraries is divided into two lessons.

Dart Libraries #1: The first lesson covers how to use Dart libraries including the following:

• Using Prefix for library
• Importing specific APIs
• Defer/delay loading library

Dart Libraries #2: The second lesson instructs on understanding the following directives:

• The part directive
• The library directive
• The export directive

Setup

Let’s create two libraries lib1 and lib2 for demonstration.

lib1

This library has APIs to calculate the sum and difference of two integers.

• Addition API: The int addition(int a, int b) calculates the sum of two given integers and returns an integer.

• Subtraction API: The int subtraction(int a, int b) calculates the difference of two given integers and returns an integer.

• Internal Method-int _add(int a, int b): It is an internal function/method that performs the real addition. This method is used by the addition API. Identifiers with the underscore (_) prefix are only available inside the library.

File ‘lib1.dart’:

int addition(int a, int b) => _add(a, b);

int subtraction(int a, int b) => a - b;

int _add(int a, int b) => a + b;

lib2

This library has APIs to check if the given numbers are even or odd.

• Even number API (bool isNumberOdd(int num)): This API takes a number and returns true if it is even or vice versa.
• Odd number API (bool isNumberOdd(int num)): This API takes a number and returns true if it is odd or vice versa.

File ‘lib2.dart’:

bool isNumberOdd(int num) => num.isOdd;

bool isNumberEven(int num) => num.isEven;

//Added to demonstrate handle conflicting name in two different libraries
int addition(int a, int b) => a + b + 2;