title: How to initialize a reference variable in Kotlin
body: <p>In Java one can initialize a reference variable with null, for example a String variable can be initialized like so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>String str = null;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But in Kotlin, the point is to avoid using null as much as possible. So how can I initialize a property without using null</p>
  
  <pre><code>var str: String = ...
  </code></pre>