Set struct field of pointer type - pointers

The task is pretty simple. I have struct for model Foo, and one for it's representation:
type Foo struct {
FooId string
Bar string
Baz *string
Salt int64
}
type FooView struct {
FooId *string `json: "foo_id"`
Bar *string `json: "bar"`
Baz *string `json: "baz"`
}
As you may see, there is Salt field which I want to hide, change JSON field names, and do all the fields optional. The target method should fill FooView using Foo like this:
func MirrorFoo(foo Foo) (*FooView, error) {
return &FooView{
FooId: &foo.FooId,
Bar: &foo.Bar,
Baz: foo.Baz,
}, nil
}
And now, I want to do the same with Go reflect:
func Mirror(src interface{}, dstType reflect.Type) (interface{}, error) {
zeroValue := reflect.Value{}
srcValue := reflect.ValueOf(src)
srcType := srcValue.Type()
dstValue := reflect.New(dstType)
dstValueElem := dstValue.Elem()
for i := 0; i < srcType.NumField(); i++ {
srcTypeField := srcType.Field(i)
srcValueField := srcValue.FieldByName(srcTypeField.Name)
dstField := dstValueElem.FieldByName(srcTypeField.Name)
// if current source field exists in destination type
if dstField != zeroValue {
srcValueField := srcValue.Field(i)
if dstField.Kind() == reflect.Ptr && srcValueField.Kind() != reflect.Ptr {
panic("???")
} else {
dstField.Set(srcValueField)
}
}
}
return dstValue.Interface(), nil
}
This code works fine when FooId is uuid.UUID in both types, but it fails when source is uuid.UUID and destination is *uuid.UUID, and now do not know how to overcome this.
Somehow I need to do analog of dstField.Set(reflect.ValueOf(&uuid.UUID{}...)) bit everything I've tried does not works. Any ideas?

Yep, Addr() worked for me, but without
reflect.Copy()
It's for arrays. I've instantiated new value using reflect.New() and .Set() current value. Address became available. It's completely black magic. Thanks for all.

Related

How to set an interface{} parameter by reference?

I have a function that has a parameter with the type interface{}. This parameter represents my template data. So on each page it stores different data types (mostly structs). I want to append some data to this parameter's data, but it's an interface{} type and I can't do it.
This is what I tried:
func LoadTemplate(templateData interface) {
appendCustomData(&templateData)
... //other functionality that is not relevant
}
func appendCustomData(dst interface{}) {
// ValueOf to enter reflect-land
dstPtrValue := reflect.ValueOf(dst)
// need the type to create a value
dstPtrType := dstPtrValue.Type()
// *T -> T, crashes if not a ptr
dstType := dstPtrType.Elem()
// the *dst in *dst = zero
dstValue := reflect.Indirect(dstPtrValue)
// the zero in *dst = zero
zeroValue := reflect.Zero(dstType)
// the = in *dst = 0
v := reflect.ValueOf(dst).Elem().Elem().FieldByName("HeaderCSS")
if v.IsValid() {
v = reflect.ValueOf("new header css value")
}
reflect.ValueOf(dst).Elem().Elem().FieldByName("HeaderCSS").Set(reflect.ValueOf(v))
//dstValue.Set(zeroValue)
fmt.Println("new dstValue: ", dstValue)
}
I can successfully get the "HeaderCSS" value. But I can't replace it with another value. What am I doing wrong?
My templateData looks like this:
I have a generic struct:
type TemplateData struct {
FooterJS template.HTML
HeaderJS template.HTML
HeaderCSS template.HTML
//and some more
}
and I have another struct, such as:
type pageStruct struct {
TemplateData //extends the previous struct
Form template.HTML
// and some other maps/string
}
I send this second struct as templateData argument.
Right now I get this error:
"reflect.Value.Set using unaddressable value" at the line: reflect.ValueOf(dst).Elem().Elem().FieldByName("HeaderCSS").Set(reflect.ValueOf(v))
The code from above is inspired from this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/26824071/1564840
I want to be able to append/edit values from this interface. Any idea how can I do it? Thanks.
Don't pass a pointer to interface. Instead the interface{} value should contain the pointer. And simply just hand over this interface{} value:
func LoadTemplate(templateData interface) {
appendCustomData(templateData)
... //other functionality that is not relevant
}
Even if you can't use a more concrete type than interface{} (because you must allow multiple types), you can still use type assertion, it will be "super" easy:
func appendCustomData(d interface{}) {
if ps, ok := d.(*pageStruct); ok {
ps.TemplateData.HeaderCSS += "+new"
}
}
Try this one on the Go Playground.
If you must or want to use reflection, this is how appendCustomData() can be implemented:
type Data struct {
Name string
Age int
Marks []int
}
func appendCustomData(d interface{}) {
v := reflect.ValueOf(d).Elem()
if f := v.FieldByName("Name"); f.IsValid() {
f.SetString(f.Interface().(string) + "2")
}
if f := v.FieldByName("Age"); f.IsValid() {
f.SetInt(f.Int() + 2)
}
if f := v.FieldByName("Marks"); f.IsValid() {
f.Set(reflect.ValueOf(append(f.Interface().([]int), 2)))
}
if f := v.FieldByName("Invalid"); f.IsValid() {
f.Set(reflect.ValueOf(append(f.Interface().([]int), 2)))
}
}
Testing it:
d := &Data{
Name: "Bob",
Age: 22,
Marks: []int{5, 4, 3},
}
fmt.Printf("%+v\n", d)
appendCustomData(d)
fmt.Printf("%+v\n", d)
Output (try it on the Go Playground):
&{Name:Bob Age:22 Marks:[5 4 3]}
&{Name:Bob2 Age:24 Marks:[5 4 3 2]}
Update:
To answer your edited question: there is no difference when the value passed is a struct that embeds another struct. But the value wrapped in the interface{} still must be a pointer.
Example appendCustomData() that appends content to pageStruct.TemplateData.HeaderCSS:
func appendCustomData(d interface{}) {
v := reflect.ValueOf(d).Elem()
if f := v.FieldByName("TemplateData"); f.IsValid() {
if f = f.FieldByName("HeaderCSS"); f.IsValid() {
f.Set(reflect.ValueOf(f.Interface().(template.HTML) + "+new"))
}
}
}
Testing it:
ps := &pageStruct{
TemplateData: TemplateData{
HeaderCSS: template.HTML("old"),
},
}
fmt.Printf("%+v\n", ps)
appendCustomData(ps)
fmt.Printf("%+v\n", ps)
Output (try it on the Go Playground):
&{TemplateData:{FooterJS: HeaderJS: HeaderCSS:old} Form:}
&{TemplateData:{FooterJS: HeaderJS: HeaderCSS:old+new} Form:}

How to get a pointer to a variable that's masked as an interface?

I prefer not to dive into the rationale of the situation below. It has to do with unmarshaling an serialized object that can be any of a fixed set of types, but you don't know which type.
I have the following types:
type I interface {
Do()
}
type someI struct {}
func (i *someI) Do() {}
type otherI struct {}
func (i *otherI) Do() {}
So, two structs of which the pointers implement interface I.
Now I have this method that wants to return a value of type I:
func GetSomeI(marshalled []byte) (I, error) {
var obj interface{}
// The following method magically puts an instance
// of either someI or otherI into obj.
magicUnmarshall(marshalled, obj)
// The problem now is that we cannot return obj,
// because the raw structs don't implement I.
// One solution would be to do a type switch like this:
switch obj.(type) {
case someI:
i := obj.(someI)
return &i, nil
case otherI:
i := obj.(otherI)
return &i, nil
default:
return nil, errors.New("marschalled object was not of type I")
}
// But now consider the case that there are quite some
// different implementations of I.
// We would prefer to have a general way of getting
// a reference to obj.
}
To tell if a value wrapped in an interface{} implements some other interface (I), you may simply use a type assertion.
Note that you must pass the address of the variable you want results unmarshaled to.
For demonstration purposes, let's use the following magicUnmarshal() function:
func magicUnmarshal(what int, obj interface{}) {
v := reflect.ValueOf(obj).Elem()
switch what {
case 0:
v.Set(reflect.ValueOf(&someI{}))
case 1:
v.Set(reflect.ValueOf(&otherI{}))
case 2:
v.Set(reflect.ValueOf("just a string"))
case 3:
v.Set(reflect.ValueOf(someI{}))
case 4:
v.Set(reflect.ValueOf(otherI{}))
}
}
Note that case 3 and case 4 are returning non-pointers.
Your GetSomeI() implementation can be:
func GetSomeI(what int) (I, error) {
var obj interface{}
magicUnmarshal(what, &obj)
// Try the value as-is:
if i, ok := obj.(I); ok {
return i, nil
}
// No success. Try a pointer to the value:
v := reflect.Indirect(reflect.New(reflect.TypeOf(obj)))
v.Set(reflect.ValueOf(obj))
pobj := v.Addr().Interface()
if i, ok := pobj.(I); ok {
return i, nil
}
return nil, fmt.Errorf("%T does not implement I!", obj)
}
First GeSomeI() tests if the value got form magicUnmarshal() implements I, and if so, it is used as-is. If not, we construct a new using reflection, and get its address (a pointer to a value), and we test that. If that pointer implements I, we return it.
Testing it:
func main() {
for what := 0; what < 5; what++ {
i, err := GetSomeI(what)
fmt.Printf("%T %v\n", i, err)
}
}
And the output is (try it on the Go Playground):
*main.someI <nil>
*main.otherI <nil>
<nil> string does not implement I!
*main.someI <nil>
*main.otherI <nil>

json.Unmarshal() accepts a pointer to a pointer

I noticed, quite by accident, that I can successfully pass both a pointer to a struct, and a pointer to a pointer to a struct to json.Unmarshal(), and both work just fine:
package main
import (
"testing"
"encoding/json"
)
type Person struct {
Name string
Age int
}
func TestMarshaling(t *testing.T) {
foo := &Person{Name: "bob", Age: 23}
// marshal it to bytes
b, err := json.Marshal(foo)
if err != nil {
t.Error(err)
}
bar := &Person{} // pointer to new, empty struct
err = json.Unmarshal(b, bar) // unmarshal to bar, which is a *Person
if err != nil {
t.Error(err)
}
testBob(t, bar) // ok
bar = &Person{} // pointer to new, empty struct
err = json.Unmarshal(b, &bar) // wait a minute, passing in a **Person, yet it still works?
if err != nil {
t.Error(err)
}
testBob(t, bar) // ok
}
func testBob(t *testing.T, person *Person) {
if person.Name != "bob" || person.Age != 23 {
t.Error("not equal")
}
}
I was really surprised that the second one (unmarshal to **Person) worked.
What's going on in json.Unmarshal()? Is it dereferencing the pointers until it finds a struct?
The documentation offers:
To unmarshal JSON into a pointer, Unmarshal first handles the case of
the JSON being the JSON literal null. In that case, Unmarshal sets
the pointer to nil. Otherwise, Unmarshal unmarshals the JSON into the
value pointed at by the pointer
It seems to be doing a bit more than that. What's really going on?
Fleshing out my question more: how does it know to automatically dereference my pointer to a pointer? The documentation says it will unmarshal "into the value pointed at by the pointer". Since the value of my pointer is in fact another pointer, and has no Name/Age fields, I expected it to stop there.
To be clear: I'm not saying there's a bug or misfeature in Unmarshal(); I'm trying to satisfy my astonishment that it works at all when given a ptr-to-ptr, and avoid any potential pitfalls in my use of it.
The json package has no reason to "stop at a pointer", since a pointer means nothing in json. It has to keep walking the tree in order to find a value to write. Since the json package is going to allow unmarshaling the same value into Type or *Type, it stands to reason that it should be able to unmarshal that into **Type, which is also a valid type in Go.
For a example, if Person were defined using pointers to differentiate between nil and zero values, and you were unmarshaling into a slice of []*Person, the json package needs to follow those pointers, and allocate values if necessary. The same applies if a field in Person were defined as a **string.
type Person struct {
Name **string
Age *int
}
type People []*Person
http://play.golang.org/p/vLq0nJPG5M
The json.Unmarshal implementation takes multiple indirection into account. Check the source here, in particular the decodeState.indirect method:
// indirect walks down v allocating pointers as needed,
// until it gets to a non-pointer.
// if it encounters an Unmarshaler, indirect stops and returns that.
// if decodingNull is true, indirect stops at the last pointer so it can be set to nil.
func (d *decodeState) indirect(v reflect.Value, decodingNull bool) (Unmarshaler, encoding.TextUnmarshaler, reflect.Value) {
// If v is a named type and is addressable,
// start with its address, so that if the type has pointer methods,
// we find them.
if v.Kind() != reflect.Ptr && v.Type().Name() != "" && v.CanAddr() {
v = v.Addr()
}
for {
if v.Kind() == reflect.Interface && !v.IsNil() {
e := v.Elem()
if e.Kind() == reflect.Ptr && !e.IsNil() && (!decodingNull || e.Elem().Kind() == reflect.Ptr) {
v = e
continue
}
}
if v.Kind() != reflect.Ptr {
break
}
//and so on
}
return nil, nil, v
The same method is called when unmarshaling arrays:
func (d *decodeState) array(v reflect.Value) {
u, ut, pv := d.indirect(v, false)
//...
That would have me believe that go can handle double indirection just fine. If nothing else, the json package source is a great example of what the reflect package is all about.
In short, values are checked, if the decoder is dealing with pointers, it will use reflection to work out how many levels of indirection there are, and determine what type the target has/is. The place to start from in the decode source is this: func (d *decodeState) unmarshal(v interface{}) (err error) {, from that point on, it's pretty self-explanatory.
As other answers have said, pointers are followed.
A little weird that this errors (nil pointer), but makes sense when you think about it.
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"log"
)
type MyStruct struct {
A string `json:"a"`
}
func main() {
data := []byte(`{"a":"foo"}`)
var a *MyStruct
err := json.Unmarshal(data, a) // nil ptr
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println(a)
}
But this doesn't error (pointer to nil pointer).
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"log"
)
type MyStruct struct {
A string `json:"a"`
}
func main() {
data := []byte(`{"a":"foo"}`)
var a *MyStruct
err := json.Unmarshal(data, &a) // **MyStruct, ptr to nil ptr
if err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
fmt.Println(a)
}
https://play.golang.org/p/eI8jqWZOmGW

Reflect: setting a field of a pointer

I'm trying to do something like this:
Define structs with tags named env:
type Env struct {
Port string `env:"PORT"`
}
Call some function which will get the environment variable names using os.Getenv and put set it in the struct.
Right now, I have this:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"os"
"reflect"
)
func ParseEnv(t interface{}, v interface{}) {
it := reflect.TypeOf(t)
for i := 0; i < it.NumField(); i++ {
field := it.Field(i)
value := os.Getenv(field.Tag.Get("env"))
if value == "" {
continue
}
reflect.ValueOf(v).Elem().FieldByName(field.Name).SetString(value)
}
}
type Env struct {
Port string `env:"PORT"`
DatabaseURL string `env:"DATABASE_URL"`
}
func main() {
os.Setenv("PORT", "8080")
os.Setenv("DATABASE_URL", "postgres://user:pass#host:5432/my-db")
env := Env{}
ParseEnv(env, &env)
fmt.Println(env)
}
http://play.golang.org/p/b8uPPVo4aV
But, as you can see, I have to pass both the reference and the pointer to my function.
While this works, it is very ugly (at least I think it is).
If I try to pass the pointer only, I can't get the type right (because it will be an *interface{}) and, if I pass only the reference, I can't set the values using reflect (even if I could, it would not work).
Is there a sane way of doing this?
Below is a "saner" way of doing what you want. You will notice that, instead of passing in two copies of the struct, we only need a pointer to the struct.
func ParseEnv(val interface{}) {
ptrRef := reflect.ValueOf(val)
if ptrRef.Kind() != reflect.Ptr {
panic("pointer to struct expected")
}
ref := ptrRef.Elem()
if ref.Kind() != reflect.Struct {
panic("pointer to struct expected")
}
refType := ref.Type()
for i := 0; i < refType.NumField(); i++ {
field := refType.Field(i)
value := os.Getenv(field.Tag.Get("env"))
if value == "" {
continue
}
ref.Field(i).SetString(value)
}
}
The above function should be invoked in the following way:
ParseEnv(&env)
Example: https://play.golang.org/p/_BwWz2oUql

function for converting a struct to map in Golang

I want to convert a struct to map in Golang. It would also be nice if I could use the JSON tags as keys in the created map (otherwise defaulting to field name).
Edit Dec 14, 2020
Since structs repo was archived, you can use mapstructure instead.
Edit TL;DR version, Jun 15, 2015
If you want the fast solution for converting a structure to map, see the accepted answer, upvote it and use that package.
Happy coding! :)
Original Post
So far I have this function, I am using the reflect package but I don't understand well how to use the package, please bear with me.
func ConvertToMap(model interface{}) bson.M {
ret := bson.M{}
modelReflect := reflect.ValueOf(model)
if modelReflect.Kind() == reflect.Ptr {
modelReflect = modelReflect.Elem()
}
modelRefType := modelReflect.Type()
fieldsCount := modelReflect.NumField()
var fieldData interface{}
for i := 0; i < fieldsCount; i++ {
field := modelReflect.Field(i)
switch field.Kind() {
case reflect.Struct:
fallthrough
case reflect.Ptr:
fieldData = ConvertToMap(field.Interface())
default:
fieldData = field.Interface()
}
ret[modelRefType.Field(i).Name] = fieldData
}
return ret
}
Also I looked at JSON package source code, because it should contain my needed implementation (or parts of it) but don't understand too much.
I also had need for something like this. I was using an internal package which was converting a struct to a map. I decided to open source it with other struct based high level functions. Have a look:
https://github.com/fatih/structs
It has support for:
Convert struct to a map
Extract the fields of a struct to a []string
Extract the values of a struct to a []values
Check if a struct is initialized or not
Check if a passed interface is a struct or a pointer to struct
You can see some examples here: http://godoc.org/github.com/fatih/structs#pkg-examples
For example converting a struct to a map is a simple:
type Server struct {
Name string
ID int32
Enabled bool
}
s := &Server{
Name: "gopher",
ID: 123456,
Enabled: true,
}
// => {"Name":"gopher", "ID":123456, "Enabled":true}
m := structs.Map(s)
The structs package has support for anonymous (embedded) fields and nested structs. The package provides to filter certain fields via field tags.
From struct to map[string]interface{}
package main
import (
"fmt"
"encoding/json"
)
type MyData struct {
One int
Two string
Three int
}
func main() {
in := &MyData{One: 1, Two: "second"}
var inInterface map[string]interface{}
inrec, _ := json.Marshal(in)
json.Unmarshal(inrec, &inInterface)
// iterate through inrecs
for field, val := range inInterface {
fmt.Println("KV Pair: ", field, val)
}
}
go playground here
Here is a function I've written in the past to convert a struct to a map, using tags as keys
// ToMap converts a struct to a map using the struct's tags.
//
// ToMap uses tags on struct fields to decide which fields to add to the
// returned map.
func ToMap(in interface{}, tag string) (map[string]interface{}, error){
out := make(map[string]interface{})
v := reflect.ValueOf(in)
if v.Kind() == reflect.Ptr {
v = v.Elem()
}
// we only accept structs
if v.Kind() != reflect.Struct {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("ToMap only accepts structs; got %T", v)
}
typ := v.Type()
for i := 0; i < v.NumField(); i++ {
// gets us a StructField
fi := typ.Field(i)
if tagv := fi.Tag.Get(tag); tagv != "" {
// set key of map to value in struct field
out[tagv] = v.Field(i).Interface()
}
}
return out, nil
}
Runnable example here.
Note, if you have multiple fields with the same tag value, then you will obviously not be able to store them all within a map. It might be prudent to return an error if that happens.
I like the importable package for the accepted answer, but it does not translate my json aliases. Most of my projects have a helper function/class that I import.
Here is a function that solves my specific problem.
// Converts a struct to a map while maintaining the json alias as keys
func StructToMap(obj interface{}) (newMap map[string]interface{}, err error) {
data, err := json.Marshal(obj) // Convert to a json string
if err != nil {
return
}
err = json.Unmarshal(data, &newMap) // Convert to a map
return
}
And in the main, this is how it would be called...
package main
import (
"fmt"
"encoding/json"
"github.com/fatih/structs"
)
type MyStructObject struct {
Email string `json:"email_address"`
}
func main() {
obj := &MyStructObject{Email: "test#test.com"}
// My solution
fmt.Println(StructToMap(obj)) // prints {"email_address": "test#test.com"}
// The currently accepted solution
fmt.Println(structs.Map(obj)) // prints {"Email": "test#test.com"}
}
package main
import (
"fmt"
"reflect"
)
type bill struct {
N1 int
N2 string
n3 string
}
func main() {
a := bill{4, "dhfthf", "fdgdf"}
v := reflect.ValueOf(a)
values := make(map[string]interface{}, v.NumField())
for i := 0; i < v.NumField(); i++ {
if v.Field(i).CanInterface() {
values[v.Type().Field(i).Name] = v.Field(i).Interface()
} else {
fmt.Printf("sorry you have a unexported field (lower case) value you are trying to sneak past. I will not allow it: %v\n", v.Type().Field(i).Name)
}
}
fmt.Println(values)
passObject(&values)
}
func passObject(v1 *map[string]interface{}) {
fmt.Println("yoyo")
}
I'm a bit late but I needed this kind of feature so I wrote this. Can resolve nested structs. By default, uses field names but can also use custom tags. A side effect is that if you set the tagTitle const to json, you could use the json tags you already have.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"reflect"
)
func StructToMap(val interface{}) map[string]interface{} {
//The name of the tag you will use for fields of struct
const tagTitle = "kelvin"
var data map[string]interface{} = make(map[string]interface{})
varType := reflect.TypeOf(val)
if varType.Kind() != reflect.Struct {
// Provided value is not an interface, do what you will with that here
fmt.Println("Not a struct")
return nil
}
value := reflect.ValueOf(val)
for i := 0; i < varType.NumField(); i++ {
if !value.Field(i).CanInterface() {
//Skip unexported fields
continue
}
tag, ok := varType.Field(i).Tag.Lookup(tagTitle)
var fieldName string
if ok && len(tag) > 0 {
fieldName = tag
} else {
fieldName = varType.Field(i).Name
}
if varType.Field(i).Type.Kind() != reflect.Struct {
data[fieldName] = value.Field(i).Interface()
} else {
data[fieldName] = StructToMap(value.Field(i).Interface())
}
}
return data
}
map := Structpb.AsMap()
// map is the map[string]interface{}

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