How to deref a pointer dynamically in Golang - pointers

Question

I have this func:
func getStringRepresentation(v interface{}, size int, brk bool, depth int) string {
val := reflect.ValueOf(v)
if val.Kind() == reflect.Ptr {
v = *v.(types.Pointer) // does not work
val = reflect.ValueOf(v)
}
// ...
}
how can I dereference the pointer to get the value of it? When I use:
v = *v.(types.Pointer)
The error says:
Invalid indirect of 'v.(types.Pointer)' (type 'types.Pointer')
I tried this:
val := reflect.ValueOf(v)
if val.Kind() == reflect.Ptr {
v = v.(types.Pointer).Underlying()
val = reflect.ValueOf(v)
}
and I tried this too:
val := reflect.ValueOf(v)
if val.Kind() == reflect.Ptr {
v = val.Elem()
val = reflect.ValueOf(v)
}
I need to get the value of the interface{} from the pointer.

Answer 1

You can dereference pointers using reflect using Elem:
val := reflect.ValueOf(v)
if val.Kind() == reflect.Ptr {
val = val.Elem()
}
After the if statement, val is a reflect.Value representing the value passed in by the interface. If the value passed in is a pointer, val now has the dereferenced value of that pointer.

Answer 2

You have to use 'Elem' for access value referenced by Pointer.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"reflect"
)
func main() {
p := &struct{Hello string}{"world"}
v := reflect.ValueOf(p)
ps := v.Interface().(*struct{Hello string})
fmt.Println(ps)
s := v.Elem().Interface().(struct{Hello string})
fmt.Println(s)
}

Answer 3

Looks like this accomplished what I was trying to do:
func getStringRepresentation(v interface{}, size int, brk bool, depth int) string {
val := reflect.ValueOf(v)
if val.Kind() == reflect.Ptr {
v = val.Elem().Interface() // gets the actual interface from the pointer
val = reflect.ValueOf(v) // gets the value of the actual interface
}
// ...
}
thanks to the other answers which I stole the eventual solution from.