Append to golang slice passed as empty interface - go

Question

How to append to empty interface (that has been verified to be a *[]struct)?
func main() {
var mySlice []myStruct // myStruct can be any struct (dynamic)
decode(&mySlice, "...")
}
func decode(dest interface{}, src string) {
// assume dest has been verified to be *[]struct
var modelType reflect.Type = getStructType(dest)
rows, fields := getRows(src)
for _, row := range rows {
// create new struct of type modelType and assign all fields
model := reflect.New(modelType)
for field := fields {
fieldValue := getRowValue(row, field)
model.Elem().FieldByName(field).Set(fieldValue)
}
castedModelRow := model.Elem().Interface()
// append model to dest; how to do this?
// dest = append(dest, castedModelRow)
}
}
Things I've tried:
This simply panics: reflect: call of reflect.Append on ptr Value (as we pass &mySlice instead of mySlice)
dest = reflect.Append(reflect.ValueOf(dest), reflect.ValueOf(castedModelRow))
This works but doesn't set the value back to dest... in main func, len(mySlice) remains 0 after decode function is called.
func decode(dest interface{}, src string) {
...
result := reflect.MakeSlice(reflect.SliceOf(modelType), rowCount, rowCount)
for _, row : range rows {
...
result = reflect.Append(result, reflect.ValueOf(castedModelRow))
}
dest = reflect.ValueOf(result)
}

Answer 1

Here's how to fix the second decode function shown in the question. The statement
dest = reflect.ValueOf(result)
modifies local variable dest, not the caller's value. Use the following statement to modify the caller's slice:
reflect.ValueOf(dest).Elem().Set(result)
The code in the question appends decoded elements after the elements created in reflect.MakeSlice. The resulting slice has len(rows) zero values followed by len(rows) decoded values. Fix by changing
result = reflect.Append(result, reflect.ValueOf(castedModelRow))
to:
result.Index(i).Set(model)
Here's the update version of the second decode function in the question:
func decode(dest interface{}, src string) {
var modelType reflect.Type = getStructType(dest)
rows, fields := getRows(src)
result := reflect.MakeSlice(reflect.SliceOf(modelType), len(rows), len(rows))
for i, row := range rows {
model := reflect.New(modelType).Elem()
for _, field := range fields {
fieldValue := getRowValue(row, field)
model.FieldByName(field).Set(fieldValue)
}
result.Index(i).Set(model)
}
reflect.ValueOf(dest).Elem().Set(result)
}
Run it on the Playground.

Answer 2

You were very close with your original solution. You had to de-reference the pointer before calling the append operation. This solution would be helpful if your dest already had some existing elements and you don't want to lose them by creating a newSlice.
tempDest := reflect.ValueOf(dest).Elem()
tempDest = reflect.Append(tempDest, reflect.ValueOf(model.Interface()))
Similar to how #I Love Reflection pointed out, you finally need to set the new slice back to the pointer.
reflect.ValueOf(dest).Elem().Set(tempDest)
Overall Decode:
var modelType reflect.Type = getStructType(dest)
rows, fields := getRows(src)
tempDest := reflect.ValueOf(dest).Elem()
for _, row := range rows {
model := reflect.New(modelType).Elem()
for _, field := range fields {
fieldValue := getRowValue(row, field)
model.FieldByName(field).Set(fieldValue)
}
tempDest = reflect.Append(tempDest, reflect.ValueOf(model.Interface()))
}
reflect.ValueOf(dest).Elem().Set(tempDest)