Go – in golang, general function to load http form data into a struct

In Go, http form data (e.g. from a POST or PUT request) can be accessed as a map of the form map[string][]string. I'm having a hard time converting this to structs in a generalizable way.

For example, I want to load a map like:

m := map[string][]string {
    "Age": []string{"20"},
    "Name": []string{"John Smith"},
}

Into a model like:

type Person struct {
    Age   int
    Name string
}

So I'm trying to write a function with the signature LoadModel(obj interface{}, m map[string][]string) []error that will load the form data into an interface{} that I can type cast back to a Person. Using reflection so that I can use it on any struct type with any fields, not just a Person, and so that I can convert the string from the http data to an int, boolean, etc as necessary.

Using the answer to this question in golang, using reflect, how do you set the value of a struct field? I can set the value of a person using reflect, e.g.:

p := Person{25, "John"}
reflect.ValueOf(&p).Elem().Field(1).SetString("Dave")

But then I'd have to copy the load function for every type of struct I have. When I try it for an interface{} it doesn't work.

pi := (interface{})(p)
reflect.ValueOf(&pi).Elem().Field(1).SetString("Dave")
// panic: reflect: call of reflect.Value.Field on interface Value

How can I do this in the general case? Or even better, is there a more idiomatic Go way to accomplish what I'm trying to do?

Best Answer

You need to make switches for the general case, and load the different field types accordingly. This is basic part.

It gets harder when you have slices in the struct (then you have to load them up to the number of elements in the form field), or you have nested structs.

I have written a package that does this. Please see:

http://www.gorillatoolkit.org/pkg/schema

Related Solutions

Go – Using reflect, how do you set the value of a struct field

The Go json package marshals and unmarshals JSON from and to Go structures.

Here's a step-by-step example which sets the value of a struct field while carefully avoiding errors.

The Go reflect package has a CanAddr function.

func (v Value) CanAddr() bool

CanAddr returns true if the value's address can be obtained with Addr. Such values are called addressable. A value is addressable if it is an element of a slice, an element of an addressable array, a field of an addressable struct, or the result of dereferencing a pointer. If CanAddr returns false, calling Addr will panic.

The Go reflect package has a CanSet function, which, if true, implies that CanAddr is also true.

func (v Value) CanSet() bool

CanSet returns true if the value of v can be changed. A Value can be changed only if it is addressable and was not obtained by the use of unexported struct fields. If CanSet returns false, calling Set or any type-specific setter (e.g., SetBool, SetInt64) will panic.

We need to make sure we can Set the struct field. For example,

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "reflect"
)

func main() {
    type t struct {
        N int
    }
    var n = t{42}
    // N at start
    fmt.Println(n.N)
    // pointer to struct - addressable
    ps := reflect.ValueOf(&n)
    // struct
    s := ps.Elem()
    if s.Kind() == reflect.Struct {
        // exported field
        f := s.FieldByName("N")
        if f.IsValid() {
            // A Value can be changed only if it is 
            // addressable and was not obtained by 
            // the use of unexported struct fields.
            if f.CanSet() {
                // change value of N
                if f.Kind() == reflect.Int {
                    x := int64(7)
                    if !f.OverflowInt(x) {
                        f.SetInt(x)
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
    // N at end
    fmt.Println(n.N)
}

Output:
42
7

If we can be certain that all the error checks are unnecessary, the example simplifies to,

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "reflect"
)

func main() {
    type t struct {
        N int
    }
    var n = t{42}
    fmt.Println(n.N)
    reflect.ValueOf(&n).Elem().FieldByName("N").SetInt(7)
    fmt.Println(n.N)
}

BTW, Go is available as open source code. A good way to learn about reflection is to see how the core Go developers use it. For example, the Go fmt and json packages. The package documentation has links to the source code files under the heading Package files.

Json – How to not marshal an empty struct into JSON with Go

As the docs say, "any nil pointer." -- make the struct a pointer. Pointers have obvious "empty" values: nil.

Fix - define the type with a struct pointer field:

type Result struct {
    Data       *MyStruct `json:"data,omitempty"`
    Status     string    `json:"status,omitempty"`
    Reason     string    `json:"reason,omitempty"`
}

Then a value like this:

result := Result{}

Will marshal as:

{}

Explanation: Notice the *MyStruct in our type definition. JSON serialization doesn't care whether it is a pointer or not -- that's a runtime detail. So making struct fields into pointers only has implications for compiling and runtime).

Just note that if you do change the field type from MyStruct to *MyStruct, you will need pointers to struct values to populate it, like so:

Data: &MyStruct{ /* values */ }

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Go – Using reflect, how do you set the value of a struct field

Json – How to not marshal an empty struct into JSON with Go

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