Kotlin does not understand ViewModelProviders.of(activity ?: fragment)

Inside my Fragment I initialize a ViewModel using ViewModelProviders. I want it to take its Activity if not null, otherwise itself (Fragment).

private val viewModel: MainViewModel by lazy {
    ViewModelProviders.of(activity ?: this).get(MainViewModel::class.java)
}

None of the following functions can be called with the arguments supplied.

• of(Fragment) defined in androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelProviders
• of(FragmentActivity) defined in androidx.lifecycle.ViewModelPro

It seems the language does not allow me to invoke conflicting method signatures (between of(Activity) and of(Fragment). (It might be understandable, maybe the compiler has to reference only one method and cannot link to both on the same line.) Is that so?

I now have to use

    activity?.let {
        ViewModelProviders.of(it).get(MainViewModel::class.java)
    } ?: run {
        ViewModelProviders.of(this).get(MainViewModel::class.java)
    }

Is there any better way of doing this?

Yes, it's compiler ambiguity, because you're passing activity & this (fragment instance) at the same time which has different implementations in ViewModelProviders.

Another approach to do this is by using when condition like below, (although your approach is also good):

private val viewModel: MainViewModel by lazy {
    return@lazy when {
        activity != null -> {
            ViewModelProviders.of(activity as FragmentActivity).get(MainViewModel::class.java) // you can either pass activity object
        }
        else -> {
            ViewModelProviders.of(this).get(MainViewModel::class.java) // or pass fragment object, both are not possible at same time.
        }
    }
}