My problem is that I need a pointer to an element of a list asserted as type T:
e *list.Element
t *T
But if I want to use type assertion, I can only get a copy of e.Value:
if instance, ok := e.Value.(T); ok {
t = &instance
}
How do I get the reference to e.Value as a pointer to type T?
If e stores a value of type T, you can't.
Store *T values in the elements, so you can type assert *T from e.
See related questions:
Get pointer on var obtained via interface
Cannot take the address of map element
How can I store reference to the result of an operation in Go?
How to get the pointer of return value from function call?
Related
Here I found the following code -
// ptr wraps the given value with pointer: V => *V, *V => **V, etc.
func ptr(v reflect.Value) reflect.Value {
pt := reflect.PtrTo(v.Type()) // create a *T type.
pv := reflect.New(pt.Elem()) // create a reflect.Value of type *T.
pv.Elem().Set(v) // sets pv to point to underlying value of v.
return pv
}
As stated, calling this function on variable V of type reflect.Value, which describes an element of type T that holds data d, returns variable VP of type reflect.Value, which describes an element of type *T that points to data d.
When modifying VP by setting it's data to something other then d, V doesn't change (ie by calling VP.Set(..)).
I need a function that returns VP as described above, but so that modifying the data in VP modifies it in V.
The reason I need this function is that I want to extend this stack overflow answer to initialize strings and ints with default values. I wanted to use this stack overflow answer to do it, but for that I need to have a value of a pointer of a struct, not a value of a struct, when running SetString and SetInt.
Thanks,
I'm struggling trying to figure out how to "extract" an integer value from a interface that holds a value whose dynamic type is pointer to integer.
You may follow this ready-to-run example in order to fully get the picture of what is problem and my intention.
TD;DR:
For some reason the reflection on a first call to reflect.ValueOf(value) over an interface whose dynamic type is pointer to integer, it returns a value whose Kind() results in reflect.Ptr, when i extract again the "inner" value using reflect.ValueOf(value).Elem() i get another value whose Kind() results in reflect.Struct. I don't even code any struct, but they appears by their own "magically". So golang may not panic but i don't understand what is happening, probably i lack of some information. I would be very thankful with anyone that explaint me what is going on.
This may work for this case, but it doesn't enlight me. I would expect to have an integer value "behind" the pointer. I don't need to access for modification, i only need to get it.
It's struct because when you call ToCompliantValue inside the function, you're not passing it the value itself, you're passing a reflect.Value value, and reflect.Value is a struct. You have to handle it directly instead of trying to use recursion:
v := reflect.ValueOf(value)
fmt.Printf("Value is %+v\n", v)
if v.Kind() == reflect.Ptr {
v = v.Elem()
}
switch v.Kind() {
// ...
Working example: https://play.golang.org/p/ndRjXJfj5xV
The official Go site writes as follows:
As the Go specification says, the method set of a type T consists of
all methods with receiver type T, while that of the corresponding
pointer type *T consists of all methods with receiver *T or T. That
means the method set of *T includes that of T, but not the reverse.
This distinction arises because if an interface value contains a
pointer *T, a method call can obtain a value by dereferencing the
pointer, but if an interface value contains a value T, there is no
safe way for a method call to obtain a pointer. (Doing so would allow
a method to modify the contents of the value inside the interface,
which is not permitted by the language specification.)
Even in cases where the compiler could take the address of a value to
pass to the method, if the method modifies the value the changes will
be lost in the caller.
My question is, when can't the compiler take a value to a pointer receiver value?
Addressable is defined in the https://golang.org/ref/spec#Address_operators:
For an operand x of type T, the address operation &x generates a pointer of type *T to x. The operand must be addressable, that is, either a variable, pointer indirection, or slice indexing operation; or a field selector of an addressable struct operand; or an array indexing operation of an addressable array. As an exception to the addressability requirement, x may also be a (possibly parenthesized) composite literal.
A counter examples include map values and functions:
func f() {}
func main() {
var m map[string]string
p1 := &m["foo"] // cannot take the address of m["foo"]
p2 := &f // cannot take the address of f
}
From the docs
func (v Value) Elem() Value
Elem returns the value that the interface v contains or that the pointer v points to. It panics if v's Kind is not Interface or Ptr. It returns the zero Value if v is nil.
func Indirect(v Value) Value
Indirect returns the value that v points to. If v is a nil pointer, Indirect returns a zero Value. If v is not a pointer, Indirect returns v.
So can I safely assume the following?
reflect.Indirect(reflect.ValueOf(someX)) === reflect.ValueOf(someX).Elem().
Is Indirect method just a convenience method for the right hand side of the above?
If a reflect.Value is a pointer, then v.Elem() is equivalent to reflect.Indirect(v). If it is not a pointer, then they are not equivalent:
If the value is an interface then reflect.Indirect(v) will return the same value, while v.Elem() will return the contained dynamic value.
If the value is something else, then v.Elem() will panic.
The reflect.Indirect helper is intended for cases where you want to accept either a particular type, or a pointer to that type. One example is the database/sql conversion routines: by using reflect.Indirect, it can use the same code paths to handle the various types and pointers to those types.
Why don't I have to define PrintValue() as a pointer receiver (*One) to be able to print "hello"?
package main
import "fmt"
type One struct{
a string
}
func (o *One)AssignValue(){
o.a = "hello"
}
func (o One)PrintValue(){
fmt.Println(o.a)
}
func main() {
one := One{}
one.AssignValue()
one.PrintValue()
}
Because one is already of type One. The instantiation syntax
t := One{}
creates a value of type One while the form
p := &One{}
creates a pointer to a value of type One.
This means that nothing is to be done when calling t.PrintValue as the receiver type (One) is already the same as the type of t (One as well).
When calling p.PrintValue the compiler automatically converts an addressable variable to its pointer form because the receiver type (One) is not equal to the type of p (*One). So the expression
p.PrintValue()
is converted to
(*p).PrintValue()
There is also a conversion necessary when calling t.AssignValue as this method has a pointer receiver but we're supplying a value. This is also done automatically by the compiler where possible.
From the spec on calls:
A method call x.m() is valid if the method set of (the type of) x contains m and the argument list can be assigned to the parameter list of m. If x is addressable and &x's method set contains m, x.m() is shorthand for (&x).m()
This means the expression
t.AssignValue()
is converted to
(&t).AssignValue()
Note that this is not always possible. For example when returning a value from a function:
func NewOne(s string) One { return One{s} }
NewOne("foo").AssignValue() // Not possible
x := NewOne("foo")
x.AssignValue() // Possible, automatically converted