Go – Invoking struct function gives “cannot refer to unexported field or method”

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.

In Go, there is a general rule that syntax should not hide complex/costly operations. Converting a string to an interface{} is done in O(1) time. Converting a []string to an interface{} is also done in O(1) time since a slice is still one value. However, converting a []string to an []interface{} is O(n) time because each element of the slice must be converted to an interface{}.

The one exception to this rule is converting strings. When converting a string to and from a []byte or a []rune, Go does O(n) work even though conversions are "syntax".

There is no standard library function that will do this conversion for you. You could make one with reflect, but it would be slower than the three line option.

Example with reflection:

func InterfaceSlice(slice interface{}) []interface{} {
    s := reflect.ValueOf(slice)
    if s.Kind() != reflect.Slice {
        panic("InterfaceSlice() given a non-slice type")
    }

    // Keep the distinction between nil and empty slice input
    if s.IsNil() {
        return nil
    }

    ret := make([]interface{}, s.Len())

    for i:=0; i<s.Len(); i++ {
        ret[i] = s.Index(i).Interface()
    }

    return ret
}

Your best option though is just to use the lines of code you gave in your question:

b := make([]interface{}, len(a))
for i := range a {
    b[i] = a[i]
}