Understanding the toObservable extension function

Thanks to the extension functions of Kotlin, you can turn any Iterable instance, such as List, to Observable without much effort; we have already used this method in Chapter 1, A Short Introduction to Reactive Programming, however, take a look at this:

    fun main(args: Array<String>) { 
 
      val observer: Observer<String> = object : Observer<String> { 
        override fun onComplete() { 
            println("All Completed") 
        } 
 
        override fun onNext(item: String) { 
            println("Next $item") 
        } 
 
        override fun onError(e: Throwable) { 
            println("Error Occured ${e.message}") 
        } 
 
        override fun onSubscribe(d: Disposable) { 
            println("New Subscription ") 
        } 
      }//Create Observer 
 
      val list:List<String> = listOf
      ("String 1","String 2","String 3","String 4") 
 
      val observable:Observable<String> = list.toObservable() 
 
      observable.subscribe(observer) 
    } 

And the following is the output:

So, aren't you curious to look into the toObservable method? Let's do it. You can find this method inside the observable.kt file provided with the RxKotlin package:

    fun <T : Any> Iterator<T>.toObservable(): Observable<T> = 
    toIterable().toObservable() 
    fun <T : Any> Iterable<T>.toObservable(): Observable<T> = 
    Observable.fromIterable(this) 
    fun <T : Any> Sequence<T>.toObservable(): Observable<T> =
    asIterable().toObservable() 
 
    fun <T : Any> Iterable<Observable<out T>>.merge(): Observable<T> = 
    Observable.merge(this.toObservable()) 
    fun <T : Any> Iterable<Observable<out T>>.mergeDelayError(): 
    Observable<T> = Observable.mergeDelayError(this.toObservable()) 

So, it basically uses the Observable.from method internally; thanks again to extension functions of Kotlin.